William denounced as "workshy" due to lack of royal engagements he performs

[SpaEnjoyer]

I read this article in the DM which was originally brought to my attention by my MIL, who has a very keen interest in goings-on involving the RF.

'His absences have not gone unnoticed': Norman Baker asks when 'workshy William' is going to step up https://mol.im/a/15908021

I must admit I was surprised to learn that William has attended fewer events than KC and Anne over the last 3 years. I agree with the sentiment that he needs to step up to ease the burden on his father.

The point though is that there are legitimate criticisms and discussions to be had about the monarchy and whether it still works for the country, around the need for greater transparency and clarity in royal finances, to name two. Accusing William of being work shy purely based on how many engagements he had in the court circular, is a flawed argument based on partial data and I expect more from Norman Baker.

Well exactly @MrsLeonFarrell
id welcome a robust, thought provoking, grown up discussion. But clearly we aren’t going to get it here.

To be fair many people find history of art intolerably boring not difficult as such. If anything I’d think Geography may be more challenging intellectually and more interesting to those not naturally art buffs.

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Something somewhere, is going on, as a lot of odd threads at the moment on these boards.

Why does something need to be going on in order to discuss William?

Apart from the ones he doesn’t go to of course, when he gets heavily criticised for not bothering.

You won’t get that on the Royal Board! particularly if you have anything negative to say about W & C.

Yes remember the criticism on here when he didn’t travel to Australia for the women’s World Cup final, if he had gone the usual suspects would have complained about that 🙄

@BridgetJonesV2 what exactly is wrong with Harry?

I think its a shame that PW doesn't get seen more. when he does stuff like surprising this charity walker, it means so much to the person.

I don't think it helps discussion to go on about 'the usual suspects' or saying 'there's something going on' and this thread is 'odd'.

We are not all huge fans of William and are at liberty to criticise his work record. That's what forums are for! It's not something dodgy for there to be differences of opinions!

Unfortunately, Republic just don’t seem to be able to put forward a coherent structure, a reassurance of better governance, and most importantly, a costed plan for the UK’s future without a monarchy and with an elected head of state every 5 (or whatever period) years. Character assassination is their best line of attack, because it speaks to the basic envy many people feel about anyone better off than they are. The notion that there will suddenly be greater equality if we get rid of the RF is pretty dim imo.

However, greater transparency and a reduction in dead weight within the RF is probably more palatable to most of the public (who, judging by the polls, has a high opinion of William and a decreasingly good one of republic) than another Brexit style balls up. And I can see that very much happening in the future. Let’s face it: we have the most republican friendly government we have ever had right now. If they aren’t doing away with the monarchy, I doubt whatever right wing horror comes in next will be.

It is the scurrilous Daily Mail latching onto something and trying to make it a 'thing'. See also 'Waity Katie' which they flogged to death for a while and never got off the ground.

The comments on that article are interesting, almost 4,000 comments with the highest rated comments being supportive of William, the worst rated comments are the ones that bring up Harry coming back as a working Royal.

it does seem to reflect the polls with William and Catherine having the support of the majority of the British public.

I think the PP may be referring to the less than convincing criticisms against William on this thread.

And in the article actually:

he doesn’t do enough ribbon cutting, when William has been saying for years that he wants to do less of that and spend more time on bigger projects

he didn’t go to church in Windsor at Easter more than a year ago, but the Easter service isn’t an official engagement, it’s a family one, so nothing to do with work / laziness

he put his family first instead of going to Jimmy Carter’s funeral

but he doesn’t put his family first because he works too hard: “He generates phone calls, texts and WhatsApp messages to Duchy staff on almost a daily basis, even bombarding them at weekends. He insists on receiving a weekly report from the Duchy's secretary.”

So - he is both too lazy and too hardworking. He is doing what he said he wanted to do wrt to ribbon cutting. He celebrated Easter in the wrong place last year. It’s not exactly convincing, I’m surprised that anyone is falling for such weak journalism, apparently because it’s based on things Norman Baker thinks, and he used to be an MP?

And then surprise surprise, up pops Harry. The next bit tells us apropos of nothing that 56 per cent of US adults have a positive view of him. Seems very odd and nothing to do with William’s work arrangements in the UK, what could possibly be happening there? 🤔

Then on this thread we have people saying he can hardly read, someone basing their opinion about whether art history or geography is more difficult solely on which way William switched (but they didn’t know), the Waleses despise each other apparently, and still no evidence for laziness beyond the number of engagements - which we knew already was the plan - and “he’s a lazy sod”’ type comments.

Norman Baker is not a journalist. He’s not impartial on this subject, he works with Republic and has an agenda. So he uses stats for 2024, forgetting to mention that was the year William’s wife was being treated for cancer. He uses non attendance at a private family event as evidence of laziness at work. He doesn’t mention that we all knew there would be less ribbon cutting. Why not use convincing data if William is so awful - makes you think maybe there isn’t any tbh.

The DM is not impartial either of course. This is not Watergate style brave journalism: William is bad, William is bad, William is bad, 56% of US adults have a positive view of Harry 🤦‍♀️

Excellent post @noonames 👏🏾

Just catching up on the gossip.

