WeAreInvictus - X

[ConstantGarden1]

A fitting endorsement from Fred Hargreaves OBE who on X wrote, “As ever, a genuine and heart-felt speech from the Duke of Sussex - the driving force and passion behind the #InvictusGames. So good to see this Award, and share the stage with Elizabeth, Kirsty and Israel.”

From the Royal Website, how the ‘driving force’ - Harry - brought Invictus into being:

https://www.royal.uk/invictus-games

Positive Harry posts have been flooding X. Haters were out too. Some negatively posting in a quasi-forensic manner. No ‘gotcha’ revelations, however, nor tens of thousands of likes which the repost of Harry’s speech on ESPN by the knowledgeable Robert Griffin III now has. In less than 2 days 51+K likes and still rising.

I also checked out some (too many) #Sussexsquad posters. It revealed teachers, veterans, different nationalities, colours, creeds, nurses, retired folk etc etc. Thus I formed a completely different understanding about the use of the hashtag to support the Sussex family. There were also very strange users of the hashtag too. The hashtag was additionally utilised to send the message out on X to put the anti-Harry and Meghan posters or ‘derangers’, as they are often called, on mute and not to engage. Quite a restrained and civil position to promote and many did just that. Invictus awareness was successfully brought to those who had never heard of the international fraternity of veterans with disabilities and injuries by this hashtag alone.

Watching the videos on X I saw Harry speak with sincerity and humility under pressure. His words, “The truth is, I stand here not as Prince Harry, Pat Tillman Award recipient, but rather a voice on behalf of the Invictus Games Foundation and the thousands of veterans and service personnel from over 20 nations who have made the Invictus Games a reality. This award belongs to them. Not to me.”

Harry has now been awarded, by a very diverse online presence, a new respect. And I do believe he’s also a jolly good fellow…and so say many, many, many of us. 😊💙

I am so glad I went on my very new X twitter account for I was disgusted with the Daily Mail’s use of Pat Tillman’s mother to denigrate Prince Harry as it was totally uncalled for. Call it for what it was - a hit piece of journalism designed to create a mini storm online. We know nothing about the context of how they obtained words supposedly said by Pat’s mother about Harrry. I was aghast too at how Pat’s widow has also been treated by some online posters. Her foundation may not be perfect but she does more than anyone to honour him. Pat’s mother also did not go on any mainstream American media either where her complaints would have been listened to and would have provided the much needed context for the hate motivated article by a newspaper under the spotlight for its nefarious journalism and click bait articles about Harry.

Harry’s response was beautiful. The way Harry acknowledged Pat’s mother went further than him being a royal. It was a standout out moment of what being human is all about. I do believe he’s also a jolly good fellow…and so say many, many, many of us. 😊💙

Birmingham, the confirmed future location for Invictus, has some more dismal news.

https://news.sky.com/story/bankrupt-birmingham-council-to-sell-off-athletes-village-at-over-300m-loss-13196966

It sounds like Brum is in a financial jam. Hosting Invictus will only cost the poor taxpayers more.

Invictus is coasting on past glories but it seems to me its governance is looking very weak. Harry is now reported as saying he hopes to hand it on to Archie, as though he thinks he has a personal stake in it. The trustees of the charity need to address that misconception smartish.

Harry had the idea and got the right people on board to make it a reality. The honorary role of patron reflects his contribution. But it isn’t his for the life of the charity, and his association with it is becoming more and more problematic. It’s time for a more fitting figurehead to take it forward.

A translation of a letter written in response to a request for a breakdown of the cost (to Germany) of holding the Invictus Games in Dusseldof shows a whopping 24% of the budget spent on "support (e.g. side events, logistics, safeguarding)".

It sounds like Brum is in a financial jam. Hosting Invictus will only cost the poor taxpayers more.

That's putting it mildly, @Ohpleeeease! Birmingham is the equivalent of bankrupt. (In local government finance parlance, the council's chief finance officer has issued a section 114 notice, which is the equivalent of filing for bankruptcy.)

Birmingham bankruptcy

As the Guardian reported at the time, in February 2024 - the same time that Harry and Meghan were in Whistler on a pre-games publicity visit, costing the taxpayers of Vancouver money* - Birmingham council received permission for £1.25bn in exceptional financial support from the government. This is not a loan but special permission to sell assets and borrow money to cover its costs - including more than £800m to cover equal pay.

In March 2024, the council passed budget cuts, thought to be the largest in local authority history. These include cutting up to 600 council jobs, scrapping almost all arts funding, selling 11 community centres, dimming streetlights and moving bin collection to fortnightly. Council tax is due to rise by 21% over two years.

Vancouver FoI

*The results of the FoI submitted show that Vancouver police spent $44,555 on security-related overtime during the short visit. The Invictus Games covered $10,221 through cost recovery, but Canadian taxpayers paid $34,333 in overtime. That's the much-lauded Invictus 'delivery model'. Imagine this sum multiplied many times over in Birmingham, for the full games, bearing in mind the ramifications of the presence of the Israeli IDF team. Add in the cost of council officers' time to deal with the local authority's statutory obligations around licensing, planning and safety matters ... and it's an unaffordable and vainglorious decision by someone.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/may/01/how-birmingham-city-council-ended-up-in-financial-crisis-a-timeline

The event is being held at NEC. I doubt very much that Birmingham council will have to meet any costs, and it will be for the Invictus Foundation to meet the bill of venue hire (including kitting it out for sports and any other services they require from it)

Apparently central government is stumping up the Invictus money. I am sure the people of Birmingham - which truly is a wonderful city - would wish that £26m be used to pay a few bin men and library workers, instead of foisting another burdensome event on them.

