HaM PR disasters 43: AI crashes but amethyst flashes

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Hope no-one minds that I started this one...

Continuing the saga of Sussex PR disasters.

He’s getting a massive roasting on X. This will follow him forever. He’s just a rent a gob, the worst of it is he’s not even a good orator, he’s not got a nice voice, no expression. He brings nothing to the table except the title from a family he left.

He is a dreadful speaker (so TBF is William). Monotone, staccato...I was watching the re-run of The Day The Queen Died at the weekend and had to mute the TV when they played Harry reading from Spare.

To misquote Churchy:
Never in the field of royalty was so much squandered by so few in the eyes of so many*

*Other more despotic monarch-adjacent royals are available but my point here is that I feel sad that HaM in 2018 had the world at their feet and so much opportunity for good in the UK and elsewhere and basically threw it all away

He’s doing his best to look royal, and if you discount his actual performance and behaviour at these ‘engagements’ it’s sort of working. Superficially there isn’t a lot of difference between Harry visiting a school and W+C visiting Bute. But he’s just not as good at it, and the coverage that he craves just exposes his inadequacies. And when there are proper royal moments like glitzy film premieres, remembrance, the carols and the walk to church on Christmas morning, he won’t be there. No doubt he will try to arrange a way to deflect - we had to decline our invitation from Tom Cruise because Harry was in NY - we couldn’t go to the Cenotaph because Harry already had a commitment to [insert name of regiment whose band you can hire] - we couldn’t make it to Sandringham this year because we were back in California. But everyone will know it’s because he’s not really one of them.

The awkward cough interrupting the silence 🥺

Did it take the school a few days to put up that appreciation post?

I wouldn’t be surprised it was pressure from the Sussex’s, via Invictus to post publicly about it after the backlash , the no comment posts are,a typical playbook of the Sussex’s, which lends more credibility to it being requested by the Sussex camp, probably written by them too.

He seems to want to piggyback on other royal activities, like shoehorning ‘early years’ into Invictus and this latest speech just after KC3’s AI event. It’s an idea that probably looked good on paper because these causes already have an association with royalty, but it just makes his relative incompetence so much more obvious. KC3 convening a summit with representatives from government and the big AI developers vs Harry’s load of old waffle that he can’t even deliver without autocue.

I often have a little disagreement with the republicans when they say the royals don't do any work, quote their working hours as the time they are at each public event, ignoring prep and travel time and say they just turn up, shake hands, read from a script and go away again. Some are quite convincing and I wonder if my fondness for the idea of a constitutional monarchy clouds my vision.

Watching Harry removes my doubts and adds weight to my view, there is background work, even if it is just attending briefings' and memorizing facts and information about the places the visit and the people they meet. Because the difference between an informed guest and and ignorant guest is quite obvious.

Aaagh, that’s cringe. He didn’t know what to do.

How does a physical teleprompter work when he is walking around, I have only seen them at lecturns, was it an earpiece teleprompter ?

Who were the audience in NYC? I'm sure they are furious after listening to this clown who so obviously had no idea what he is talking about. Has absolutely no interest in the subject whatsoever and looks bored and angry

Sometimes on big screens at the back of the hall.

TV presenters often have a set of cards to hand as a backup in case the prompter fails, especially if it’s live. They also tend to be able to ad lib well, but need to deliver what’s in the script.

I’m guessing AI wrote his speech.

So had people paid for the NY gig?

Will they get a refund if so?

That would be preferable to it being re scheduled I would have thought.

Possibly his waffly walking-around speeches are less dependent on autocue, because they have very little actual content.

But a speech about AI would require heavy use of autocue, because H has no real knowledge of the subject.

Which begs the question: why was he invited to speak about it in the first place? Just because he's famous? Would anyone be hiring (random example) Gemma Collins to be giving a speech on AI? And why would Harry accept a job giving a speech about something he knows nothing about?

I think the reasons are:

• Both Harry and the event organisers are grossly underestimating how much prep work is normally done by the RF and their staff. They are used to the RF turning out a good, reliable, appropriate end product (e.g. KC3's recent speech on AI). But Harry can't do this without doing the work AND having the RF scaffolding propping him up.

• Harry is under pressure to make money and to appear in public doing something that looks superficially similar to what the RF do. Appearances seem to be everything to HAM. Appearances are all they have, because the substance isn't there.

And so we see the increasingly empty and embarrassing public appearances.

Here is a sweet nod to @theduchessoftwatt who I don’t think is on this thread yet. Some ideas in case any of you are thinking of a name change.

Yes & why were none of Doria's side at the wedding either? So many unanswered questions that need digging up.
It was just such a weird wedding in comparison to W&Ks.. a massive massive wedding yet the bride only has her mother?
And her suits "besties" didn't even get an invite to the evening part..

Gemma Collins would be better value for money as she would be able to ad lib herself out of that mess.

I agree that Harry’s pisspoor performances at engagements do rather undermine the argument that the other royals do no preparation. Unless people are suggesting that Harry is just not very good at something all the other royals seem to manage pretty well.

I actually think you're right there. I only picked her as a random "famous for being famous, no expertise in AI" name. But she could give a prewritten speech just as well - probably better - and she certainly wouldn't just walk offstage if the autocue failed.

I think the message is we are not going anywhere. Doesn't matter how ridiculous we look as long as we are seen. H thinks he's playing a blinder at these gigs. He has absolutely no self awareness

I think both can be true to an extent - there is a lot of work behind attending events and going to fancy dinners and making hours of small talk where you try to sound interested is definitely work even if a different kind to toiling for hours at a coal face. But also I think William is not putting in the hours when you compare him to Princess Anne.

Has H issued his October diary yet ?

Because they might divulge some unsavoury facts about the bride? That’s the only reason that makes any sense to me.
I suspect there are many skeletons in cupboards where she’s concerned.

We was introduced with his full CV " PH, doook of Sussex " It's so evident how important these titles are