Omid Scobie's New Book - PART 2

[Mymilkshakebringsallthepapstomycar]

I'm not sure what is the correct etiquette for carrying on a thread, but here we are. Thanks to @BoxedandRibboned for the original thread.

Original thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/4935714-omid-scobies-new-book?page=40&reply=131041571

I hope the translator sues him, because he is effectively accusing the translator or re-writing a whole passage of the text for their own unknown reasons, with no reference to the author or publisher and hugely changing/making up the content for themselves.

Thats a pretty serious accusation.

So OS says laws prevent him from
publishing the names. But if he is publishing the truth, he would win a libel case wouldn’t he? so is he just lying? The letters (owned by MM) could prove his case very easily. So what law is it?

I have always assumed that the scenario here was far more likely than the racism calls - no concern, just a 'prepare yourself for what might come'.

For Pete's sake, the future King walked her down the bloody aisle, how on earth she could claim she wasn't welcomed is beyond me.

I agree with this and am glad several posters are thinking about the poor translator Scobie is throwing under the bus.

These are real people who are being fucked over by Scobie's allegations of mistranslation and they are having unnecessary blame attributed to the work they've conducted just so he can clear his name.

Anyone who thinks it was a mistranslation is living in cloud cuckoo land.

The thing is though even if they said that who would believe them after they were involved in Finding Freedom but denied it until emails proved they were lying sorry I mean forgot.

Lets say that they weren't involved and didn't speak to Scobie directly, he says he has loads of sources from within their camp, I don't understand how they can castigate others for briefing against them and then do the same.

Its a bit like expecting people to bend over backwards for you and your potential mental health concerns while attacking them publicly and having no concern for their mental health.

There’s no doubt that the translator had an original copy and the names were removed during the legal vetting process.

absolutely if you’re the translator and even the publishing house you could sue Scobie because his denial will cost them significant financial losses

They got their denials out ahead of publication.

I don't think anyone really believes them though. But they would be better off, I think, not adding to the denials they have already put out and waiting until the dust has settled a bit.

Guessing here, but copyright? Doesn't that remain with the author of the letter?

I was beginning to think that Harry wants some sort of reconciliation so I am wondering if he is involved in feeding Scobie or is it just Meghan and/ or her circle ?
Whatever the truth , any reconciliation is off the table .

Did they? What did they say?

Omid's libel problem is that, should a court case be brought against him, whether he has the receipts or not to prove truth (or a defence of fair comment in the public interest), it's highly likely that Harry and Meghan would be subpoenaed as witnesses - and they would not want this to happen for obvious reasons.

This is what I don't understand - if Harry really does want to reconcile with his family and they were angling for an invitation to Sandringham this Christmas - why oh why would they feed all this shit to Scobie via their friends and contacts? It makes no sense whatsoever and has surely completely burned any bridges, yet again.

These are real people who are being fucked over by Scobie's allegations of mistranslation and they are having unnecessary blame attributed to the work they've conducted just so he can clear his name.

Omid absolutely has form for throwing individuals under the bus to assist the Duchess of Sussex - when she was facing bullying accusations, for example.

In relation to a night nanny who was replaced a few days after Archie’s birth - Omid said in an interview that she had been let go because of her conduct, and that he had been told what the nanny had done, and anyone would have been horrified by it.

Meghan’s PA who resigned after being bullied -Omid said in a TV interview that actually she’d been dismissed for gross misconduct.

Neither of these women (who would have been identifiable within their circles) got a right of reply to these personal allegations. And, if what Omid was saying was actually true, no-one asked how it was that the employers of these two women were sharing confidential information about the end of their employment, which is a total breach of their obligations as an employer.

But they'd happily accept an invitation to spend Christmas at Sandringham🤣🤣🤣.
Was that them trying to distance themselves from the book? A story spun to make them look like they wanted to work towards family reconciliation therefore couldn't have had anything to do with the contents of the book?

What an absolute farce.

Who on earth would want to work with any of them again.

