PR Disasters Part X

[AtIusvue]

For all Meg and Harry PR shenanigans

I agree. We'd never know that this discussion was had but for Trump mouthing off and the Daily Mail gossiping. This isn't good enough. Which is why I have been saying that the UK government and the various Ambassadors/High Commisioners needs to say it out loud on each of these stupid tours of his: Harry Windsor represents nobody but himself. And the king needs to take Harry and his wife off the bloody website!

there’s zero mention of Archewell philanthropies

You have to wonder what there might be to say about an increasingly blatant grift,

I do see your point , but I take comfort in that British officials were straight out of the trap in emphasising it. I suspect that is why Trump seemed pretty dismissive of H. I hope the message was belt and braces rather than having to persuade senior US officials . Whichever, I hope it has scotched for the future any idea that H speaks in any way for UK policy or the UK in general.

Thank you x

Rob Shuter's Substack today is saying Sussex insiders are saying they did not watch the king's speech and have no intention of doing so. That's the international relations graduate (apparently), and the bloke who was mouthing off about Ukraine the other day, not being interested in the very speech that may ensure Ukraine gets the help it needs.

“They didn’t watch it. Not live, not later, not at all,” one insider says. “Once upon a time, that would have been unthinkable. Now it makes the point for them.”
And that point was clear: the distance is no longer symbolic. It is real.
Harry and Meghan have also not spoken to King Charles while he is in the USA and, despite past efforts to repair the rupture, insiders say there are no plans for contact and no expectation of a meeting.
“There is no relationship right now,” one source says. “No calls. No messages. No outreach. No backchannel. It has gone completely cold.

Yes and Archie and Lili will drift into obscurity like David Armstrong Jones (now 26th in LoS) and Sarah Chatto (29th) unless they chose the nepo kid route.

A lot is forgiven when you are on the ground doing good (paraphrasing) wtf does this mean ???

I was born in the 1960s and remember Princess Margaret as a working Royal - but she was always the old-school kind of royal who turned up to cut the ribbon/unveil the plaque and then left. I never really felt that she had a deeper involvement in the places she visited.

However she must have been constantly sloshed as she started drinking at noon with a vodka "pick me up" and then continued with whiskey, gin and wine ....

Was Guy Pelly once Harry’s good friend ?

"That [Australia] trip was the final break," a source tells us. "The palace saw it as confirmation they are fully out. Harry and Meghan saw it as proof they no longer need the institution".

TBF David Armstrong Jones's intricate business ups and downs make for some interesting reading.

Sarah Chatto (unusually for a royal) seems to have kept her nose clean.

Have just found the Princess Margaret daily routine, which I remember reading a while back! (image attached) It was obviously a very privileged lifestyle, but honestly, I'd rather just go to work and know what I had to do in any given day.

He seems to be - yet ironically he funded their faux Royal tours to Nigeria/Columbia and that Ukraine event where Harry spoke last week

It's a bit uncomfortably reminiscent of Edward VIII and Wallis accepting funding from the Nazis to set up an alternative royal court post-abdication - including a faux royal tour of Germany in 1937 and accepting Nazi security during WWII.

In other words they couldn’t stand to see what a huge success the State visit has been so they are pretending it’s not happening, plus the public embarrassment of not being on the guest list at a state dinner in honour of Harry’s father, The King, in the country where they reside, total humiliation.

That’s actually really sad - them feeling they needed to get a spokesperson out there to essentially say “Are we bovvered?”

(also , sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the summary of Margaret’s day is from Darling Ma’am, and is sadly fictional…😀)

But the connections to the Institution is all they have, they literally have nothing else to offer and they know it, otherwise they would have dropped the titles for themselves and their children but they will cling onto them with every breath in their bodies. The clock must be ticking really loudly for them now, they are totally out, it will be panic stations in their war room, those multiple mortgages need paying.

They could have given a gracious response. Pa gave a wonderful speech, did UK proud etc but no. How utterly bitter and vile

I watched the speech and like your DH was surprisingly moved by it. KC delivered it well and the speech was extremely well written so hats off to the men in grey suits. The royals clearly have a much better team than Government officials as Kier couldn't deliver that type of speech.

Churlish of PH to say they wouldn't watch it, however reflects how painful it is to realise that had he gone to America, behaved himself he might have now been moving in the right circles.

There was a time M was considered popular enough to run for presidency..how far they have fallen

Sweet Jesus, I remember the presidency idea. Anything's possible. They are so deluded, they probably think it's still a runner

It's actually from 'Ma'am Darling' and is not fictional.

Thank you @BemusedAmerican - I thought so, but it's good to have it confirmed from someone who's there.

I think the Sussexes have decided or been advised to simply rip up the rule books - the Sandringham agreement, whatever conventions and etiquettes apply to the royals wrt commercially selling themselves and the Nolan Principles on conduct in public life. Rip them up, say they no longer apply to them and that they are royal in their own way. This will work as long as there are governments, influential people and institutions willing to accept them as these alternative royals with a commercial/self promotion agenda. And as long as the media continue to be fascinated by their next move and give them oxygen.

I don't see their nonsense stopping anytime soon. All the RF can do is make it clear they are not representing the monarch, whether that's in words or symbolically through the website. I am hoping Charles's superb show in the US continues, and gives him a renewed sense of purpose and the confidence to stand up to his son and his wife. The Invictus one year to go shebang in July will be a massive test for all concerned. The Sussexes doing a similar tour to Australia in the UK will really be a massive two fingers up to the working RF and everything they stand for.

Charles is obviously intelligent and speaks well. His speech was well -written. It is a big contrast to the speeches from our current administration.

I enjoyed Ma’am Darling and Craig Brown had undoubtedly done a fair bit of research so plenty of factual stuff. But that timetable is obviously fiction. Out of the bath at 12 noon and downstairs for a pre-lunch vodka by 12:30??? She would clearly spend more time on her hair and makeup before getting dressed and going downstairs. 😉

They won't stop unfortunately. I think they going the same route as Diana. Didn't she lose all her titles ? But she continued her work and she did a huge amount of good but always made a point that she was not a political figure. Diana's attraction was her star power magnetism. She was a fantastic public figure and was very open about her flaws and was very human.

P&H are incredibly dull, zero charisma and lack basic intelligence/ wit. I don't see how they can get this faux royal grift to last tbh