The royals and Dan Wootton: Byline Times part 1 of 3-year investigation into how Wootton got information about the royal family

[queentim]

Following their series about the Crisis in British Journalism and MediaToo movement, Byline Times reporters have recently released the first report of the 3 year investigation into the link between the royals and (disgraced) TV presenter Dan Wootton.

The first report reveals how Charles and William were angered that Harry refused to remove the name of an aide (William's aide in Kensington) who was paid cash to leak stories about his wife Meghan, and son Archie. This included investigations by the Met.

As a result, Charles removed the $700,000 granted to support them, which would have seen Harry and Meghan living in Canada and representing the Queen, in an effort to bring them back to the UK by exposing their location in Canada and removing their security. This was the collapse of the 'Sandringham Agreement', which resulted in the signing of the Sussexes media deals.

Some highlights, but can be bought for £3.6:

▪ It followed news that a partner of a key aide to Prince William received £4,000 from The Sun allegedly for stories about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when Wootton was executive editor.

▪ The Metropolitan Police looked into the alleged leaking but could not go to a judge for a warrant to search royal staff property without knowing the identity of the whistle-blowers.

▪ Two internal royal investigations followed – one involving Simon Case, who is today the embattled head of the civil service facing questions over the Government’s response to the pandemic.

▪ Byline Times has uncovered new photographic evidence of Wootton, the aide and the aide’s partner at a lavish private birthday party Wootton threw for his close friends in a £1,675-a-night hotel suite.

▪ Prince Harry sent formal ‘letters before action’ detailing the claims about Wootton and the palace to News UK.

▪ When the aide’s name was not removed from the legal letters, the Sussexes were cut adrift financially and left unable to protect themselves despite having a security threat level equal to the monarch.

▪ The royal household had thought the threat of exposure would force Harry and Meghan to return to the UK, where their profile could be controlled preventing them from eclipsing the future King

Exploding ‘Megxit’: How Dan Wootton and a Cash-for-Leaks Scandal Split the Monarchy

I do wish people who never read a book could be filtered out of the reviews.

Often saying insightful. I'm sure if the book fits your narrative then it will be 'insightful'. Was one of the reviewers Norman Baker?

I agree AliceOlive

I saw this with Spare a lot. On here and in reviews. And someone on here accused me of not having read it until I sent a screenshot of the book on my Ereader!

I hold my hands up and state I haven't read this book yet.

It’s so weird that people would review a book or a restaurant or anything without experiencing it. One of the pitfalls of the internet. I can understand the inclination of writing a positive review when someone is getting hounded by a mob, though.

How can anyone do a review on a book they haven't read? Only if they have an agenda I feel.

Yep! and I don’t like the free ones, either. If you gave me a book and asked me to review it couldn’t be honest.

The ‘royals’ so far have shown themselves incapable of reflection or discourse .

This is why mass media ‘bashing’ of any opponents is so important to them . It’s the only response they have .

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/28/the-monarchy-looks-vulnerable-will-britains-republicans-bring-down-the-king

That is a very interesting article @Novella4.

It's not Monarchy bashing.... it's informative and reflects on where we are at the moment.

That’s a very Daily Mail headline. “DOES YOGA GIVE YOU CANCER???!”

Answer quietly: no.

Republicans wont bring down the Monarchy. Apathy will (maybe eventually) mean that they fade into the background and become irrelevant. They know that, which is the reason for all the time and money spent on PR etc. At least republicans care less about them.

@Angrycat2768 Republicans wont bring down the Monarchy. Apathy will (maybe eventually) mean that they fade into the background and become irrelevant.

I wonder whether external perceptions (as in outside the UK, where people are more level-headed) will play a role in accelerating the transition from the current expensive, exploitative and anti-democratic monarchy to whatever significantly pared-back form it should take in the future?

Basically an alternative reality to the fairy-tale narrative pushed by the RF in the UK is emerging, and is being documented in black and white for people who are interested in hearing the other side of the story to read, across a growing number of publications, books and reports including Spare, Byline Times, Endgame etc. With many more to come. Despite the current attempts to make everything about "useful scapegoats and diversions" Harry and Meghan, the message about the RF's collusion with the media, including our own very Prince William's, is still coming through.

Many such people are outside the UK, and are watching the spectacle with some disgust. It'll be interesting to see what the commonwealth countries who still have the King as their head of state do in the near future. I suspect it's going to be increasingly difficult to justify this to their populations.

Anyway, I foresee a "death by a thousand cuts" rather than any single or handful of blows...

Yes, agree on the death by a thousand cuts scenario. Apathy. Followed by... what are we paying all this money for...

The thing is... what would normally happen is a plethora of royal tours to Commonwealth countries to ostensibly shore up support home and abroad. Plenty of photo ops! But the reparation question is huge, the last royal tour by W&K did not go down well, the expense, the bad optics .... and whereas royal tours were the glossy bit of the Monarchy... they have now lost their lustre. And back then they were guaranteed to fill countless pages of the media... that is not happening now.

It's a bit like going to a party where you haven't been invited! Ed & Sophie have done a bit of royal touring but the media have barely reported on it. A shame for them because they are doing a decent job, but the public are really not interested in them.

No. Its the gossip and the scandal that is interesting. Like a soap opera. No one really believes that Prince William is going to make any difference to Climate Change or homelessness, much less that Kate is qualified enough or powerful enough to do anything about early childhood development. But they wear nice clothes, produce a bit of pomp and circumstance now and again and as David Mitchell said, we have them instead of a national identity. Because everything, our National anthem, Parliament, the courts declare loyalty to them, rather than us, the citizens. Even The King doesn't pledge allegiance to us.

No one really believes that Prince William is going to make any difference to Climate Change or homelessness

Or achieve the one aim in his life... bring peace to the Middle East

I don’t agree that Edward and Sophie’s Caribbean tour went reasonably well

It was as disastrous as W and K’s but had less publicity .
I clearly remember a politican in Antiqua and Barbuda tell Edward ( politely) that they wished to explore reparations .
Edward literally laughed in his face .
He had not a clue how to deal with obvious issue .
None of them do .

Yeah, how great it would be if they all just stopped trying to improve anything.

How great it would be if like the queen they just stood there and said nothing
But they can’t because they need to try to convince more and more people that they are ‘needed’
You know what would really make a difference ? If they paid their inheritance tax
They have huge sums passed down the generations - much of that money was made off the back of slaves and they are still pocketing every penny

That's not actually what I am saying

Focus on one thing like Charles did with the Princes Trust or PPhilip with Duke of Edinburgh, and make it work.

Just my opinion of course.

49% of the reviews are 1 star . I have never before seen a book with virtually half the reviews being 1 star.,

And maybe those who have read it made it 5⭐. Who knows!

Or if they just whinged online anonymously!

The ‘royals’ so far have shown themselves incapable of reflection or discourse King Charles has just finished making a major speech at COP28. He has spent his whole life reflecting and discussing important subjects. Why was he asked if he is so irrelevant? Why was he given star treatment in France and Germany recently? The other royals are never out of the the papers and discussed on TV. Many politicians would kill for this level of publicity. You just make these blanket negative statements and expect people to swallow them whole.

Good point@derxa. I just spent some time reading about the Duchy of Cornwall and Charles’ sustainability efforts. Impressive.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/us-celebrity-news/endgame-does-prince-harry-meghan-31541032

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/king-charles-cop28-speech-dubai-b2456659.html

Worth a read.