Harry & Meghan what they’ll do next - Thread 2

[DandyAF]

Carrying on the conversation as the last thread finished mid-discussion.

I do wonder why the PR for Anne, Sophie and Camilla seems so ineffective. Likewise Eugenie. Although I have noticed more of a spotlight being focused on all their endeavours lately.

I think for this occasion it genuinely isn't the Sussexes' fault that they've got such intensive press coverage and Camilla's speech, for example, hasn't. This was their last royal evening engagement and as such was going to get massive attention. The scheduling of that against Camilla's event won't have been within their control - unlike earlier instances where they happen to have made social media posts that have 'trodden on' other Royals' appearances / speeches. The press is going to cover their every move in these final days of seeing out their royal duties.

Do Anne, Sophie or Eugenie use social media? I do think that now makes a big difference. Easier for journos to pick stuff up from it.

I thought the joyful and generous and unequivocal welcome Meghan got into the Royal family was a strong indication of their stance against racism.

I wonder how much of the lack of public criticism of the media intrusion Meghan got was down to the "Never explain, never complain" motto they tend to live by

Once you start openly complaining then you likely to be put under more pressure to explain yourself

I do wonder why the PR for Anne, Sophie and Camilla seems so ineffective. Likewise Eugenie. Although I have noticed more of a spotlight being focused on all their endeavours lately.

I don't think that it's ineffective particularly, but rather having big players and smaller players is part of the game

In their early 20's Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward were all big players and everything was heavily covered

Now the big players are Charles, William and Kate (would have been Harry and Meghan too). With the rest now having a bit of a back seat

It keeps the focus on the line of succession and I suspect they are hoping that it means that people will feel less change as the 'big job' changes to Charles first and then William. The royal family know that people don't like change, they prefer stability. That's why they stay popular (the Queen's father called himself George VI for exactly that reason - stability and familiarity) people like familiarity.

Camilla's PR has stepped up over the years, but is always carefully choreographed. She never competes overtly with William and Harry. To do so would see her slated by some sections and would send her progression back several paces.

Sorry I just wanted to share this - classy doesn't cover it.

Even in a fun, entertaining setting where the possibility of making a fool of yourself is ripe she just nails it.

Michelle - the best president the USA never had.

Really enjoyed that! Thanks DRM!

I honestly feel Michelle has the potential to become president in her own right. I think she has picked up tremendous respect and goodwill.

Michelle Obama singing Get Your Freak On is Just. So. Right. She’s got it aaaaaaallll

Michelle Obama singing Get Your Freak On is Just. So. Right. She’s got it aaaaaaallll

Swoon indeed....she's a legend in her own lifetime.

Though I preferred her singing to Stevie Wonder----

See, this is the thing. MM could have come into the RF and shown them how it’s done: young, mixed race, independent, modern, industrious, inventive, finger on the pulse. She could have made Kate look like an insipid, dull, predictable, 20th century future Queen, just by applying herself to work like The Hub, and keeping at it, ramming home the message again and again that women like her all around the world can be the future. Over 20 or 30 years she could have left the rest of them in the shade, looking and behaving fustily, cold, distant, irrelevant, embarrassing them into upping their game and dragging themselves into the real world. You could totally see Sophie or Camilla or Kate or Anne in awe of someone like Michelle Obama, and although Megan lacks the gravitas of a Harvard education and years working as a lawyer before being the woman who got Barack Obama elected, she wouldn’t have needed it (in fact it would have been wasted on being H’s wife). Whatever MM already has would have been enough (Kate, future Queen, has never even held down a proper job, never been financially independent).

But her eye isn’t on that. She’s not committed to the RF and neither is H. Their eyes are elsewhere. That’s fine, and good luck to them (I think they’ll need it, not to thrive in that world but just to survive). But not on the taxpayer’s dime.

Really well said @7salmonswimming - couldn't agree more.

Absolutely! In the last two years she’s only done two overseas tours, launched two successful projects in the Hub Cookbook and Smartworks and had a baby. So lazy!

If the content of the upcoming documentary turns out to be as reported here

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8084475/JAN-MOIR-gives-Harry-Meghans-final-journey.html

is true, then the public backlash is likely to intensify

During the 60-minute special, ‘palace insiders’ — including Left- wing commentators such as Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Ash Sarkar — fall over themselves to tell of the ‘tsunami of hate’ and ‘widespread abuse’ that have apparently dogged the Duchess since she first set a dainty foot on British soil.

‘I don’t know how you stay mentally resilient in the face of that onslaught, knowing that your in-laws are unsupportive,’ said Sarkar, while Miss Alibhai-Brown ventured the following: ‘I don’t think Meghan could have known she was entering a country which wasn’t necessarily going to accept her, and a family that is so dysfunctional. I think Britain thought it was ready to embrace a mixed race duchess — but it wasn’t.’

Of course, that is simply not true — but it is now the victim narrative Harry and Meghan will seed into their new lives in America, the tale they will spin into solid gold in interviews, in print and on coast-to-coast television shows fronted by new friends such as Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey.

Brace yourselves for repeat performances of this tale of woe, featuring an embattled Cinderella and her noble prince, heroically escaping the wickedness of an Old World apparently entrenched in prejudice and flecked with spite, as they strike out for the sunlit uplands and a ravishing waterside mansion in Canada.

However, one can wish them the happiest of endings, but still dispute this version of events.

I, for one, refuse to be branded a racist because I deplore the brattish behaviour by both of them.

I won’t be branded as a racist as I threw a wedding breakfast party when they got married. And had a dress code of red white & blue in their honour. I’m sad it’s come to this. They are forgetting the welcome they got. Everyone that came to mine was delighted for them.

The victim narrative that's a good term to describe it.

If Harry's idea of making a living is going to be by dissing his family and his country (or standing by mutely while his wife does it instead) then his standing in the UK, and indeed the Commonwealth, is going to go through the floor.

Being Mr Markle might not turn out to be what he hoped.

As for the comments about racism, can I just say that the only person I have no criticism of is Doria; I thought she was wonderfully composed at the wedding and she's behaved impeccably since, mainly by doing a Carole Middleton and maintaining a dignified silence.

One of the 'sources', Ash Sarkar, is a self-confessed communist. Of course she was going to stick the boot in to the RF given half a chance. And Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has a chip on her shoulder the size of a plank.

Been flicking through news headlines and am puzzled about Megan’s “ secret “ visits yesterday which were then plastered over Newspapers and Instagram!
Feel sorry for Camilla who has taken on such an important subject ( DA) being completely overshadowed .

@ TimeLady was Yasmin AB not leaving the U.K. if Boris got in?

Oldbutstillgotit

Yep, that’s her. She can bugger off to Canada too.

Read the Jan Moir article over coffee in Costa after dropping dc at training. I really wish I hadn't. It just reminded me of what a pair of scunners M and H are. This is a very Scottish word but I'm sure you can all work it out!

As a fellow Scot I love the word scunner ! Perfect in this context !

The narrative of escaping a repressive, discriminatory country to seek a freer life in a land of expansive possibilities is a big part of American history so it doesn't seem surprising that a similar personal story for Meghan and Harry would find traction there. The horrors of racism is also an important element in the collective American psyche, again for obvious historical reasons.

While the justification for stepping back from royal life may seem like a misrepresentation of reality from the perspective of many British people, it's easy to see why it might resonate deeply with a lot of Americans.

People do tend to try to understand the world by fitting what they observe to their own experiences and cultural motifs.