Thoughts on Prince William's speech?

[Aspiringmatriarch]

I've been musing on this, I'm not sure I agree with the idea that the Bashir interview created a 'false narrative'. Obviously Diana was lied to, which is appalling, and I'm sure that fueled some of her paranoia but isn't it true that she was spied on at times e.g. with the squidgygate tapes? And she'd already collaborated with Andrew Morton saying many of the same things, and apparently wanted to do an interview after Charles gave his.

I don't know... it just feels odd to me that William is essentially asking for it to be struck from the record. He was apparently angry with her after the Bashir interview and was teased about it at school, which must have been horrible. Is he trying to protect her memory or is there an element of trying to tidy it all away?

Ummm... he worked 20 hours a week for 2 years. That was it. Hardly a full time job and not for that long. And that is reported everywhere.

I think it was great he did that, but I don't think it's anything to be applauded as wonderful.

I am only correcting this because so much is said about Harry and it's only fair to apply the same corrections to William.

I didn’t applaud it as wonderful. I offered it as a reason that he has no “big achievement” to his name. Everything anyone ever says on here is twisted.

Well.... Harry served for 10 years in the Army and managed to set up Invictus so I think doing a part time job for two years is no excuse.

Especially given all the resources available to him.

Harry didn’t have three kids, did he? This is just getting absurd now.

Oh please. Because he has three kids, he can't do anything? I've never heard anything so ridiculous.

They have nannies, helps, staff, chefs, secretaries, press staff, information staff, more than anyone can dream of
Yet he can't do anything because of the young children?

Like I said, getting absurd.

I agree with you there!

I can't believe what I read on here sometimes

so he doesn't have to work full time as he has 3 children?

@Blossomtoes, if you seriously believe William is rushed off his feet looking after his children so he couldn’t possibly do any work it is no wonder there are still royal sycophants defending the system. Words fail me .

Harry is definitely holding back.
I hope he is getting good advice and timing things carefully

@Blossomtoes

William has the nebulous Royal Foundation thing and some mental health work but where’s his big achievement?

He had a full time job with air ambulance until 2017 and he’s not 40 yet. How many people have “big achievements” in their late 30s? What’s yours @NoIdontwanttoseeyourknob?

Charles set up the Princes Trust when he was 28. I think we should compare William’s achievements to his father and grandfather than to some internet randomer like myself.

And I doubt NoIdon'twanttoseeyourknob has the hugely extensive resources to call on, to set anything up.

I haven't seen any real passion from William for any project or cause. That said, I don't envy his position at all, or really blame him for being lukewarm- it's not as if he's ever had any real choice in the matter.

Maybe when Charles becomes King, William will take over some of the things like the Prince’s Trust

Maybe he will - after all the Prince's Trust is one of the better things Charles founded, even if he does little other than an occasional photo call

It's interesting, though, that William gives hardly any visible support to any of his father's initiatives. Obviously each generation has its own priorities, but I'd have thought there'd be something he'd take on (apart from the obvious one of being king!!)

Was Charles really only 28 when he set up the Princes Trust? I didn't know that.

@Taketheredpill I think, I hope, Harry has more sense than to start shooting publicly at William. It will make him no better than MM's ghastly father.

I think Charles should (don't know the proper term) relinquish his role as POW and future monarch and let William and Kate become Prince and Princess of Wales now.

Better that than have a directionless William languishing for decades. And I doubt Camilla wants to be queen.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated in favour of her son.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

Maybe when Charles becomes King, William will take over some of the things like the Prince’s Trust

Maybe he will - after all the Prince's Trust is one of the better things Charles founded, even if he does little other than an occasional photo call

It's interesting, though, that William gives hardly any visible support to any of his father's initiatives. Obviously each generation has its own priorities, but I'd have thought there'd be something he'd take on (apart from the obvious one of being king!!)

He is enthusiastic about his stewardship of the Duchy of Cornwall and agriculture as evidenced by a documentary I watched about this. Prince William is a character who takes things slowly. He watches and learns. What's the point of leaping in creating new initiatives right left and centre.

