H&M are currently doing a ‘Royal’ walkabout thing in Nottingham.

[SpottyAlpaca]

A crowd has turned out to see them. It’s currently being covered live on Sky News. Why on earth would anyone do this?

They aren’t working royals. They are just a pair of chancers who have scuttled back to Britain with their tails between their legs because they have died on their arses in the US. And now people are tugging their forelocks to them here.

People really are absolute fucking morons.

Well yeah. It's the sort of thing you might see from someone with advanced dementia. Or Don Quixote. But if they realise they've made a mistake and want their old job back, they need to apologise to their old boss and humbly ask for it back. Not just rock up and start doing it uninvited, smiling like maniacs while said boss keeps yelling "they're not with me" and changing all the locks. Are they going to turn up at the cenotaph too? At Trooping the Colour? Will the family come down to Christmas lunch and find them at table, still grinning psychotically and trying to convince everyone the whole Megxit thing was a dream, and they've been here the whole time? Weird, weird, weird.

That's just an odd fantasy of yours @OtherS Harry & Meghan have shown zero indication that they would turn up at official Royal Family events uninvited.

What they are doing is behaving as many many other people with a celebrity profile do, who need/want to make money and who want to publicly support charities, causes, businesses, people that they feel they share values with.

FFS - she is an elderly lady.

Why look down on her so. They clearly mean something to her. Don't sneer.

Oh let's twist again... like we did last summer...

Excellent twisting there @MadeInGrimsby - the elderly woman took the hand - there was no offer, no extention and as far as I could tell, no expectation!

Which other celebrities stage their own walkabouts? As I said, many celebrities do indeed publicly support charities, but I can't think of many who have crowds of people shipped in to give them flowers and kiss their hands while they do it? I also can't think of many who don't have an actual job - Angelina Jolie does loads for charity, but that's not actually her job... And I'm pretty sure she doesn't announce where she's going to be in advance so her adoring fans can line up outside to give her flowers, while she smiles serenely from behind metal barriers and a full security team! Which celebrities are you thinking about who do this?

You're right about them not turning up at official RF functions though, they're much more likely to start their own versions that just so happen to be on the same day...

No they haven’t actually had their titles taken away, whatever they do to Harry he is son of the monarch and will be brother of the monarch, and they are just as entitled to visit a grass roots charity that they have supported for a long time, as much as any other royal or celebrity. Good for them I say.

I wasn't talking about the elderly lady 🙄

Yes, and it's very important for them to assert their royal status and titles. Something they've obviously struggled with for the last 7 years

How do you define a walkabout?? Isn’t it just stopping to greet people who have come to see you? Most famous people do that - celebrities at film premieres, actors at stage doors, footballers at training grounds…stop and talk to the crowd, take selfies and sign autographs. It’s usually seen as rude not to.

Why does it matter? Seriously why? Or is it that the royals are jealous of the crowds they attract?

I am here for the shipping in!

I wonder who organized it? Are there any interviews with those who were shipped in, or would they be clobbered by the California Bar Association for breaking the NDAs?

Surely someone somewhere has a picture of the bus arriving, flowers and balloons being handed out, and so on.

By the way - Angelina Jolie has said on numerous occasions that her charity work is her real work; her acting pays for it.

The whole point of H&M, or any of the RF, taking on a charity is to raise the profile of it. Job done today -the visit is very well covered.

Why are you having such a conniption? Basically, two people talk to other people who are their fans, queue collective breakdown on Royal Family threads <<< the bells, the bells >>>>

I think some are really annoyed they haven’t lost their titles. I just don’t get it, have they made mistakes? yes, are they Fred & Rose West? no.

Harry and Meghan can't use the HRH. That really annoys them.

are they Fred & Rose West? no.

Or even Andrew M W?

But perhaps, that is the reason? If the focus is on them, the very very bad can be hidden...

Nobody cares about their titles. That is what royal supporters never understand. They were the same about Diana, as if removing her titles would make her less popular. It didn't of course although it did upset her.

Yep as @SereneFinch say pretty much every celebrity that there is.

There are even, gasp, conventions where celebs all gather and announce their attendance in advance so that fans can line up and meet them!

Bbbbuut they are not royals. How dare they!

No. They have been entirely consistent.

H&M wanted to serve and do charity work from the start and made that clear.

The RF were too hide bound to work with them so they could do royal duties and some private projects so they decided to leave the country. They kept up their charity projects during that time and are doing the same now they are back.

This whole half-in and half-out objection is all nonsense if you ask me. H&M were just more honest about it.

Of course Charles and William are “above all of that sort of thing” because they benefit from the income from the Duchies which each make around £21 million in profit a year. The Duchies are in fact corporations but are not taxed as such.

Yes some members of the RF work hard but none of them work that hard. They cluster their appearances together eg Trooping the Colour, Ascot, garden parties and then have long, long weeks away on holiday in between appearances.

And they receive massive perks eg chauffeurs, maids, cleaning staff, chefs, personal doctors, stylists, a huge number of homes if you are the main players, admin staff, couture clothes. They receive special deals from the firms who work with them via the royal warrant scheme eg Range Rover and Fortnums and many more. If that’s not half in and half out, I don’t know what is?

They're not particularly popular, though, and not being able to use HRH annoys Harry because it means he can't claim to be a working royal who represents the King. The fact he tried to get HRH written on his kids' passports in the hope that this would make it possible for them to be working royals in the future shows that he is deeply panicked over this and understands that the implications are serious for his kids (all his own fault, of course).

Meghan still refers to herself as HRH in private correspondence.

What serving and charity work do Harry and Meghan do?

"How do you define a walkabout?? Isn’t it just stopping to greet people who have come to see you? Most famous people do that - celebrities at film premieres, actors at stage doors, footballers at training grounds…stop and talk to the crowd, take selfies and sign autographs. It’s usually seen as rude not to."

Quite. They're AT WORK, doing their actual job. They don't set up their own red carpets with a huge security detail and metal barriers when they're off-duty, then tell all their fans where they're going to be! H&M could very easily have made the same visit quietly and discreetly, without any prior announcement. But of course then the focus might have been on the charity rather than on them.

They donated money to the charities they visited today and helped to raise their profile.

Not sure about the lining up, but are you saying H&M are just like celebrities? But, they want to be public figures.

@BunnyBunbunbun Andrew still uses his titles in private

Self-serving and charity that begins at home? 🤷‍♀️