In reference to William being thick because he changed courses at Uni. Its an odd one Uni for a Royal. They don't need for career progression. Especially an heir. His promotions are guaranteed. So going to Uni is purely for the experience. Who he meets, learning social stuff. The degree is irrelevant. So he needed to simply chose the one he would enjoy most. That may have changed when he got there.

There are also many ways of displaying intelligence. My best friend from school failed their GCSEs not academic at all. But builds the most beautiful functional houses. My room mate at University is quite possibly the most academically intelligent person I know. Is now a top medical consultant in a difficult field. But they have no clue how to interact with people, zero emotional and social intelligence.

It tends to be a general put down that the Royals and thick. But look at what KC did in America. That speech was brilliant, it takes a degree of the correct type of intelligence to be able to do that. I don't want my Royals to be rocket scientists. I want them to be able to connect with people in some way from every level of society. To represent my country with dignity and strength. Which KC did.

William hasn't been given much of a chance yet, he's only been the direct heir for a short while and during that time KC needs all the lime light to establish himself as King following QE2s very long and very successful reign. Once I start seeing speeches being made I will decide if William is fit for the job or not. But so far, he has not put a foot wrong, the only criticism is that he is work shy and boring. But he needs to be boring, the crown provides the bling, the man or woman behind the crown needs to be as neutral/invisible as possible.

Everyone comments on the strange way royal children are brought up which puts the out of touch with reality. William and Catherine are trying to change that, but they get criticism for that too. In the next few years William will need to be as visible and as busy as Prince Charles was at the same time of life - but not necessarily in the same way.

Harry confirmed your point, it wasn’t his decision on what he did and didn’t do, he complained the work was decided for them, he spoke about one important trip he really didn’t want to do but he was ‘made’ to go.

I think Charles is relishing his role as King, I think the last thing he wants is to be seen as an infirm King, I don’t think he wants to be seen to be handing over the reins just yet.

It's quite infuriating when people don't understand cancer treatment and make up something so dismissive about her experience.

"Preventative chemotherapy" is simply another term for adjuvant chemotherapy—chemotherapy given after surgery to destroy any microscopic cancer cells that may remain and reduce the risk of the cancer returning. It is chemotherapy for cancer.

She underwent six months of chemotherapy, which was confirmed by the Royal Marsden, one of the UK's leading cancer hospitals, in both a written statement and interviews.

You have no idea what type or stage of cancer she had. The whole point of adjuvant chemotherapy is to stop the cancer from returning or progressing to advanced disease. It is given so you don't end up terminal or at death's door.

So claiming she didn't have it hard is completely unfounded. Six months of chemotherapy is hard, regardless of the stage.

People like you should be ashamed of yourselves.

And then surprise surprise, up pops Harry. The next bit tells us apropos of nothing that 56 per cent of US adults have a positive view of him.

Of course he chose not to mention that Harry polls behind William in the US, William is more popular in the US than Harry is, despite Harry being a permanent resident, married to an American and despite all the US media pursuing Harry and Meghan do.

I think that article is a big damp squib when you really look into the storyline they are trying to present.

@noonamespretty much all of the stories we read about the Royals are in the gutter press though. You can think William is ineffective and workshy and not be a fan of Harry. I don’t believe William is thick though, very few people are.

He is workshy.

He has a young family. Really? I hadn’t noticed 😃and I do understand they they want to protect their children from the ills of society, as do most of the under 40 working parents in the country. What most people don’t have though is a band of trusted people who can pick up the slack at a moments notice, ensure that there is always food in the fridge, clean uniform ready, PE kit packed, back ups for school drop off , clubs and play dates, someone to supervise homework, they don’t have to spend time working out how to use annual leave to cover sickness or school,closures for teacher training or school holidays. Unlike many parents W and C working life doesn’t involve shift work, they get taken to wherever they are going without worrying about motorway holdups, cancelled trains, they don’t have to pay for car parking, bus fares, train fares or worry that their ancient old banger will break down. And when they get to work they don’t have to work with Ian with the BO, Janet with the annoying laugh, they don’t have to fight for a hot seat work spot, listen to other people wittering on about the same thing they were wittering on about yesterday. They don’t have to do 1to 1 with their manager, worry about restructuring, produce reports to a deadline, find that once again some bastard has pinched their milk or yogurt from the fridge.

I don’t envy them their goldfish bowl life, and I sympathise with Catherine’s illness, but to describe their “working life” as parents as though it compares to the working life of most working parents is ridiculous. It isn’t the same, and although it might have its own stresses it doesn’t have the issues to deal with that most of us have experienced when trying to juggle home and work commitments. I do get annoyed, can’t you tell, with the implication always made that they are just the same as other couples with three kids, they just wear better clothes.

Great post and agree with everything you have said.

I agree - just pointing out that this article doesn’t actually provide any evidence that William is lazy - it uses Norman Baker’s biased opinions to slag him off before saying how popular Harry is (in the US, presumably because his rating here is so poor). All just ahead of Harry bringing his family over in an attempt to get back in with the RF. It seems pretty transparent to me.

No doubt WildAid - a charity W is an ambassador for - were delighted to be selected in 2023 from the very many applications we're assured flood in to ES annually.

Earthshot's most recent accounts show a spend of some £24m in the pursuit of awarding the headline £5m in prizes. Staff costs alone were £5m.

It's hard to see it as anything else but a vanity project and/or a PR campaign on behalf of a man noted for environmental hypocrisy.