A suitcase with a million euros in cash given to Charles

[antelopevalley]

The real question is what the Prime Minister was expecting in return.

"The Prince of Wales accepted a suitcase containing a million euros in cash from a former Qatari prime minister, the Sunday Times has reported.
The paper says this was one of three cash donations from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim totalling three million euros.
Clarence House said donations from the sheikh were passed immediately to one of the prince's charities and all the correct processes were followed.
There is no suggestion the payments were illegal.
According to the Sunday Times, Prince Charles received the three cash donations in person from the former prime minister between 2011 and 2015.
It is claimed that on one occasion the money was handed over in a holdall at a meeting at Clarence House. On another, the paper reported the cash was contained in carrier bags from the department store Fortnum and Mason."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61941113

There have already been accusations that Charles too money for his charities in return for honours. Surely in the wake of that you would be extra careful about what you did?

Yes, I imagine Charles would absolutely have been extra careful in 2012 and 2013 if he’d known that 10 years later he would be criticised for some other of his historic actions. But since that would involve time travel, it seems unlikely to be practical.

Anything over £10,000 needs to be declared so I assume it was. There is no law against bringing in large sums as long as you can demonstrate it came from a legal source.

@Serenster, Where have you been? There have been many many stories about Charles, some from well over 10 years ago. All of them nasty enough for talk to start about the crown skipping Charles and going straight to William. I reckon he's had more than enough time to have learnt his lesson by now, yet he fails to gain that much needed skill which is to learn from one's mistakes. Every year there's sth not nice about him in the news. The throne isn't going to be the place for him to keep on making these mistakes and to learn from them. Can you imagine more of this coming out when he's king?!
if he’d known (...) he would be criticised for some other of his historic actions.
The current Queen has managed to handle it all quite nicely, hasn't she? And she didn't have quite as much time as he did to prepare. She went off to live her life in Malta as a commoner and he's off accepting 3 million euros in cash from dodgy people...

Check out Barclays’ record if you really want to read fascinating regulatory decisions 😀 (their CEO got fined a huge amount for trying to find out who had blow the whistle on him, among other fines!)

I just have, Serenster - appalling

And while I absolutely take your point about many other banks having to be fined, I'm not sure that makes it any better, frankly

The current Queen has managed to handle it all quite nicely, hasn't she?

Apart from being presumed to have financed her son’s large payment to settle the sexual assault litigation against him, and being seen to endorse him by allowing herself to be seen in public with him? Being criticised for the Panama papers revealing the the Duchy of Lancaster had invested millions in offshore tax havens? Being criticised for funding the rent on her cousin Prince Michael of Kent’s Kensington Palace apartment? Being criticised for not paying income tax until the 1990s? Being criticised for inheriting the majority of her mother’s estate via a sovereign to sovereign transfer, so not being liable to pay inheritance tax? Where have you been?

The press attitudes to members of the royal family ebb and flow in the newspapers depending on what’s assessed to be popular (it used to be what would sell papers, now it’s what will make people click on a story). Currently the Queen is cast as the beloved matriarch, and Prince Charles the one they love to tear down - it would have been Andrew but it’s hard to keep writing about someone who’s not currently doing anything, I guess. I have no doubt the wheels will turn again and someone else will take their turn in the firing line to be torn down...

”The royal soap opera has now reached such a pitch of public interest that the boundary between fact and fiction has been lost sight of ... it is not just that some papers don't check their facts or accept denials: they don't care if the stories are true or not” That’s a quote from the 1980s, but it feels equally true today.

I just have, Serenster - appalling

And while I absolutely take your point about many other banks having to be fined, I'm not sure that makes it any better, frankly

The Barclays CEO was also a connection of Jeffrey Epstein and misled his Board about it - it was at a that point that they decided they had had enough, and he stepped down.

And I take your point too about Banks needing to do much better across the board. Coutts really isn’t an outlier in terms of its failings was my point - they all have problems.

