Okay , I'm just going to say it... where is Kate Middleton?

[Tuesdayalready]

(or for the MN purists, Catherine) The most high profile and popular member of royal family has not been seen since Christmas. I do think it's quite strange and so many rumours from the foreign press. And before anyone starts jumping down my throat about her having hysterectomy / crohns / ad infimum / I've had both a hysterotomy and half my intestine removed and was back in work within a 8 weeks.

They’ve been mocked plenty and rightly so
They’ve never had to try to counter it quite so hard as they do now - mainly through puff piece deals with a compliant press .

There is a great deal of legitimate criticism out there - from Andrew , Charles and Ball, financial greed etc - none of which they have EVER addressed

I haven't misunderstood.

Saying that 'media' is modern is a bit arbitrary. Media doesn't have to mean newspapers, TV or Twitter. There is a British tradition going back centuries of publishing pamphlets and broadsheets slagging off the royals and other public figures. Visitors to London were often shocked at what people could get away with printing. As I said above, many say that this tradition of free speech and mocking high profile people is the origin of the contemporary tabloid press.

But even if you want to redefine 'media' to only mean modern mass media, then it's still not true that there was once an age of 'deference'. In my post above, I listed examples of the opposite going back decades, and these were just the few examples I could think of on a whim. There are many more. It's simply not the case that the royals have been spared from public criticism and mockery.

Not fair, you’ve just jumped sides 😂

So now it’s their PR tool - explain that to the tabloid articles snidely stirring the pot about Kate and the journalists behind tapping Charles’ phone

Never said there was no legitimate criticism?
I'm countering the notion that they should pander to people who make up stuff about them.
Who's got the time to challenge every idiot on SM who says Kate is having a Brazilian Butt lift, or Meghan was never pregnant? Not worthwhile. You'd never get anything else done.

And even if they were challenged they’d prob move the goal posts anyway

the UK has been using propaganda for a long time .

If you think the UK has some kind of special dibs on the use of propaganda to shore up the power of their royal family / central power base, then girl you've clearly not read:

• the ideological palace tracts of the Old and Middle Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt
• Virgil, the Omid Scobie to the Emperor Augustus
• Elizabeth I and her many arse-lickers
• Cult of Lenin and Cult of 'Uncle Joe' Stalin
• Self-created cults of Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Merkel (that one's gone for a burton now unfortunately), Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, Nigel Farage
• ...and a million billion other things

Power is protected through three things - violence, money and/or propaganda. In the UK we've tended to focus on the last two since about Magna Carta time.

If Twitter is so awful, why are K&W on there then. As Prince and Princess of Wales Kensington royal and they post most days

You actually think it’s them?

Are they inventing crap about people?

I actually know it's their office thanks. I'm not stupid

The account is called Prince & Princess of Wales.

Sorry?

You say they're on twitter? We're talking about people who post ludicrous stories on twitter. No comparison.

The House of Tudor had about 5 legit rival claimants at various points (and I don't even include the Plantagenet branches in that!); the House of Windsor Saxe-Coburg-Goth has none.

A favourite random fact - one of the next in line to be the Jacobite claimant to the UK throne actually attended Charles’ coronation in her primary position as the Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein. Her 90 year old uncle Franz then her 87 year old father Max-Emanuel, both of the Wittelsbach family, are ahead of her in the line of succession. That claim is a mere intellectual curiosity these days, though obviously that wasn’t always the case.

Time and time again posters have said the whole of Twitter is a cesspit and I just wanted to point out that they are on there so it can be useful at times. Obviously.

It's not a media blackout though is it? They've released a statement, why isn't that enough?

Poor woman

It doesn't mean that they throw muck around. I've never known them to gossip about others, or slag them off?
Where I work, we use twitter. It's a shite free zone from our end.

I give up.

I could try again but what's the point

Twitter is a cesspit of ill informed and abusive posts.
Many thousands of businesses and organisations use twitter because it allows direct engagement with their consumers/audience.

Both of these statements are true. They are also independent: there is no causal link between them.

I can’t help but fan girl your post again 👏

Sorry I honestly couldn’t tell from your post.

The thing about Twitter is that it's very largely a self selected medium. It gives back what you put in. That's why I always laugh when I see people say that this or that story is 'all over Twitter'. Nothing is 'all over Twitter'. What they mean is that it's 'all over' the accounts they follow, which is not at all the same thing.

Thank you, @Serenster . Exactly this 👌

Spot on.

Whenever there seems to be no point, there is always, always cake.

Love that cake! Eat it with bubbles!