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

Charity employs employees and doesn't retain the ones who can't fulfill their role shocker.

Republican cuts and pastes the bits that suit them, to whip up outrage amongst the envious shocker.

Idiots don't understand employment law shocker.

Pro Sussex fans who hate the Murdoch press happy to quote the Murdoch press when it suits them shocker.

I’m sorry your post makes no sense to me at all , what are you trying to say .

Let's not let performative shock get in the way of the real story here the King is a venal,mean intemperate individual who seeks to project a nobler more enlightened image in 2025. But he's been caught with his fingers in the till of that projection. Sorry 🙏

He is 77 years old, has cancer and works full time.

How convenient! Another private / public smoke and mirrors fudge then?

???????

Wow, you are desperate, aren't you? One incident of pen frustration out of 50+ years being in the public eye as a working royal is not "who he is". Setting up causes to help the young and disenfranchised, and being an environmentalist before anyone knew there was a problem is who he is. Being a trusted ambassador for the UK is who he is. He is very far from perfect as a human being, and has made plenty of mistakes, although many no worse than your ordinary Joe who is not constantly in the public eye. But he is a decent man. Netflix in collaboration with one of the Princes Trust alumni, Idris Elba, see who he is, as do the many people his trust has helped, that's why they are making a programme to celebrate his work in the Trust. All the crowds that turn out to cheer him and Camilla see who they are. I know it must kill you.

You don't need to be sorry. I feel sorry for you and Graham. It's just not going as you hoped it would, is it.

Do you understand what a charity is? Do you understand employment relations? What is it you have against refugees and volunteers wanting to work?

Thank you to The Times for your sterling work. No doubt Murdoch’s ancestors were once transported for some petty-fogging offence in the mother country, and this is his long-game revenge.

Yes, because a damp squib of a story about Highgrove gardeners is really going to make the monarchy come crashing down.

Your newfound fondness for Murdoch is the most noteworthy thing here.

The Times is grinding its usual axe. The story is one-sided and repetitive, the source a collection of disgruntled former employees. Doubtless the gardeners are poorly paid and KCiII irascible, things we knew already.

I do understand how charities work which is why I understand the tax relief benefits of them too!

I find this very upsetting. As a man interested in the environment, I would expect him to be standing up for the menstrual cup or arguing for free bleeding 😁

Actually I am a monarchist, and a keen gardener fwiw, but this article, which appeared to be balanced, suggested that the King is a petulant arse who does indeed care more about his garden than people. A bigger, more emotionally mature person might pay his staff handsomely, and like with tender plants, treat less than perfect employees with additional training and support. But no, just get your staff to bawl out the lower orders and God forbid they ever let a weed sully his eye, or misspell the Latin genus of a particular magnolia…

The more I read about these entitled fuckwits the more I sympathise with the republicans. What with Randy fucking nonce Andy, ginger whinger spice Harry, and now HRH the temper tantrum King…

Even Princess Anne, who has an equivalent length article in the same newspaper, saying what a true living saint she is, can’t be arsed to crack a smile about it all. Yes she’s hard working, yes she’s dutiful, yes, she’s ‘still going at 75’ but with the all the demeanour of a suffering martyr. Just retire love.

And who do we have left with any shred of integrity in that family? Wills and Kate? They need to do more if they are to convince taxpayers that they’re worth keeping.

And? Why shouldn't charitable income receive tax relief?

Highgrove Garden is run organically. No gardener at Highgrove or any other organic garden will ever have to waste time"hand picking greenfly off plants". In fact to do so would interfere with the whole organic system of the garden.

A key benefit of organic gardening is that you enable an ecosystem where predators manage pests for you.

Aphids (including greenfly) arrive on your plants quickly followed by predatory insects, like ladybirds and lacewings, looking for a feast. They're so good at this and so greedy that they find and eat the greenfly before the gardener even knows the little pests are there.

Only when you interfere with the ecosystem by killing insects with pesticides that the balance tips, predators are destroyed and greenfly present a problem.

@smilesy thats a matter of opinion, as we have both now demonstrated.

I think some people object to refugees being given opportunities, although I can't think why. I've seen it on MN before.

Thank you, I was going to ask the same, because Harry is alive and well in California, by choice?

Yes this lording of Murdoch is a new development!
when his papers were writing about h and m , it was false news , a grudge , helping the royals and my favourite… the devil personified! 🤷‍♀️

I've worked and trained as a gardener with the National Trust and now I'm retired I volunteer for them in one of their historic gardens.

The NT pay reasonable salaries to their garden employees but certainly not competitive with commercial horticulture organisations.

The vast majority of people who work for the NT are unpaid volunteers. We make up 85% of the workforce and are mostly older, retired people.

The NT couldn't function or employ any paid staff were they not able to rely on unpaid labour.

Don't get me wrong, it's rewarding to work for them but their progressive policies and salaries ride on the back of a lot of goodwill and generosity from ordinary people with their hands in the soil.

Didn't Harry's staff meet with selected meeting of the press during their recent trip to London? could this is the result??

I've been wondering whether to write this - but what the hell.

I've met the King on several occasions (when he was Prince of Wales).

When I say met him, he was part of a team of people hedgelaying or taking part in hedgelaying competitions. I didn't sit opposite him in my best clothes for tea like Paddington.

I spoke to him only in the context of the task we had and about the countryside.
On all the occasions we were all out in the field for long winter days in all the weather could throw at us.

In no way could you have distinguished him or any of his behaviour from the other country people around him. We were everything from farmers to gardeners to professional hedgelayers.
A flask of tea and a hot dog at lunchtime and then back at the hedge.
He would not have stood out in any way - attitude, status, demeanor - were it not for the fact that he was probably wearing more worn clothes than the rest of us. He looked like he slept under the hedge when he finished.

He was interested, hardened to hard physical work, polite and focused on the task. He remembered me from the last time I had seen him and he remembered my dog. I don't recognise the person described here by people who've never met him.
As I say, I've no opinion on the royal family but can say the man I met was a decent fellow amongst peers.
I suppose I'd rather have them than Trump.

I'm finding this new development quite amusing 😂

Great news I'm a trustee of a charity so I fully recognise the value of volunteers they are the backbone of Britain what we are discussing here is the way one of the richest and entitled monarchies in the world treats it staff. It's irrelevant about Murdoch who is ultimately a loathsome character. It's about how Charles the Third treats his staff and what we can infer from that. YMMV