William on the global stage

[PrettyFlyforaMaiTai]

The government have asked Prince William to attend the ceremony to mark the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He is mixing with world leaders such as Trump, Macron, Zelensky and Meloni, as well as Elon Musk and First Lady Dr Jill Biden. He will also be having a private meeting with Trump to discuss Anglo-American relations.

Is this a sign of things to come for William? Is this preparing him for his future role as King?

news.sky.com/story/prince-william-and-donald-trump-meet-at-notre-dame-cathedral-ceremony-13269085

Millionaire's

I thought he was still working, just reduced his travel and face 2 face commitments. He was still working on the Homewards programme, we saw it in the documentary.

There is a huge portion of the working population who could not, but there are plenty, who absolutely could modify their working commitments to facilitate unforeseen circumstances.

Not just millionaires though, there is still plenty of the population still working from home without any real need to do so. There are plenty of careers where one could modify their day to day to be available in the circumstance William and Catherine found themselves in.

EmmaMaria · Yesterday 20:19
Sigh. He went to Paris. It's the other side of the channel. Who the fk cares about a king to be from a backwater country that hasn't realised that it no longer matters?

Oh dear - what a miserable comment!

I think quite a lot of people do, actually. And I think it's a very good example of things the monarch/RF can do well which frankly, the PM and Foreign Sec haven't got time for - soft diplomacy, as other pps have said. It's not an overtly political event - it's a cultural celebration and affirmation of friendship between France and it's 'allies', so William's presence was perfectly appropriate.

I just can't get my head around your negativity. I'm so glad that Notre Dame has re-opened - I remember the horror of seeing it in flames when we were in the grip of other horrible world events. France is politically up the creek at the moment and I was personally very glad to see this very positive event.

Its allies, not 'it's allies'.

Grrr.

A brand built ion lies and manipulation will never ultimately succeed and this is what they are facing

It looks like Trump is quite fond of William. Hopefully this means good things for diplomatic relations.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prince-william-donald-trump-paris-notre-dame-b2660650.html

Isn’t William going to be the Head of the Church of England sooner rather than later. And Notre Dame is an important church, an iconic church in the world of Catholicism. Surely we can see why his presence is important. Including to Americans who are often more religious than the average European.

William has worked a lot this year and he and Camilla, supported by Edward and Sophie, have carried all the royal engagements between them, so I think it's really unfair to say he took 12 months off. He most certainly didn't!

I see a man stepping boldly and confidently into the role of Prince of Wales. Charles is elderly and has been very unwell this year, so William is already taking on a lot of the kingly duties, which is as it should be. Good for him! And yes, I think he was an excellent person to meet Trump. Trump likes the RF, was a big admirer of the late Queen, and even someone as pompous and arrogant as him can be dazzled by the stardust of royalty, so I think William was an inspired choice to go and make nice with the incoming US president. Like him or not, the UK will need to work with him from January onwards and the pathetic Labour govt has made some serious missteps with him over the past few years, which was very short-sighted of them.

I'm just impressed they managed to haul him out of his counting house where he's counting out our money.

One of my ( many) bugbears is people talking about the king/ queen of England.
No such person.

William hasn’t done a lot of engagements over the last 12 months. The Duke of Gloucester is in his late 70’s but completed more.

in 2023, the British Royal Family carried out 2,422 official engagements:

Princess Anne: The hardest working royal in 2023, with over 450 engagements

King Charles III: 483 engagements

Prince Edward: 307 engagements

Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh: 240 engagements

Duke of Gloucester: 211 engagements

Queen Camilla: 197 engagements

Prince William: 185 engagements

Kate, Princess of Wales: 132 engagements

Duchess of Gloucester: 127 engagements

Duke of Kent: 76 engagements

Princess Alexandra: 5 engagements

That was 2023. And sorry, I missed hard-working Anne off my list!

William has not taken on "kingly" duties in the strict sense.

None of the Counsellors of State have been called on to act. Despite his illness and the scaling back of engagements, King Charles has carried out all the duties of the monarch.

Did you mean that William (along with others, notably Anne, Sophie and Camilla) has done some of the engagements that would otherwise have been carried out by Charles? And that as heir, William tends to get the most "senior" of those events.

This is William doing his job, at the request of the UK Government. Charles did the same thing for decades, as Prince of Wales - he even had to postpone his own wedding by a day, so that he could represent the Queen and Government at the Pope's funeral in 2005. It was non-negotiable, regardless of the importance of a wedding. They have to do what they are asked to do.

Do you live in the UK?

What I mean is that William is taking up some of the strain. The King recently got back from a strenuous overseas trip, the Queen has had pneumonia, so either William has stepped in for the France trip or he was always going to do it. But he's been a lot more visible since becoming PoW, which is as it should be.

A telephone call is an engagement as well

Those are the court appointments.

W in addition has probably been busy behind the scenes running the Duchy of Cornwall and doing whatever private charity/business/project work he does that he chooses to do privately.

Just because you don't see someone not working doesn't mean they're not working.
.
And, even if he had taken the entire year off because his wife was ill (I don 't think he did) he should be applauded for choosing to put wife and family first.

William has people he appointed to run the Duchy. Besides which Charles has the Lancaster Duchy and manages it, at 76 years old with a cancer diagnosis alongside his wife 77, and both undertaking far more engagements. William's work record is woeful, I have seen he's done a few more engagements this last week or so, let's hope that continues into 2025

Those of you who are anti monarchy. You see the royal family’s work as meaningless. Why do you want them to do more work.

William is doing a brilliant job as far as I can see.

@luckylavender

That's unfair in the circumstances
Oh please. You think the rest of the world gets a free pass when their spouse is unwell. They have a host of staff. Do not start up on how he deserves to be able to take time off. The monarchy are barely hanging on with their fingernails. This level of entitlement is enough to make them lost their grip altogether

@Theunamedcat
No. Not even millionaires. The only people who get to take a year off because their spouse is unwell are unelected people who can not lose their job 🙄

But he didn't take a year off @uptheculdesac! Where you get that impression, I don't know, but since you seem to have a very low opinion of the RF I doubt you know what they're all up to from day to day.

I’m jealous of all of them. The restoration looks incredible (spectacularly missing point of thread).