@BeaLesshasty

I think Charles should (don't know the proper term) relinquish his role as POW and future monarch and let William and Kate become Prince and Princess of Wales now.

Better that than have a directionless William languishing for decades. And I doubt Camilla wants to be queen.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated in favour of her son.

He’s been waiting for that gig for decades, no way would he give it up. Realistically he’s not going to be on the throne for much more than about 20 years anyway. There’s plenty William can do apart from languish.

I don't imagine William wants the throne while he has young kids. I should think he'd want to wait another 20 years if he could.

@AnnunciataZ

Was Charles really only 28 when he set up the Princes Trust? I didn't know that.

Founded in 1976.

www.princes-trust.org.uk/about-the-trust/history

I've said it all along on these threads... I think HMQ should've abdicated 20 years ago, it's not unheard of to do this in european royal houses. Then Charles would've had a crack at being Monarch whilst he was still fresh and wanted to, and he could've done the same for William.

I bet Camilla is absolutely dreading it. I read (no idea if it's true) that she spends a lot of time at her family home in Wiltshire whilst Charles is at Highgrove.
I think becoming King is going to be a huge shock to the system for them both.
I don't doubt he did want it.. but time has marched on, and here he is in his 70s.

Charles has to be king, it would be beyond unfair for him to be sidelined.
I doubt william wants the job at the moment. Also doubt he has be trained up enough.

What's the point of leaping in creating new initiatives right left and centre

I couldn't agree more, which reminds me of a biographer - I'd have to check which one - who counted up about 24 of Charles's. Basically he was said to set up a new "charity" each time he heard a hard luck story, and the management of them went to hell because of duplication, a lack of real royal interest beyond the first fine frenzy and more

On that basis it would be hard to blame William to striking out on his own, though it's interesting to hear he's keen on the Duchy ... I wonder if this has anything to do with the unaccountable moneyspinner it is, or that he'd also enjoy a legal veto over anything which didn't quite suit?

I do think the Princes Trust is what Charles will be remembered for. A really good initiative and close to home...

A very dear friend of mine left school when she was 16, like me, few qualifications. She started work at M&S on the tills and was sponsored to go to College by the Princes Trust who then mentored her in the workplace after she'd taken some exams. She worked her way up through M&S and other retailers and some 20 or so years later was sitting on the Board of Arcadia (who ran all the high street fashion outlets)!

My little old friend sat on the Board of one of the biggest multinational retailing companies !!! She is eternally grateful for the Princes Trust.

I suspect that William has picked his side. Diana was his mother but she was a loose cannon and bad for the monarchy’s image. Charles will be king soon- very soon- and it is in William’s interests as the soon-to-be-heir to the throne to help people forget that Charles cheated on his wife almost from day one with his now wife and that he was part of a system that gaslit her and painted her as mad. I was only a child when Diana died and am far from a Diana-fanatic, but the system treated her like shit and William has an interest in us all forgetting that. “Draw a line from Bashir to her untimely and violent death!” Is what William is saying. “Don’t look at that line between what my father and grandmother and countless other family members and palace flunkies did.... and her untimely and violent death!” Also, don’t forget that William has lived without his mother for well over half his life now. I’m not suggesting that he didn’t love her or that he doesn’t miss her, but I suspect that he’s decompartmentalised in his mind between the Diana that was his mother and the Diana that was the thorn in the monarchy’s side for the sale of the job he knows he has to do.

Also, if rumours regarding Rose Hanbury et al are to be believed, William is far more his father’s son than he would like us to believe (and without the excuse that he was made to marry his wife, or that he didn’t really know her). Perhaps he’s just on Charles’s side because he’s quite like Charles and he believes that the heir SHOULD be allowed a mistress. Maybe in adulthood he actually thinks that his mother was naive to think that Charles wouldn’t fuck around and that she should have accepted it and not made a fuss.