Do the Royal Family just think we are really really stupid?

[Bex5490]

Just that really. From Harry’s car chase to Prince Andrew being at a Pizza Express kid’s party.

And now we’re supposed to believe that the country’s biggest PR machine in the middle of a media storm just let Prince William take a casual Mothers Day pic on his iPhone, let the missus edit it and then post it to the world?

😒

Yes, if you factor in the name changes, there’s probably no more than 30 of them here in total

It's not posters on here or the general public who are directing Catherine's actions.
I doubt she reads them herself - and if she does there are many saying poor Kate, leave her alone. Etc to balance the cries of get back to work .
Or do people believe that those around her are showing her /passing on the negative remarks?
Why would they do that with the tradition of never complain , never explain?
It has to be people with real leverage to force her to get in a car with clear windows when she obviously wants to remain out of view.
And that's not people on MN or the Clapham omnibus.

Yeah, I don't understand what people are getting about this. It's not the same as your annual family photo or the operation your aunt Ginny had thirty years ago.

Speaking of the doctored photo, today's new issue of Private Eye - the cover is hilarious

According to the story in Private Eye (out today), the original plan was for an old snap to be issued on Mother's Day and for it to be clear that it was an old snap.

private Eye says "...the mood at Buck House at the start of the week was very frosty over what they see as a very clumsy attempt to close down speculation over Kate's health."

So even King Charles is ticked off about the lies. Maybe it's OK for us little commoners to speculate and query about it now lol

Love your spin.

Yes. It's William who needs to be more visible. If they want to be seen as normal, show us a man juggling a busy job with trying to be there for his wife and kids.

I suggest Kate should put her feet up, drink copious amounts of tea, eat cake and read her kindle. Fuck you would be more appropriate than thank you, to be fair.

The Private Eye article ends with a fair comment and a slightly alarming piece of new info:

""William's court is far more secretive [than Buck Palace]. Believeing that one very staged photo will appease the people is old-style royalty that doesn't work now. Even if the veracity of the photo weren't queried, it wouldn't stop the rumour mill for long these days. The prospect, long touted, of a new-style monarchy under William seems like a mirage. Hosts on his rare public engagements are asked not to mention Kate. And the truth is that no one except a close circle - and one lucky paparazzo - has since Kate since she left hospital, so the true state of her health remains a mystery."

Bold font my own

I think that’s unfair a bit, there is a lot of work behind rhe scenes, from managing 60 staff, to the diary engagements, planning, duchy of Cornwall, public letters, patron of charities. It’s not he just gets in a car and fronts up places.

So maybe she photoshopped herself in 😱. When she's been missing for a year, let me know, and I'll show some interest.

exactly! business as usual for Duchess Dolittle and Work-shy Willy 👍🏻

This.

Kate has the same right to health privacy as all of us. Since her operation, Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have held firm to their initial line that she needs time to recover and that's all they are going to say. There was no need at all to release a photo.

But given that they did, the worst possible option was to release an manipulated image. The photoshopping may genuinely be minor and meaningless, but none of us can know that and unfortunately it has just added fuel to the social media fire.

If Kate really does look as well as as she appears to in the image (and yes, of course, pain and complications aren't necessarily visible), then the best comms approach would have been to release a professional photograph of her, along the lines of Charles' with his "get well soon" cards.

If she doesn't really look that well - what on earth were they thinking?

True.

Or make them disappear in mysterious circumstances

then how on earth did Charles manage to do all of that and double the engagements when he was POW

But showing up is by far the most important part of his job, especially sonwhen the King is also absent. What's the point of an invisible monarchy?

I think you may be got confused here.

he's also seeming to pick the 'fun' engagements such as the BAFTAs and the footie match, and even showing up to them embarrassingly unprepared, there's no excuse for that cringey BAFTAs gaff when they will have staff preparing dossiers that all he needs to do is read in the car on the way (if he isn't doing hours of extensive research some people would have us believe)

I agree with your bold comment and also the private eye comment on this being clumsy. I think we can all bet good money Kate does not look healthy right now. And it’s not something some make up and hair done can hide.

id be very surprised if she aappears in a couple of weeks after Easter, suspect that was her in the car with Carole, hence why a side shot only of her face in the pap shot the other day.

i really hope she’s making a full recovery. But the pr around this has been handled terribly. I can only assume that’s because they are in a tailspin of something serious and unexpected.

How do you know there is a lot of work behind the scenes? You don't know that because he has so many staff running things for him. The Duchy, for instance, is run by nearly 200 staff, I doubt William spends hours himself having much to do with it. But he does take a massive income from it of course

Don’t worry, I think that poster was just being ironically balanced for a moment. We shall return to our regularly scheduled programming now.

To be clear - the bit in bold is from Private Eye, not me.

The Eye is usually impeccably well sourced and so the fact that William's hosts are told not to even mention Kate at all is truly concerning.

Have you ever managed a staff of 3 never mind 200?