All of them nasty enough for talk to start about the crown skipping Charles and going straight to William

Any talk about the crown skipping anyone is an absolute nonsense.

Apart from the fact Charles has been gagging to get at the reins for his entire adult life and won't be relinquishing them at anyone's whim (least of all the plebs) we have a hereditary monarchy which means that but for an accident of birth order our next king would have been Andrew and nothing in the world to be done about it.

Anyway. William is reputed to have the temper of Satan so I'm not sure he's the poster boy the royals are looking for either.

Who is leaking all these stories about Charles?

Well, I have several possibilities in my head!

1. Am I allowed to say my money's on the Queen because she's hoping that Charles will take over and then abdicate after a very very short period... and let William take over? That way, Andrew would be out of the way and the firm would more or less be kept safe. Charles is allowed to abdicate, that's what he whose name shall not be mentioned but married the divorcée American did.
2. Andrew to get the heat off him, to detract from sth terrible that's still to come? Ghislaine just got sentenced and this became known around the same time the media started talking about her recently... Every time there was sth to come out about him, sth nasty would come out about Harry and/or his wife's spending. 2.1.) Sb helping Andrew.
3. Putin, because it would be in his best interests for the UK to sink into lower political turmoil. Boris is leading others against him, so I wouldn't be shocked to find out this is true.
4. China because they're dying to step foot in Taiwan and do what Russia did to Ukraine. It would be in their best interest to help Russia and to destabilise a country that gives people on their blacklist a passport and refugee status.
5. ALL the people that don't like Charles... 6) People dweling on the past, who think Diana was wronged.

I remember this. Interestingly all the racists are quiet and won't say anything about this particular cash for honours story or the one William was involved in + some Middle Eastern Sheiks!
Al Thani - this is the same family with the ex wife who was found dead recently after losing a custody battle. They now own Harrods, amongst many other properties and businesses in the UK.
I wonder why they refused to give Al Fayad Citizenship - perhaps because of his son Dodi? Or he never paid?

Andrew
Kate
William

I remember this. Interestingly all the racists are quiet and won't say anything about this particular cash for honours story or the one William was involved in + some Middle Eastern Sheiks!

Yes, interesting one! And they wonder why the racist word comes up? Where's the criticism from (I could write a list of names here) because this sort of stuff is far worse than smiling too broadly at the Jubilee service or some such nonsense.

I think the Govt are pushing the Charles stories as punishment for criticising Rwanda. To keep him in line. To say... 'we've got stories on you, and if you criticise our vile policies, we'll encourage the MSM to release them'

The RF seem to cosy up to ME dodgy Sheiks far too much. They all do it. Charles, Andrew has incessantly, Sophie did, SFerguson,

Today ...

The Prince of Wales had 95 meetings with Middle Eastern royals and sheikhs in the ten years following the Arab Spring uprisings, according to an investigative journalism website.
The prince’s diplomacy in the region helped to cement “controversial UK alliances with undemocratic regimes” and to promote billions of pounds worth of arms sales, the article in Declassified UK said.

Sources out there.

I mean... WTAF, dodgy or what?

Same as you Roussette.

My personal view is that this is a warning shot to Charles either from the government or the papers. HM has become a guarded ‘national treasure’ for want of a better description but they are warning Charles that he isn’t going to be treated in the same way.

@MissMarpleRocks I think you're right that it's a warning shot. Possibly from the government via the newspapers, It's retaliation for speaking out about sending immigrants to Rwanda.

Who is leaking all these stories about Charles?

Interesting question

Personally I believe that Andrew's likely to become the chief leaker if he's sidelined once Charles is King, but he's hardly the only one who'll have dirt to spread.
Frankly the whole family are so toxic - the government too - that it could be almost anyone, but anyway it all adds to my view that they're fighting at the trough while there's still chance

What I find interesting is there is a range of potential candidates who could be leaking stories about what Charles is up to.