She didn't want to be welcomed, she wanted to be revered and for the whole family to instantly fall in love with her and proclaim her the saviour and the greatest thing since sliced bread. Its what Harry wanted too, he thought she was amazing and couldn't understand why everyone wasn't as in love with her as he was. Its a bit like when you recommend a film to a friend that you adored and think they will too its crushing when they don't find it as amazing as you.

I also think Meghan joined at a time that was really full on for William and Kate given the ages of their children and her being pregnant for most of their engagement.

I think that’s actually worse isn’t it? To discuss the skin colour of a non-existent potential future child makes it all about race, rather than reality.

I think chatting about the physical traits of a real expected child is natural and normal. Probably nothing to get offended about. But I think imagining the skin colour of a non-existent hypothetical child just because your son/brother/cousin is in a relationship with someone black IS a bit weird and out of touch?

Harry already said out of his own mouth that it wasn’t racism. Really tired of all this nonsense being regurgitated over and over again. H,M and O all seem very nasty, spiteful people regardless of any other factors. Funny how even though M doesn’t speak to any of her family but she never bothers doing interviews or books or digs during speeches at them. No money in that is there!

No it’s not! My sister is married to an Asian and we talked about what their future children might look like before any conception had taken place. Straw grasping much!

Mail has been reporting it for a couple of weeks now, as have other outlets.

Are you assuming that must be wrong as they said they don't talk to the tabloids any more?

I wonder what PR advice they're getting now. Even if they did not co-operate for this book (ie they were telling the actual but narrow truth) they have collaborated before.

The majority of the information from this book would have been collected at a time when Harry, Meghan and the sources were still in the spare mind frame.

Oh okay, so they've said they didn't cooperate with the book. Like they said they didn't cooperate with his last one. And then it turned out they did. Fine!

I think this is the crux of the issue. They collaborated with him last year (remember this book was supposed to be last December) when they were full of misdirected anger, so I suspect that they were happy to collaborate. Yet 12 months has passed, feelings have changed and they wanted to reconcile (allegedly) but now the book has come out, they can't distance themselves.

Its an issue entirely of their own making

@Serenster Meghan’s PA who resigned after being bullied -Omid said in a TV interview that actually she’d been dismissed for gross misconduct.

Neither of these women (who would have been identifiable within their circles) got a right of reply to these personal allegations. And, if what Omid was saying was actually true, no-one asked how it was that the employers of these two women were sharing confidential information about the end of their employment, which is a total breach of their obligations as an employer.

Not only did he say it on tv but he named her in Finding Freedom and again in Endgame and in the footnotes even says that thats who Meghans friend was talking about on this morning like even if they could distance themselves and say they never spoke to Scobie, clearly Meghan gave confidential information about her employees to her friends which is such a breach by an employer.

I think this is an important point.

M's previous court win over the Mail (Associated Newspapers) was on privacy grounds (won £1) and copyright grounds (undisclosed sum, plus costs) and concerned her letter to her father. The Mail published extracts and breached her 'reasonable expectation of privacy'.

This Guardian report also reminded me that Mail was ordered not to publish the names of M's five chatty friends, but obviously the Mail still has the list of names. I suspect it will be digging deep into this, and, after its history with H&M, is probably unlikely to let this one go. If its investigators can prove a link between Scobie/Endgame and H&M, the gloves will be off.

This has been very badly played. And I'm also pleased to see sympathy for the translator - yet another disgrace. I hope a good lawyer offers to represent her or him.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/05/meghan-one-pound-mail-on-sunday-privacy-invasion

Not really in my experience (I'm Indian by heritage, DH is more ginger than Harry). We talked about hypothetical babies and what they might look like, as did both sides of our family and friends. Not in any negative way, mostly about how beautiful they would be.* Talking about skin colour isn't always a discussion about race.

*They are gorgeous.

We simply do not know what was said. Meghan said "comments and concerns". Just because there were comments, it is not a logical follow on that the concern was a racist one. Eg, someone could have commented, "I hope your children get Meghans's beautiful colouring," and someone could reply, "I just hope the press doesn't make a massive deal if their skin is darker than previous royal babies - you need to be prepared for all that."