Further pr discussions with the lone gunman now in charge!

[jeffgoldblum]

im hoping that @Atlusvuewill not mind me continuing her work, I have a feeling that there is more to discuss and come!

Loooooooollllll😂

Invictus trying to put their own story out there?

https://royalappointment.telegraph.co.uk/p/please-dont-spoil-the-invictus-games

I see what you’re saying, Harry was the only direct line successor in his family after William, whereas Andrew, Edward and Anne would all have kept the direct line.

But the Spare is just the next one up. If there are no direct line successors then it goes to the next nearest, as happened with Queen Elizabeth. She was always going to be Edward VIII’s heir, because he had no children of his own.

The Spare is not special. They are just the first of many understudies.

That's true but when they are growing up next to the spare it is different - and I do see Harry's main point about this - although not his wider moaning about sausages.

For me the benefit of the monarchy system is potentially having a decent period of time for the heir to learn the ropes and practice many parts of the role before they have to do it - diplomatic engagements, dealing neutrally with political issues, knowing the constitutional rules, coping with high level meetings at home and abroad, being able to talk equally well to the dinner lady getting her MBE and the evil dictator that your government wants to get something from.

So the spare can't be completely ignored and set on a different life path until the heir has popped out a few spares of his/her own.

Charlotte will likely never be the monarch and possibly not even a working royal but the key will be giving her enough prep to make sure she's not floundering if something happens to George, balanced with enough freedom and support to find a successful career outside the royal family too.

Harry doesn't understand that being the "spare" is a meaningless title where the only way is down as only the heir and his family count.

Look at Princess Anne - she was the "spare" for the first 10 years of her life but is now down to 18th in the LoS.

It was also before COVID, and with the Queen in charge. There have been so many changes, other than a bit of funny gossip, I can't see she has anything.

'The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there'.

Quite possibly!

It seems – at least according to those speaking for him in the media – to have become another emotion-laden issue for Prince Harry.

Just like the argument for the King getting involved in his security battle, the appearance of the King at Invictus seems to have morphed into a test.

No matter that the late Queen Elizabeth II did not attend the inaugural London games in 2014

Never mind that the King and Queen Camilla don’t attend William’s Earthshot Prize or Catherine’s annual carol service.

And most damning,

The games cannot – cannot! – become about Harry’s security woes, or the King’s attendance. It should not, really, be about the Royal family at all.

This is where they always fail. They are meant to shine light on causes, not have causes beaming light on them.

Very well put!

It is an extra turnoff for Invictus, whose image is already suffering because of Meghan being front and center. The participants and the events have already suffered because of Harry’s drama and Meghan’s prime non role, and here we are again, interest is being further diluted by the PR battle o force the RF hand!!

If what the RF did to Meghan is so shocking and outrageous, why hasn't he told us all?

Nothing so far suggests he's held back, including talking about putting Elizabeth Arden cream where it shouldn't go and Will's circumcision.

I think all this PR is coming from the Sussex camp and yet again (as ever?!) the RF policy of never complain, never explain is serving them well.

I hope Invictus in Birmingham doesn't happen - given what the people of Birmingham have had to tolerate it seems really unkind to land that on them as well.

And yet that hasn’t held back her lifetime dedication to the role which has earned her authentic respect from the general public for her focused efforts quietly executed day in day out for half a century.

This is awful. We're not even there yet and it's all about Harry! It takes the focus away from the cause and it looks like Harry is using Invictus to promote himself and his number one cause - himself. It's appalling.

And just ignoring some very negative press for a few years for not playing along with the media.

Just as Sophie and Camilla have earned respect by not complaining, but just turning up and doing the unglamorous parts of the role.

This is classic H&M manipulation and triangulation efforts of the RF using the media to emotionally blackmail, paint them into a corner or smear them if they don’t comply with their wishes (which are only to seek the diminishing glow of royal adjacency to sell UPFs and other tat online).

The RF would do well to continue their dignified never explain never complain approach which has clearly worked to date.

They need to ignore the noise and demands of the tantruming toddlers. Pivot away and continue to focus on their own projects. Never wrestle with a pig.

H&M’s PR nonsense via the media is very transparent to all and has backfired on them time and time again. It’s incredible that they haven’t learned what damage they are doing day in day out to their own brand, reputation and credibility.

