Court Circular - Reality

[FlyOnAWing]

Court Circular goes up to the 10th of March and records royal engagements. Number of engagements are reported on and the annual number announced every year. So in 2022 Charles did 181 engagements. But what do engagements look like? Below are the engagements for the main Royals for the last 2 days available. During this time Charles did 11 engagements in two days. His average number of engagements in one month is 15. So one more day and Charles will have done as many engagements as he does in a month. He is the second hardest working Royal.

Last year William had 121 engagements, a monthly average of 10 engagements. In these two days he did 4 engagements at less than 2 hours work each day. He only has to work another three days in March to hit his annual average engagements.

10th March:
William: Attended Official Opening of the Gates of Temple Bar - about an hours work
Received Hannah Jones - 20 minutes work
Camilla: Visited ITM Power plc - about an hours work.
Charles attended the Mountbatten Festival of Music at the Royal - this is just listening to music
At that event was received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant - 20 minutes

9th March:
Charles visited Ashridge House, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, and planted a tree - about an hour
His Excellency the Hon. Philip Goff was received in audience by The King today upon his appointment as High Commissioner for New Zealand in London - max 20 mins
Mrs. Goff was also received by His Majesty - max 20 mins
His Excellency the Hon. Stephen Smith was received in audience by The King upon his appointment as High Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Australia in London - max 20 mins
Ms. Jane Seymour was also received by His Majesty - max 20 mins
The King received Addresses from Privileged Bodies to which His Majesty was graciously pleased to make reply - 20 mins
King held a Reception at Buckingham Palace - max 1 hour
King visited the Animal and Plant Health Agency, - 1 hour
His Majesty received briefings on the work of the Agency and visited the Avian Influenza Virology High Containment Laboratory and the Genome Mapping Laboratory, before visiting the Library and meeting members of staff and scientists. - 1 hour

Camilla planted trees - 30 minutes
William and Kate - visited Hayes Muslim Centre - 1 hour
Were received by Deputy Lieutenant - 20 minutes

That makes sense about security gogohmm and good point about adding costs up over a year.

With Kate and Wills family being just one unit, it just goes to show how colossal the costs are of maintaining the RF overall. Especially with multiple homes.

I don't see much evidence in reality of slimming down. Does anyone else?

I mean Wills & Kate moving to Windsor was spun as "they are moving to be nearer the Queen and they are going to be living without staff in a modest house" when in reality they also have Ken Pal flat and their place in Norfolk, so it is an additional third home. It made sense when the Queen was living at Windsor, and they moved the children to different schools, and Kate's family is nearby but it is a lot.

I am not very clear on which members of the RF are supported by the sovereign grant?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/14/the-sovereigns-wealth-uk-royal-familys-finances-explained

Obviously Charles and Camilla, Kate and Wills and DC, Edward and his missus and DC, anyone else?

You forget the red box, the weekly meetings, the prep time and the managing of staff and the rest of it.

Not saying that I agree with all of this but it is not just showing up to some engagement and then off to play golf.

My DPs once did a two day trip as the UK reps for a new factory (keeping it purposely vague) built in a different country by the company my dad worked for.

They visited the company that has made some of the machinery; DF played football on the sports pitch with some of the workers; DM visited the on-site nursery. There was a lunch in the factory canteen. Then a tour of the local area and a college where some of the older children were going to be on an apprentice programme with the company. One night there was dinner with the mayor and local business people who'd been involved. Then there was the actually ribbon cutting and a tour of the factory, and DF had a couple of business meetings too and talked to local press.

They both said it was really tiring remembering who you were meeting etc and their hotel bed was piled with clothes by the end of the day!

The lawyers, don't forget the lawyers. And the accountants.

I do think Kate and William should do "a month in the life of" TV series to show us what it is really like and to show how hard they work.

I think that lazy pair would do very well to avoid such a thing. Even reputed workhorse Granny ended up regretting (and ultimately suppressing) a similar documentary she felt cast the firm in an unflattering light.

I honestly can't tell if you're taking the piss with this comment but if not, how do you keep the disdain from your voice when conversing with them? Or don't you?

And they will work until they die which is nice for them.

If you look at my diary you'll probably see about 15 hours of meetings in it (all online so no travel or planning)

But I work about 50 hours a week if you factor in the prep and planning and output of these meetings.

The royals must spend a lot of time in reading and planning and internal meetings about diaries not to mention travelling etc.