Harry and Meghan and the coronation.

[purpledalmation]

If King Charles asked people not to boo the couple and did a deal with newspapers and TV to not print pictures of them or comment on their appearance, do you think they would come.

If there was a total news blackout where they were concerned (which I would just love!) so we didn't have to even see them, (apart from a passing glimpse), i think I could bear them coming. Daddy clearly want them there. Fatted calf and all that.

Would this get around the problem of them taking the spotlight away from the actual ceremony?

🤣Can’t win for losing! Got it - she should have gone in a designer outfit with jewellery to match.

@skullbabe I am not sure I understand what you are saying about people thinking it's about the RF?

MM is going to be judged as an American celebrity in the US. Going there was an unusual move and gave the appearance of being self-serving. She snuck into the volunteer area and no one even knew. That was fine. It was the press photographs that she was criticized about. If they weren't intentional, then she certainly could have avoided them being taken. The statement her PR gave rather than just "no comment" didn't help the optics, either.

Other celebrities that went to Uvalde actually grew up there. It was just really not the done thing. Ditto with the wreath laying photos. I think both were trying to figure out how to act here in the US and really not understanding their new role after they resigned from the RF and moved away; no role at all.

Exactly - which is why it’s surprising that as a private citizen she was criticised for doing something off her own back.

See my other post though. We don't do that here - fly in a jet with our security guards and staff to stand in the middle of a tragic scene while reporters, photographers and videographers are on site and people are still in shock. I wouldn't do it in my own hometown. I didn't do it on 9/11 when I was living less than an hour away. We leave that to the people who have actual proximity to the tragedy. We grieve at home and speak to friends.

Skullbabe already pointed out your very inappropriate reference to the "one drop rule". You've disparaged the looks and character of a private woman shoved into the limelight by Harry (Sasha Walpole). You've also referred to "plebs".

Pretty sure @skullbabe was not 'correcting' me, but expanding on the meaning and what was said.
How did I disparage SW looks when I was pointing out that she was not described at all rather than a vague 'older' and 'likes horses'.
I also did ask about the if posters knew about the 'one drop rule' that African Americans now own.
Referred to myself as a pleb too.

No, you said that POC use the phrase all the time and she explained the historical significance of it and why no AA would ever tout it.

She very kindly and gently corrected you.

She was not the only person of note to visit Uvalde in the days after the shooting. You think her visit was egocentric - I’m sorry I’m sick to the stomach thinking about those poor children again and I hold space for people wanting to show their respects. At least a good thing from this is the action which followed which was the partnership with KABOOM and the City - and yes I know you will minimise her input but it is still a good thing.

@Puzzledandpissedoff Matt Porteous (not Mark) flying the flag for Jersey!

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/nielsen/index.html

The place was crowded, with almost everyone wearing masks. Peaceful. Police manhandled peaceful protesters, the police conveniently came in after KM left. I think that was one of the issues that that made Sadik Khan question Cressida Dick - the pics of women at Sarah's vigil (among a lot of things, obviously more serious). We all remember the horrific pics.

To top it all off, the police tried to pin it all on MM (the Met shared racist WhatsApp messages about the Sussexes if you recall).

Had forgotten about that. Well, the more I go back and remember everything, the more sordid it all is.

Actually she didn’t benefit at all - look at how many people can’t accept that she just went. People claim that PR statements were prepared (not- spokesman contacted for comment and then gasp commented) and that cameras were flowing her around - and no matter how many people who were there say that this is not true - this is the narrative that people want to hear. And so no - this didn’t help her - it’s cemented her in peoples’ mind as the villain.

twitter.com/ellievhall/status/1529929226236968969?s=46&t=aZBVspTgl1wFG9YIQg8d5Q

twitter.com/ellievhall/status/1529929226236968969?s=46&t=aZBVspTgl1wFG9YIQg8d5Q

Precisely my point - Meghan went to Uvalde as a private citizen and people took this as somehow being an affront to the RF.