I agree, antelopevalley, but in such a position it's always likely there'll be many with stories to tell, and we know already that the public only ever get to hear a fraction of what's going on

For me it's not so much a question of the numbers, but how many of them feel driven to speak up, and what reasons they have for doing so.
As so many have said, the Queen's made a reasonable job of appearing non-divisive, but the same can't be said of her heir, which is why I only expect it to get worse - and what a shame that, as King, he'll be completely beyond the law

BP 'source' now apparently saying PC will never handle carrier bags stuffed with dosh large cash donations again.

So that's all right then.

But what about the 95 meetings with ME Sheikhs over a ten year period?

Saying that doesn't make it right

Agree antelopevalley there's a wide range. In imho, among others things, he lacks charisma and he's always carried himself as though he's the special one. I can't remember a single thing he's done that made me go "wow, that was such a nice thing for him to do and he didn't have to do it". Not a single thing. I'm not saying he hasn't done anything, that's not it, but nothing that memorable and outstanding.
I was quite young when Diana was alive and I can still remember some of the things she did when I think about it but, for the life of me, I can't remember anything nice he did, besides keeping the George entertained on his lap for a while recently. He would benefit from as seriously good PR team.

@Oceanus "....I can't remember anything nice he did, besides keeping George entertained on his lap for a while recently...."

I think that was Louis he kept entertained.
I know where you are coming from.
He did come to Ireland despite the IRA blowing up his beloved Lord Mountbatten, his family and a local boy. That was difficult.

@LadyEloise1 Yes, you're right! It was the young one, Lois not George (I changed what I had written hence "the George" haha!)!
That bombing was before my time tbh, but still, you had to go all the waaaaay to the 70's to think of something nice he did! Honestly, it's been 40 years, has he done nothing worthy of public admiration and awe till now? He's going to be King, surely there should more to him than something that happened in 1979! Don't shoot me but I also don't think the circumstances surrounding a bombing are anything for us to give him credit for. He was put in that position, it wasn't a choice. He rose to the occasion but he needs to make the occasion not take advantage of it.
He should do something nice and big, something unexpected, that comes across as "out of his head" and preferably something people will remember fondly for the next decades. Something useful and that matters in a place that people in 50 years can walk past and say "oh I saw the King here and he did this and that, this place wouldn't be here without him!". He's too bloody cold, there I've said it, it's out of my mouth now! He needs warmth.

He would benefit from as seriously good PR team

He's had any number of spinners over the years, and often when a whipping boy's needed they leave
But in fairness there's only so much even the best PR folk can do; as they say, you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig

@Puzzledandpissedoff I see it like this: all those weird/random articles about Harry and his wife when Andrew's almost-trial was going on, surely those were the work of pros. A couple of days before a bad story on Andrew was published they would always print sth about Harry and his wife, and we couldn't even comment on the DM, only the nice ones were allowed. Let's not forget the random articles about psychics and Diana "hating Megan"! And the experts, there are so many experts that know what Diana would want and like.
Sure, it's easier to take a target down than to take sb to the top, true, but maybe Charles should hire that team. They did such a job with making people hate Harry (for being alive) that they should be able to make it work for Charles.
Charles should start there and hire those guys!

Sure, it's easier to take a target down than to take sb to the top, true, but maybe Charles should hire that team. They did such a job with making people hate Harry (for being alive) that they should be able to make it work for Charles. Charles should start there and hire those guys!

This implies that we only like or dislike public figures purely based on their PR. I think there's more to it than that. People do see through the veneer of public image manipulation. Harry became disliked not because of some negative PR but because of his own poor behaviour such as blowing out a memorial for fallen Marines to attend a film screening of a cartoon (who does that, H?). These are not nice things to look at or read about no matter how much they are spun by a PR firm. On the other hand, some of the others are liked because, despite PR, something about them and their actions shines through. Something nice.