Why wasn’t any member of the RF present at the women’s rugby World Cup final yesterday?

[Dustyhem952]

Honestly, I think it was a disgrace!

And an insult to our female players! And the entire team who worked so hard to get to be champions!

If the England’s men’s team had reached the final of the the World Cup, against a Commonwealth country no less, I bet someone would have turned up!

No doubt the team members will be invited to Windsor at some point but I think it’s a huge mid-step that no member of the RF could actually be bothered to travel to the stadium, sit in the stands, and actually cheer the Red Roses on!

Princess Anne often attends Scottish rugby matches. It would have meant so much to the women there if someone in the RF could have turned out for them. People clocked Mark Carney for Canada and could be seen literally looking around to see who was there for us!

Princess Catherine sent a message of support in advance and I have every sympathy with her if she is not well enough to attend a match, But if that was the case, someone in one of the offices at St James’s palace, to which we all collectively contribute a lot of money, should have clocked this situation and made other suitable plans!

Sorry Catherine and William, you can’t just pick and choose the events you want to attend like Wimbledon and Aston Villa matches!

Agreed for the number of events and type that were the norm for 30 years ago.

Realistically, both slimming down the royal family and having the main non-monarch working royal (William) working very reduced hours compared to his parents generation, means far fewer events can be expected to have royal attendance.

What they deem important enough to go to and what they don’t consider important enough to attend is definitely something they don’t seem to be getting right.

I find the posters going on about how long it must take them to prepare for visits particularly risible.

If I am honest , and I don't have access to Kate's diary, as patron of the English RFU , I thought it would have been fabulous if she had turned up with Charlotte. It would have been great. Now there may be a good reason , and she did send best wishes to them. But , as a related point , I get a bit annoyed when the Lionesses get to the Euro finals and it goes by the by ( largely) If the men's team were in it , my little Tescos round the corner would have been full of England flags and bunting by the tills - Women' team nothing. So I bought some flags online and a bit of bunting ( all of about 10 quid ) and my neighbour and I put them in our window boxes in support ( we don't have front gardens just little terraced houses off the street. ) I think Kate should have been there but may be a good reason why not - but to encourage young women in sport I think is one of the "soft" things they can do - and should . I know any top flight women's team could be beaten by a male under 18s team , but no matter to me. If we want to preserve exclusively women's sport we should support and promote it (IMHO).

The thing is, there is a lot of apathy amongst especially the under 60's about the Royal Family. So if they don't want to do any events apart from sports finals and they dont want to do anything apart from their own projects which so far seem to be turning up to glamorous Earthshot events then all people see are a couple of hugely wealthy people swanning around at Wimbledon and football. Once Harry stops being talked about all attention will be on them. The benefit of the RF is not what they do in the background ( the majority of which is done by other people) its what people see them doing. If people want to make excuses for them and they are happy to do as little as possible then they will reap what they sow. Especially if, as I think will happen, William's 'reform' of the Monarchy involves them taking more money for fewer people to do not very much but keep all their properties and privileges. They will make themselves irrelevant and will be cheered on by Monarchists who dont expect anything from them and just accept that they know best.

Why is William, or Charles for that matter, allowed to reform the monarchy without any consultation with the government or the people in the country? Like it or not our head of state comes from this family and they shouldn’t be allowed to just set the terms of what that role involves.

If they don’t like the role, then they need to step out of the line of succession.

@RubieChewsDay Reform within the confines of what it is.

KC envisaged it being slimmed down from what it was a few decades ago with the Queens cousins being involved.

Maybe William thinks its now just too slim, not enough people to attend things they'd like the Monarchy to attend

Maybe they should do less or more 'walk abouts'
Maybe they should use social media more to reach the people
Maybe only working Royals should have titles

Many things he can do to change things within the role he'll have

Spot on RubieChewsDay

Absolutely this! There needs to be far more consultation! The British people should have been given the opportunity to be consulted following a seventy year reign imho!

And I certainly don’t think that the RF have proved themselves worthy of overseeing their own finances any longer without proper independent scrutiny! Nor should they be allowed to carry out independent internal enquiries on bullying or finances or anything else!

Totally agree LidlAmaretto
that if serious slimming down does take place, there has to be commensurate slimming down in terms of property and land ownership and the obligation to pay inheritance tax.

Also LidlAmaretto

Imho it’s totally immoral that our head of state inherits £500 million on taking the crown without paying a penny of inheritance tax.

Also that our head of state is able to use such enormous wealth and influence to protect its own reputation eg giving Andrew an alleged £12 million to make a court case go away.

And that there are absolutely no official processes available to us to force scrutiny of records pertaining to Andrew’s activities as a trade envoy when it’s likely that he broke the law. The RF therefore use their money to cover up alleged illegality and there’s nothing we can do about it?

And that there are absolutely no official processes available to us to force scrutiny of records pertaining to Andrew’s activities as a trade envoy when it’s likely that he broke the law.

He was a government trade envoy.

If the government wanted to release the records there wouldn't be much the royal family could do to stop them.

They don't want to release the records, because others as well as Andrew would be culpable.

Briefly looking here and it seems some files relating to Saudi Arabia - and members of the Royal Family - are exempt from Freedom of Information legislation.
The ties between the RF and the Saudis are indeed strong.

@bluegreygreen
You are spot on re other people’s culpability too. It’s a shame isn’t it that there are no avenues for the King’s subjects to overturn those decisions and shine the full light of day on what went on.

Very good point.

I think all the time C3 was hinting at the modernising and slimming down he was going to carry out, people went along with it.

The forced slimming down of the available workforce has made it apparent that he doesn't and never did intend the funding to drop and I can't see W voluntarily handing back much of the loot either given his response to the criticism of the Duchy grabs was to waive all of £10k a year in rent for grassroots organisations.

All aspects need to be properly scrutinised and debated.

Why is the focus on Catherine and William's absence, not Charles and Camilla's? They're the top dogs.

I don’t think Charles or Camilla have ever been seen at a rugby match?
Catherine is Patron of the RFU.

As patron of rugby league she did manage to bestir herself/ her comms team to post an “inspiring message” to the England team ahead of the first ashes match in a couple of decades… obviously going to Wembley would have been a stretch too far….