Do you have a source for that?

(Genuine question, btw, because as the government making cuts in some areas in order to afford public sector pay rises and other projects, I'm surprised that a £26m donation to a pretty niche charity is on the cards. And I don't remember anything about how the Games will be paid for other than a hope something will turn up statement that funding is still being finalised)

@MiscellaneousSupportHuman Here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckdg9wgzeyko.amp

The NEC doesn’t have an athletics stadium. Wouldn’t it be more likely at the Alexander Stadium that was the athletics venue for the Commonwealth Games ?

Unfortunately for Birmingham, the local authority (the council) has statutory duties whether it likes it or not. Licensing, environmental health (noise and food safety), planning consents as necessary for the 'side events', and stadium safety spring to mind off the top of my head. The amount of officer time involved in these functions is considerable and adds up to significant sums of money, and at a time when the council are running short-staffed it will affect what little 'normal' service remains.

These statutory duties remain even where assets are contracted out or entirely owned by private organisations.

I'm surprised that this is being swept under the carpet. I'd like to see these functions costed with a clear guarantee from Invictus that it will be covering these costs.

I think it's the lack of transparency that bothers me the most.

"the £26m government-backed bid"

I read that differently to mean the cost is £26m. The government has undertaken to provide some backing. It didn't say what and it didn't amount to a commitment to pay.

But I have now found a different article in which an IG spokesperson says the government will underwrite, but they are also seeking funding partners. This was said post-election and after the King's speech, so may well survive even if the government requires MoD to cut discretionary funding as part of the SDR (the King's speech promised increase by 2030, and was focussed on current and anticipated operational capabilities)

But I have now found a different article in which an IG spokesperson says the government will underwrite, but they are also seeking funding partners.

So much for the Invictus 'new delivery model'. Just grifting as usual for Harry's expensive security requirements while he LARPs being an IPP.

Maybe he'll ask to borrow some of the armed Shin Bet agents who will likely accompany the Israeli IDF team, as they did at the Paris Olympics.

What could possibly go wrong in Birmingham?

I think it's the lack of transparency that bothers me the most.

And me @AutumnCrow.

I understood the £26m was the amount to be spent on the subsequently successful bid to bring Harold's circus to town.

There has never been any indication as to how that monstrous sum was spent but inevitably there will be further costs on top.

Whole shitshow should have gone to Washington 😡

I wonder if the very costly, 'successful' bid had any kind of exit strategies written into it for:
the change of Government (hello Lisa Nandy);
the key bid driver, Johnny Mercer, losing his seat (and influence);
spiralling security costs (eye-watering amounts for the Olympics which even when extrapolated proportionately downwards are still vast);
a highly charged political landscape in Birmingham (just ask Jess Phillips) around Israel, Gaza and the West Bank (Palestine);
and the declining fortunes of both Mercer and Harry, including their popularity and reputations taking a bit of a battering lately (public patience with funding Harry's 'stuff' is wearing thin).

I would love to see IG grow and succeed because of the great work it does for its community, but it isn’t the Olympics, or even the Commonwealth Games. Its appeal is limited, as Heart of Invictus demonstrated. It needs to justify its costs just like any other organisation dependant on charitable donations. If H wants IG to continue he should be putting money in, not taking it out.

I think the growth of Invictus has been part of its problem, though? It has been growth for the sake of growth, rather than focused, careful evolution. Hence the bringing in of Nigeria, Colombia and Israel, and the permitting of the D&D of S to play at being 'global personalities' or whatever it is that they think they're doing in order to poke at the UK Head of State.

The Invictus Foundation should not allow itself to be used by its 'founding patron' to attempt to settle family scores - but it is. And it's inappropriate and pathetic that no-one from this veterans' charity will stand up to the D&D of S, or indeed make the accounts fully transparent.

How much knowledge of the Invictus accounts did the Birmingham bid team have, I wonder. I'm guessing it had 'assurances' as opposed to cold, hard facts. I think there may be a real public misfeasance scandal in the offing here. The whole thing stinks like a rotten kipper, especially this supposed continuing search for a funding partner for Invictus. It sounds more like a TV reality show that a serious, reputable charitable enterprise.

The backstop position is to blackmail the government into coughing up, isn't it?

IG will carry no weight at all in the SDR that is just beginning, so I think they could be in quite a vulnerable position.

After all, as the new government has cancelled the Edinburgh supercomputer project, I doubt they'd have any qualms about deciding the IG were not core to veteran care and review the extent of support.

IG need to be fundraising like crazy, IMHO

If only they had a patron that could effectively help them raise funds.

I think the 'founding patron' may well be something of an achilles heel for the Invictus Foundation. He's been playing it far too close to personal vanity project and revenge project; and the IF has shown weakness and poor governance in not stopping him.

I think Invictus was seen as a big part of the answer to the Harold problem in much the same way as 'Trade Envoy' was seen as the answer to the Andrew problem and look how that turned out.

Absolutely infuriating that for the second time in less than twenty years the public are picking up eye watering tabs to sub a rogue spare.

Founder syndrome. Someone who was right for the organisation at one point in time/its development stops being right and ends up actively damaging it. But is so dependent on it they can't or won't see it.

I believe H&M met the Colombia Invictus team today, during day #2 of their holiday in Colombia.

Does that make it an expenses deductible holiday? The ‘official’ photographer is credited to Archewell.

Again no-one at the Invictus Foundation has the balls to rein this in, or display transparency around the money.

Spongers.

Absolutely this! Unfortunately for IG and the sports people there's a very nasty stench surrounding IG, PH needs to go, as you say he just takes, and MM should have no place at the table, yet she gorges herself off the back of IG