Never mind the sea of shit they will drag the poor participants of the IG and their loved ones through for their own sorry delusional agendas.

Michele Obama spoke up in the very early days of the H&M shenanigans and advised them directly and publicly to consciously redirect the focus on them to their causes. She knew what she was looking at and they should have considered her guidance.

IG would do well to reflect on the shocking exploitative and disruptive actions of MM monetising the Sentebale charity polo event solely for her personal $$$$ commercial benefit via NF. Again her pushing herself front and centre above the CEO and PH abuse of power trying to bully Sophie to issue a media statement absolving MM of her shabby behaviour. Then how that all escalated with global media blow up, CC investigation etc and the disasterous impact that had on the charity - whilst the two disrupters slithered away.

Inevitable though, wouldn't you say?

In fairness it's not Harry's fault if the media endlessly repeat his silly stories for clickbait, but then he doesn't have to spout them in the first place and could just focus instead on - what was it? - "showing up and doing good"

Unfortunately it's become clear he's not capable of that, and the only "good" he's interested in is his own, so we are where we are

There I would agree with you . But , I don't think she'll go quietly ( if it ever comes to that ) Whether that matters or not , different thing. She was, I agree in the RF for a blink of an eye and they've pretty much regurgitated all that. Which maybe why H wants more Royal fairy dust * over him because they have pretty much used up all of theirs

• deliberately didn't say sprinkles 😂

There's something familiar looking on here! Get them on Ali Baba for a dollar .

It does look terrific.

I agree with this point.

IMHO, the Invictus debacle reflects far more on the Trustees and the CEO than H. Over the past two games H has comprehensively demonstrated his complete narcissism where everything is about showcasing him. Neither Lord Allen nor Rob Owen can pretend that they are unaware about the red flags at Invictus.

IMHO, both Lord Allen and Rob Owen should hang their heads in shame for enabling H and failing in their duty to the veterans. The veteran community are not PR pawns to serve as background sets for H's PR games. These men need to grow a spine...they can look to Sophie Chandauka who faced down H and his Sussex Squad to prevent H from using Sentebale as a PR vehicle to serve his own ends.

You're not wrong, @My2cents1975 , but i've not seen the governing documents for Invictus and don't know what kind of arrangement Harry's got in his role of patron, or how easy it would be to remove him if they wished to

After what's happened elsewhere there seems no doubt at all that he's throw an epic tantrum - even possibly launch yet another court case - but after the opprobrium he's brought upon them I very much doubt his departure would be any great loss

Not - Anne has put in admirable service. But she never misunderstood her role nor did she run to the press bleating about not being "equally important" as Charles.

It probably helped Princess Anne that she had her own elite sporting career independently of the royal family and chose not to accept titles for her children.

Harry's children having titles strikes as utterly ridiculous, but I think this is partly because of their names. Archie isn't a chavvy name, but - for some reason - Prince Archie is. Lillibet is fine as a nickname, used by family only, but chav central as a given name, and Princess Lili just sounds stupid.
I cannot imagine how ridiculous those kids will feel growing up if anyone ever refers to them by their titles. They will be like the Instagram teenagers of overthrown European royal families, who still cling on to their titles while everyone else laughs at them.
Princess Anne was VERY wise.

Agree @BoudiccaRuled about as classy as Princess Andre.

BoudiccaRuled

Prince Archie is. Lillibet is fine as a nickname, used by family only, but chav central as a given name, and Princess Lili just sounds stupid.

I think it's because the names are diminutives (and, in Lili's case, a diminutive of somebody else's nickname).
That's why people use diminutives like "Chuck" and "Cam" to describe the King and Queen now and TLQ used to get called "Liz" by some: to make the idea of someone with a title sound "stupid".

And the reason it sounds ridiculous, is because, in general, royals don't use shortened forms of names with their titles, and "Chuck etc" are used in a "they're not special - look at me calling them by a diminutive" way.

Prince Harry works because we're used to Henry being shortened to Harry from Shakespeare's time.
Prince Archibald would have sounded better, imo, but presumably Harry wished to avoid use of that dreaded third syllable...

Did H have to consult HMQ about the names of his DCs like W and C had to?