Talks about reconciliation 2

[bluegreygreen]

I've never started a thread here before, but I thought some people might be interested in this take on the story by a PR podcast I listened to yesterday (started listening to this podcast as I know very little about PR!).

It would be good to know if any of the resident PR people agree.

When It Hits The Fan: A Right Royal Whodunnit

But Harry would immediately bleat to his favourite publication or interviewer like he did after his fleeting visit to his father last year.

I thought it was a phone call? How are there screen shots?

I can imagine it got quite heated because the press normally respect the palace's wishes to keep funeral and obituary material embargoed. The main broadcast and press organisations get many private briefings about royal state funeral planning well ahead of time so they can plan and even rehearse years before it's necessary.

It breaks that trust to release gossipy tabloid type exclusives like the Telegraph story - in fact almost unheard of for a paper like the Telegraph to do so.

Why do you think Harry is some powerless agent in this?

Charles’ funeral is not a private matter. The RF are actually fortunate they have other people to sort it out. It’s pretty bloody difficult to organise a funeral when siblings aren’t talking, I can tell you.

The very last time Harry met privately with his father (last year when he announced his cancer diagnosis), he talked about it to ABC news a couple of days thereafter. Every one of his private conversations with Charles and other family have been leaked by Harry over the last 5 years via vehicles like Spare. Harry, not Charles, is the problem here. I don't blame Charles for keeping Harry at arm's length, and using third parties.

There must have been both. The Telegraph story is odd. There is so much detail in it that it just had to have come from the palace, not H & M as some have suggested. If KCIII is agonising over the rift with Harry, the story serves his purpose ie good father honouring his son at his funeral despite Spare etc etc. My supposition is that BP did want the story out there, hence the leak, but didn't want it all over every title so Adreae was posturing when he closed it down. It served its purpose as a message to H & M primarily and the public secondarily by appearing only in The Telegraph.

Because he is.

It’s a bit like Harry flying over to see his father in haste , seeing him for fifteen mins and then flying straight back. Advertising that he’s done it for the optics but it wasn’t at all a meaningful visit for either party. Everything with them is done for PR purposes.

Why do you think Harry is some powerless agent in this?
Because he is.

Really? Who forced him to talk to the BBC after he lost his court case?

Could be.

Unfortunately for Harry, he vastly overestimates the British public's interest in both himself and Invictus. Both are long past their prime.

As I said above, Harry's current security arrangements are more than fair and reasonable, and there is no way he is going to get what he wants. It's not happening.

I didn't mention Harry, but there was a statement from the Sussex camp (can't remember which article now) which said they had 'reached out' to BP but not Kensington.

It would make sense that KCIII's team would let William know if this was happening, without necessarily asking him to be involved.

There was already an article in the Telegraph last week where the chief exec of Invictus was hinting Harry’s attendance was not a given.

I wouldn't put money on Invictus 27 actually taking place, given the state of Birmingham and the declining reputation of Invictus. Harry's association with it might actually be detrimental now.

My reply was to a poster who was replying to @bluegreygreen comment, obviously I was pointing out that Harry is powerless to make his family have anything to do with him if they don’t want to.

Despite those tedious questions about why we care (answered about a hundred times already), I agree with you and I think it’s even more critical than that for the monarchy. For all kinds of reasons that I won’t repeat again here for fear of sounding like a broken record, I think William needs to feel his father is 100% behind him, with no wobbling.

Harry and Meghan have put him and his wife through hell over the last few years, and I think there are other reasons too why William may be feeling that the game’s not worth the candle. So for those who care about the monarchy as an institution, it’s a worrying time. And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if H and M are aware of this and are trying to destabilise things for William quite deliberately.

This was to the point that it was Meghan making the decisions. Harry has agency - he’s thick as a plan for sure - but he’s hardly being held hostage.

My comment was about the view that Meghan made the decision to leak - Harry would be just as involved and able to make the call - more so I imagine where it is a question of royal protocol and interactions etc

Yes I wouldn’t put that past the Sussexes tbh. But William can only abdicate for himself, he has 3 heirs, who I don’t think can abdicate till they are 18. Happy to proved wrong however!

Ah I see! , yes I believe Harry is just as capable as Meghan!
his whole book was a spiteful leak of sorts.

Charlotte Griffins who appears to have a hotline to Harry is really pushing the narrative for a return, her reporting is as of it’s a done deal, is it a case of say it often enough to make it true?

Harry and Meghan have put him and his wife through hell over the last few years, and I think there are other reasons too why William may be feeling that the game’s not worth the candle. So for those who care about the monarchy as an institution, it’s a worrying time. And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if H and M are aware of this and are trying to destabilise things for William quite deliberately.

I remember saying something similar on here at the height of the where is Kate saga that I wouldn’t blame them if they had enough and removed themselves, however they can’t do that for George as far as I am aware. Can you imagine how quick Harry and Meghan would be on the next plane to the UK if it happened? 😂

You're right - and I'm sure William would be very mindful of his children's future lives.

But while I don't see Harry and Meghan as monarchs (whatever happens - I think Parliament would have an opinion on that!!) I bet Meghan would relish all the disruption.

She couldn't make it work for herself in the RF, and probably never intended to. But she has no skin in the game, unlike Harry, and I really think she'd feel like the cat who'd got the cream if the RF crashed and burned all because of her!

Over on Redditt, it is being claimed that what happened wss - the BP guy has set up a meeting with the Sussex UK PR guy. So just the two of them. Then the Sussex UK PR guy bowled up with Meredith, ambusing the BP man, and there was apparently a bit of a scene.

Indeed! What could possibly go wrong?
/s

I think he also vastly underestimates the public's commonsense. One of the side effects of his security court case was that anyone who reads the papers or listens to the news was presented with the facts of the case and why his security changed.

He has simply lost the support of the majority of the public. Even if Charles was affected by popularity, which i don't think he is, there is no need for him to pander to Harry's delusions of grandeur and importance. If Harry doesn't turn up at Invictus and cites security concerns he is going to look like an idiot.

If the Sussexes really want to improve their PR here they need to start employing British PR professionals. The US experts never seem to grasp how the monarchy works and how it intersects with society. Hence the repeated failures.