King Charles - disquiet at Highgrove & the gardeners’ exodus - SUNDAY TIMES INVESTIGATION

[vera99]

Murdoch is growing bolder in his dotage — first with Trump, and now with another bombshell investigation into the grasping, stagnant, and catastrophically out-of-touch Windsors. And yet we keep pumping more public money into this so-called dysfunctional family.

What you need to know

King’s demands, staff shortages and low pay led to gardener exodus at Highgrove

Royal charity which runs gardens told to offer mental health support after formal investigation

Charles has lost 11 of 12 garden staff since 2022 including two head gardeners who quit within a year

Monarch said of one worker: “Do not put that man in front of me again”

After Ukraine invasion King proposed plugging staff shortages with war refugees or the elderly

At one point half of staff were on minimum wage

https://archive.ph/fspT3#selection-1495.0-1501.155

So what is your problem?

Really? 😂 what is " we have him dirt" . Is this some kind of slang?

I have explained. Some of these people will have valuable knowledge. Their boss, Charles, sounds very demanding in all sorts of ways. Minimum wage for an experienced gardener is an insult. No wonder they walked.

Where I live, I know a reputable gardener who is paid far more than what I pay the lovely gardener who helps us out.

Thanks for the update I wasn’t aware of that, and it actually makes me like him even more. I did a one-credit Open University course years ago just for fun, after finishing a traditional degree, so I really appreciate how brilliant OU courses are. The students work incredibly hard, often while juggling full-time jobs. It’s genuinely impressive.

What a childish and mean post.

What evidence are you basing all this rubbish on?

Bet you won’t answer….

That’s because you’re clearly a warm-hearted, generous person someone who treats others with genuine kindness, dignity, and respect. Not like a taxpayer-funded royal, born into absurd privilege, who’s been coddled from day one, waited on hand and foot, and surrounded by a fawning army of courtiers shielding them from the real world. The contrast couldn’t be more glaring.

🤣🤣 you googled the wrong Graham.

Spot on

No, silly. The prestige of working in a special garden with unusual plants and unique features as opposed to the municipal park.

When you're losing the monarchists on GB News, to paraphrase a well-known idiom: "Windsor, we have a problem "

twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1946846330321551379

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I find that really hard to believe as it is not minimum wage (Highgrove not you!). A charity - particularly one associated with Charles - would not pay below minimum wage.

Can you explain the dirt slang thing ?

It's just someone trying to be clever, but actually being vile. Not worth trying to understand!

I didn’t know I genuinely thought he’d been to Cambridge. Not sure why, just one of those random assumptions that quietly settle in. Probably the sort of thing that would get me sacked if I worked for the Royal Household. That, and humming Goodbye England’s Rose while half-heartedly weeding the borders at Highgrove under a merciless July sun taunted by a defiant ragwort, clearly out of place and patiently awaiting non-existent livestock to give it purpose.

I pay mine double the amount you pay yours. So are you being exploitative and am I a wonderful employer? Or is that just the market forces in play in your area?

So what if experienced gardeners walk away from Highgrove? They are looking at the market and seeing they can go elsewhere. They've been trained up at a prestigious employee that will make their CV stand out, and off they go to another job. Highgrove will employ new people who want to work there and are willing to take the pay. End of drama.

I'm only repeating what is in the article. Either way it's a low wage.

You sound like you have been eating ragwort.

So you pay £40 an hour to your gardener? There is no way that is the going rate round here! You must live in a very posh area lol. Makes Charles's £8.50 an hour look pretty measly doesn't it?? How embarrassing for him.

Are you still on the G&Ts?

I think they've always had a streak of meanness. Queen Mary, if I recall correctly, was notorious for visiting stately homes and wealthy hosts, admiring their belongings with the clear expectation that the items would be gifted to her. And as for Queen Elizabeth II, she liked to cultivate an image of frugality famously said to sit huddled in front of a one-bar electric fire, as if to show she was economising like everyone else. Whether that was genuine thrift or just good PR is anyone's guess. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

It's my last hurrah I've earned them !

A random assumption that settles in ? A lie 😂

Storm in a flower bed I think. Let’s move on!

More probably. He has an assistant who earns less I imagine. £36/7 an hour is a rough estimate based on his last invoice assuming they are paid equally. That’s the going rate in my area for a privately owned, no-name garden. Not a prestigious, world famous garden run by a charity, with a highly specialised purpose and world class reputation in the field of environmental excellence. I doubt any gardeners who start out at Highgrove will be short of future employers.