But why should they not - why do so many other private citizens go places if they so please but they should not? What other public event that they were not invited to did they just show up to?

Thanks for pointing those tweets @skullbabe . Was aware of her being shown as the local community were complaining about gun laws - that was the story. Together with showing community solidarity as flowers and tributes were done. I recall seeing her putting the flowers down quick and
dashing out of there as she was being recognised. I was aware later that some of the mums/volunteers posted that she was helping out behind the scenes too.

But they obviously do - who laid all the flowers before Meghan got there?

Neither. Did. Meghan(seriously -she really didn’t).

I didn't take it as an affront to the RF for her to go to Uvalde. I took it as her not recognizing that she is not a leader or a public figure here. I think she believed that having become a member of the RF and having participated in official visits to various commonwealth countries conveyed a status on her here in the US, too. It did not. I know she expressed an interest in politics here and I think she's looking for ways to show leadership, but this was a miss.

To my knowledge, private citizens do not do this in the US. I have had numerous tragedies in my own state, and even my own town. I would never feel right rocking up to the house full of children that burned down, right after it happened and standing around. But it's less than a mile away.

The other celebrities we heard about going to Uvalde grew up there. If a friend told me they were flying to Uvalde to pay their respects without having any connection I would think they had come unhinged.

People living there in the town and local area, family members, local, state, federal officials. We can't be sure because they weren't photographed doing it.

Would you really charter a jet and fly to the location of a tragedy right after it happened? This wasn't in her backyard.

Yes, it's not the same as a football match. Rather that crowd control/traffic management was provided under the same framework, which is not connected to the wholly separate function of personal protection, which was not provided.

Yes, Blair has that level of security, as do other former PMs, Home Secs, NI Ministers and a few others. Because RAVEC have decided that, in the light of the threat assessments, they should. They are not required to pay for it, nor do they get it because they pay. Harry's JR is seeking to establish if RAVEC is indeed fit for purpose.

I’m sorry @AliceOlive - I think you misunderstood me. Black people in the US (at least the black people I now) all ascribe to the one drop rule- the issue that I was taking with a previous commenter was that the misunderstanding of the very real need for black people and people of colour to hold space in their tent for all people who are not phenotypically white.

The one drop rule was instituted and applied by white supremacy - this disenfranchised the children of slaveowners and continued post slavery in ensuring that anyone who was not demonstrating would not be afforded the privileges inherent with being white. Black people have continued to accept people of mixed race under the tent of blackness to allow people to take the framework to navigate a world which can be hostile to them. I clarified the definition of the one drop rule because there was a white mother of a mixed race child who felt that this rule negated her child’s white heritage (and that it was black racism which created the one drop rule) - which I was trying to assure wasn’t the case. As the mother of a mixed race children myself - my children’s white heritage and culture is as important as mine, however it would be foolish of me and my husband to not give them the tools to be aware that having a white father will not protect them from the hooligans who will racially abuse them (happened to my 12 year old last week).

I think there's confusion over the various events

a) wider commemoration - small groups over at least five days just going over to the bandstand as a mark of respect, which was not a breach of the rules then in force.

b) the vigil - from 6:30-7pm - a well spaced but stationary crowd, really pushing the edges of the regulations (because of the total numbers) but in well spaced clumps
c) the rally that followed - densely packed crowd, streams of people continuing to arrive even after the vigil itself had ended. Widespread defiance of police requests to move on and disperse (yes, they were made, I was there).

I believe the only other celebrity who went to Uvalde to pay his respects was Matthew McConoughy as he was born there. Other celebrities spoke up and cancelled concerts at the NRA. Its creepy to fly a thousand miles by private jet to a school which you have no connection to.
To attend a vigil for a woman who was murdered in your city is far more reasonable because age and background were similar and its clear the pictures were simply camera snaps.

I do think I understood your post the way you intended it. What you have written is important and I appreciate you taking the time to type it. It comports with what I have experienced and witnessed (as a white woman, of course.)

Social groups that are predominantly AA have been more welcoming in general to everyone, in my experience.