I don’t often feel sorry for the King…

[CurlewKate]

…but bloody hell, I hope he’s got a crack writer’s room for this year’s Christmas Message! I wonder who might be up for it?

Good point. If nothing else there will probably be a record audience to hear what he has to say about it all.

I mean, where do you start !

First. Source your gold piano. Who had it last?

I STILL can’t get over him being called the King. It sounds so strange. I’m just so used to him being Prince Charles.

He has some wise contacts, I believe. The Dean of Windsor is a sound chap who’ll have a good sense of perspective.

The late Queen, I'm assuming with her speech people, was pretty good at striking the right note. Let's hope Charles has inherited that. If I were him I'd ignore the disgraced elephant and concentrate on people he has met during the year who do amazing work for others.

No! He should refer to what has happened. Not mention HIM by name of course but the family has to own this. They should not try to sweep this under the carpet again. But I agree there are lots of people whose good works and/or bravery should be mentioned too.

I'd be mentioning allllllll the Queen's work with survivors of abuse, for one.

What is he going to say though that hasn't already been made clear in his statement? I don't want the King's speech to be all about Andrew, which is what the press will do if he mentions him. I want it to focus on people who deserve attention.

Yes, and Sophie's. They have both visited some fantastic places this year, both here and abroad.

He doesn’t have to say a lot but not to mention anything at all would be a mistake in my opinion. And let’s face it the press would still go on about him not mentioning it

He doesn’t need to even refer to it directly. Maybe something about it’s been a year of difficult decisions etc. As you say the Queen often said a lot without saying much ! Recollections may vary ….

I believed it would be better for him to focus on support available for the victims rather than highlight the perpetrator. Having said that i agree that the press will go after him whatever he says. I like the idea above of focusing on the work the Queen and Sophie do in this area. They have been quietly supporting charities for years and rarely get any press coverage, even when Sophie take part in international conferences it is ignored.

Maybe he'll reminisce about his good friend Jimmy Saville. Or explain why he tried to cover up what his brother was doing.

Its not being swept under the carpet anymore!

I don't see why it has to fit it in to ten mins or however long it is to appease the frothing masses when he has so many other personal issues including cancer.

ChatGPT

Encore Annus Horribilis.

He won’t allude to the debacle with Andrew. He’s not going to admit the Queen covered anything up or he knew anything about Andrew’s misbehaviour. I would actually prefer to hear about good things the Royal Family have done to justify their existence.

“The frothing masses”??

Speaking as a “frothing mass” I think he can’t ignore all the shit. Particulary if he thinks, which I’m pretty sure he does, that there’s more to come. Even if it’s something about “challenging decisions”.
As an aside, I’m going to petition for FM to become a standard Mumsnet abbreviation exclusively for use on Royal Family threads….

Yes, Sophie's visit to Sudan and listening to those absolutely horrific stories of the sexual violence against women and children was something else.
That report made for very difficult reading.

The thing is, he doesn't tend to talk about his family, as such. The Christmas following the Coronation he spoke of the people attending who had contributed so much to society. He tends to focus on what people are doing which is positive, rather than the negatives.
It's not like some awful round robin about his family.
He's speaking as Head of State.

Wouldn’t the Christmas address have been filmed weeks ago?

Yes, I think so.

He has addressed it to the world via a public statement and stripping of titles.