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!

It is possible to do both. Dates didn't clash

BTW, I just read Power and the Palace by Valentine Low. It explained a lot to me about the relationship of the monarch and the UK government ( and the soft power of the monarchy) but I still can't figure out when you decide to have an election for a new prime minister. I've given up on that one.

So agree with this.

And all this behind closed doors stuff, never complain never explain, let's brief the media on something/anything to divert away from Andrew...all this gave us Andrew in the first place

If his parents have done a decent job of bringing him up, he’ll appreciate women’s football. Like most football fans with a couple of brain cells.

Spot on
LidlAmaretto

This is explained beautifully!

In 2025 it shouldn’t be necessary that our Head of State operates behind a wall of secrecy. All of the activities that a HofS carries out on behalf of UK involving tax payers money, should be accountable, traceable and above board.

This half-private, half-public income model allows all sorts of grey areas to develop. And off-shore accounts to flourish!

And the problem with the secrecy is that we all say collectively, “we trust that everything happening behind the wall is above board and correctly done”, but very often when a light is shone on a particular issue, something dubious emerges. And I think we are all losing that trust to some degree or another.

Also, as a pp mentioned down thread, the problem with having someone very very wealthy as head of state, means they can combine wealth and influence to suppress detrimental information emerging to a certain degree.

I think many of us were hoping and expecting that Charles would make huge changes, but for whatever reason, his age, or his state of health, he seems to be burying his head in the sand like his mother and maintaining the status quo.

And William and Catherine, similarly, haven’t quite grasped the nettle either. That is why Catherine not showing up is a big deal, as well as the other reasons stated about disappointing the players, because it’s indicative of the current state of play!

I do have some sympathy for individual members of the RF as I think they probably have less control than we assume they do, they didn’t necessarily choose this path in life, and being famous and recognisable is properly hideous, but they are compensated very well for that.

Someone needs to give the entire institution a big shake imho!

Liking women's football has zero to do with how you're brought up unless you want to brainwash someone into watching it while they have no agency or regard as to the reasons they were.

I general football fans don't really have a big interest in women's football. I get some men will watch it, usually only because they're told they need to watch it. The big question is, why would they want to watch it instead of watching a league match between men's teams. The women who play professional football are at the top of their game no doubt, but in terms of THE game they would struggle to beat a good high school boys team. I think it's great that women can get involved and play in a sport they love, but it's crossing the line to expect that everyone else has now got to be interested in it on a level they are the men's game when to put it bluntly, it's not as interesting.

I enjoyed watching the women's final against Spain, but the difference was that was more because it was a competition between nations and a big event rather than the quality of the football. It's certainly watchable, as is watching DS on a Saturday morning for his school, but it's not with the same peak interest that the professional men's game is, nor will it ever be.

I can't imagine Meghan being that happy to rock up at a Rugby match, on a cold Autumn afternoon, big puffa coat and thermals is not exactly the glamorous HIHO she had in mind!

To get back to your post LidlAmaretto

I think we are getting to the point where the monarchy regulating its own financial affairs and activities is no longer sufficient.

@Dustyhem952
Agree with you on that point. But given that previous governments and senior counsels have agreed to seal Andrew's TE records how will that ever happen.
As I said previously it's taken the Daily Mail and Sunday Mail to bring Ferguson's email to Epstein into the light of day. The RF seem to be hands off as far as the Establishment are concerned - and that will only continue to be the case when William and Kate assume the reins of head of state.

Agree it’s far from easy but we can but try!

Quite a few High court decisions have been overturned.

And we either believe that a monarchy should serve its people and not the reverse, and proceed on that basis, or we just give up and resign ourselves to the fact that nothing will ever change. We can lobby our MPs for a start!

Pretty sure you don’t need that stuff in the Hospitality boxes……,🤣

This is my feeling, it would have been wonderful if all the children had gone to support the team. It was an excellent match and I am only sorry I didn't manage to get tickets for the final or even for either of the match's held at the Amex. Fully sold out, how brilliant is that

Now, I don’t think that even if Harry comes back as a working royal /half in half out etc that Meghan will be joining him as a working royal.

But that said, why are posters suggesting she’d not be up for going to the women’s rugby World Cup final? That’s exactly the sort of thing she’d be up for! World stage, standing next to Canadian PM with him sucking up to her as she’s the more senior one, giving out medals and trophies, getting photographed/filmed being sympathetic with the losers and celebrating with the winners. She’d be all over that sort of thing.

I get annoyed when William turns up to Welsh matches - it's a total farce. No thanks.

Ok I’ve gone had a look- this week there are no engagements planned for Catherine. William has one on Wednesday. There’s nothing planned for next week.

for comparison- Edward has 10 things planned this week. 4 for next week.

I can quite believe it. They do a couple of engagements then seem to need 2 weeks off
This is what it's going to look like from now on I have no doubt

Depends on the ground, some boxes are seats in the stands rather than inside behind a glass screen.

I wasn't the one who first mentioned Meghan but the thought of it gave me a giggle.

But seriously I don't think Meghan will ever be back as a working Royal.
While H is with M I don't see any chance for him either. And even without her odds of him returning must be low.

William had two engagements today.

The Court circular doesn't list everything any member of the royal family does. I go by what is on their Instagram accounts, which isn't everything and I accept it might not be enough for their critics, but it is more reflective than the Circular is.

🙀🙀

The women’s rugby final was about as far from dull as you can get! Poetry in motion it was! 🤩

Agree though that W & C seem to be taking a different path. Risky strategy imho.

Same story, different day: they’re not going to do what you want them to do.

Most engagements for William and Catherine aren't announced in advance, likely for security reasons.

Today, William had two unannounced engagements: he met with the Crown Prince of Kuwait at Windsor Castle and held a meeting in Windsor.

Catherine will visit an airbase this week, an engagement that was announced last week.

Of all the things to get worked up about.......this is absolutely not one for me.

It is for me. If you cannot support women's sport as a woman and a royal patron, there is something seriously wrong

I think we are way beyond that point. But nothing has happened. QEII was a master at pretending to be frugal while stuffing loads of money in offshore accounts, turning a blind eye to her children hawking round the world for money and trying to claim money from the taxpayer (Windsor Castle, covid payments etc). It was under her that the Sovereign Grant was negotiated that can never go down and can never be discussed, instead of the civil list where the Royals were paid for work done. It's not a longstanding tradition.

Sovereign Grant can absolutely go down. Any money not used up in a financial year goes into a special overflow reserve.

If that overflow reserve fills up and is continuously at a certain point then the Sovereign Grant can be adjusted downwards.

The ‘never go down’ myth is because the SG is a percentage of the profit from the Crown Estate there is a safeguard in place to counter a potential year where the profit is so low that the SG percentage can’t cover the running costs needed.

As the bulk of the SG goes towards staff costs and pensions it protects the people who work for the Crown estates, as well as keeping the buildings running and maintained.

All is overseen and monitored by a government department.

The working members of the royal family get their official travel expenses paid from the SG but they don’t get ‘wages’ from it. The heir uses the Duchy of Cornwall money for his family. The monarch supports all other family members from the Duchy of Lancaster.