Harry and Meghan (15)

[Froq]

No harm in having it ready for the next event/announcement...

I mean to force you to divulge more under its influence

LaMa with that sentence, are you under the influence?

Sorry, couldn’t resist

LaMa with that sentence, are you under the influence?

I wish...

You're right; it wasn't beautifully put.

There was a colon missing or something.

It's just that in films they use the truth drug to force people to disclose more than they intend to, not to stop them lying and I wanted to be polite and.....

Argh!

It's a nightmare this trying to be polite (when you're not used to it. Like me )

I feel sad. I never had any pregnancy cravings, nor would DH have sent a helicopter to fetch me anything.

Ha! maybe M is pregnant and craving for a soya latte that you can only get downtown?!

Well PC butler used to put his toothpaste on his brush I remember reported but no idea if true

I guess that they are still in extended holiday mode as the Vancouver Island house is meant as a temporary place. I'm not sure what their legal position is in Canada but if they are currently on visitor/tourist visas then they may not be able to hire staff themselves and may not trust local staff from a housekeeping agency who have not been fully vetted.

I remember one of the Royal correspondents once saying that Harry is known to be a bit stingy with his own money. It must be a bit of a shock to him at 35 to suddenly realise how much things cost that he has always had free of charge, paid for by his dad or TQ. I think he will find that his £2 million allowance doesn't go very far when you have to pay your own household and staffing costs (minus security). It isn't enough for an oligarch lifestyle.

TBH they've been on holiday since before Christmas. I would be climbing the walls with boredom by now!

£2m is nothing in the scheme of things for the rich... not even the ultrarich. He will have to start eating into his capital.

I remember one of the Royal correspondents once saying that Harry is known to be a bit stingy with his own money.

I suppose we should be grateful for small mercies. One of them needs to have a handle on their spending.

I know someone who worked in protection who was moved from his duties because he refused to run a personal errand. However I can't believe someone as fussy as MM would want to drink the shit coffee they serve in Tim Horton's, which is where the RPOs were supposed to be buying it.

Maybe they needed the helicopter to get an omelette from Cora’s

I really think they still believe we'll swallow whatever they tell us because they're royal.

Both sides are probably briefing, but any negative stories about M&H do seem to get swallowed much more easily on these threads. (not aiming you @LaMarschallin, it was just this quote that made me think.

The CCN isn't really MSM and all the stories about the security forced to be errand boys seems strange. Does nobody think to throw in some assertiveness training for these elite bodyguards who are going to work with demanding rich people? Is there no protocol other than having a whinge anonymously to a tabloid journalist to address the wasting of expensive security's time?

I remember one of the Royal correspondents once saying that Harry is known to be a bit stingy with his own money

This may be a problem should he end up paying for the security for his family! An RPO earns about £100k per year, plus all the expenses for hotels and meals on duty, etc. A private contractor properly trained for terror targets would cost similar. You need 10-12 of them to cover a family of three.

Is there no protocol other than having a whinge anonymously to a tabloid journalist to address the wasting of expensive security's time?

You're right, Rocking, but who would want to invoke it?

According to the article about the snack delivery issues - there are currently 15 security officers protecting H&M - with all of the travel and accommodation costs this is going to be hugely expensive.

Have been reading all of these threads but not posted before as it gets a bit fierce at times.

Thinking about the protection officers seen collecting food and coffee, could it be possible that they have been collecting this stuff for themselves rather than for M&H? I read somewhere that the officers have a cottage or similar in the grounds of the house where M&H are staying and if that is the case it would seem likely that they are catering for themselves. Just a thought.

Against that, this story has been doing the rounds for a couple of days now and if the officers were just collecting their own stuff it would have been easy to clarify that by now.

That's entirely possible, meercat. There may also be an element of the media clutching at straws as H&M aren't giving them anything to write about.

You have to ask how the story got to the papers though. Who would
recognise the security officers well enough to spot them in their off duty moments?

It's an interesting talking point anyway.

meercat23

I wondered the same. I shouldn't think it would be difficult for local people to spot the security officers, who might well pick up takeaways or coffee for themselves when off duty.

The claim sees to be that the officers themselves are whinging about it, but we don't know for sure that this is true.

However I can't believe someone as fussy as MM would want to drink the shit coffee they serve in Tim Horton's, which is where the RPOs were supposed to be buying it.

Absolutely agree. And we've seen pics of that house. If it doesn't have an expensive espresso/coffee machine, I'll eat my touque.

Thinking about the protection officers seen collecting food and coffee, could it be possible that they have been collecting this stuff for themselves rather than for M&H? I read somewhere that the officers have a cottage or similar in the grounds of the house where M&H are staying and if that is the case it would seem likely that they are catering for themselves. Just a thought.

I think this has to be the case.

So if you are staying in an amazing mansion - who the heck does a coffee run?

I read reports of a local saying the security officers are very easy to spot given they are big burly non-local men trotting round a small town.

The reports are that it's them complaining about skivvying for the Sussexes which would be entirely fair if it proves to be the case.

All gone very quiet on who is paying for security. Anyone think the RF are leaning on the press to keep it out of the public consciousness?

In a recent poll, 77% of Canadians were apparently against paying for their security. I'm slightly surprised it isn't more.

It's a small town, a group of blokes with English accents are hardly likely to go unnoticed, given that everyone there knows everyone and also knows who's staying in the oligarch mansion.

Maybe they are going out for their own takeaway coffee; seems a bit mean of said oligarch not to supply a decent coffee machine!

I really do not think that taxpayers should be paying for M & H-as-I-call-him security in the current instance if these are UK police providing the security. They could have stayed at Frogmore and done the exact same thing and no one would have blinked an eye.

I bet the locals are fed up with paparazzi and security people crawling everywhere.

Excuse me, whinging?

Tax-payer funded, well-trained officers, raising a valid complaint about misuse of publicly funded resource?

I take serious offence in that description, so I will appreciate if we stop using it.

Now onto the matter of why there is so little goodwill for H&M, unlike say, W&K. It's simple - H&M have used up all their social capital with the British public.

W&K have been collecting good royals points for over a decade, spending very little. So now even if they do something a bit 'eh', the public shrugs it off because of all the social capital they have accumulated. H&M didn't accumulate much before they started spending.

It's like having a new employee being late every week, taking long lunch breaks and is seen having coffee with a competitor, start complaining that a long-standing high performing employee was late for work this one time and didn't get into trouble.

Get fucking real.

Tax-payer funded, well-trained officers, raising a valid complaint about misuse of publicly funded resource?

I think there's a serious wider problem in the training of these officers if they can't make a valid complaint any other way. There must be training on these scenarios, there must be confidentiality warnings that mean it's not worth your career. In a big mansion, you can probably find someone to get your coffee who won't be highly controversial of discussed and be of massive interest to the press during sensitive security negotiations. Officers are more than likely to fancy a coffee off-site for a break.

It makes me think this is total bollocks.

H&M are still popular with parts of the public, this seems to get overlooked on this thread. I think they'll be fine!