Ham pr disasters 53! …..how low will they go? …we all hope not that low!

[jeffgoldblum]

Well we have had the attempted upstaging of the Welsh senate …..now the Oman state visit….we all hope that whatever advisors that they still have will not allow any thing to interfere with Aberfan! 🤞

Maybe Diana’s sat nav is faulty 😆

From Tommy Lascelles' diary - a meeting with Stanley Baldwin, the PM, discussing Edward VIII as PoW:

In his little sitting room I told him that, in my considered opinion, the Heir Apparent, in his unbridled pursuit of wine and women, and of whatever selfish whim occupied him at the moment, was going rapidly to the devil, and unless he mended his ways, would soon become no fit wearer of the British Crown.
'I expected to get my head bitten off but Baldwin heard me to the end, and after a pause, said he agreed with every word I had said.
'I went on: "You know, sometimes when I sit in York House waiting to get the result of some point-to-point in which he is riding, I can't help thinking that the best thing that could happen to him, and to the country, would be for him to break his neck."
"God forgive me," said S.B. "I have often thought the same."

I think Diana would have been a comforting cushion for Harry in his role as spare. She would have known his faults & how to advocate for him when he was younger. Losing her was catastrophic for him. Even if she’d re-married, moved to the US, he would have been closer to the Diana side once William was on his pathway to King.

William lost his mother too, of course. But marrying Catherine was key to him. Even KC didn’t have the opportunity to marry the woman he loved (until he could, after everything…). Harry married in haste, that’s for certain. He had gone out with a few nice girls but MM really caught his attention. All the excitement & glamour…

It’s all turned to dust now, quite sad really.

Yes, I've read that detail from Lascelles's diary befrore, @SqueakyDinosaur, though I don't recall which book it was in

Let's just say it came as no surprise ...

I remember one of the Nottingham articles I read made this point. That Meghan dressed up to the nines in very expensive clothing, trying to awkwardly chat to children in a very deprived area of Nottingham who were dressed in scuffed trainers etc, conjured a very old-fashioned image of a wealthy woman dispensing charity to the poor.

I wonder how our box rooms compared to the one at Balmoral!

Honestly, I know it's annoying but that's just life as the youngest or the only one of your sex when there are more kids than bedrooms.

Just goes to show how much the RF need to be managed by MIG. A bit like Yes, Minister! This direction is what HAM are sorely missing… Much as they hated it at the time!

From Tommy Lascelles' diary - a meeting with Stanley Baldwin, the PM, discussing Edward VIII as PoW:

You have to read that in the context that Lascelles really, really did not like Edward as a person or a prince/future king.

Yes, I've read a lot of comments over the last few days saying things like "we want the old Harry back" and "wouldn't it be great to get the old Harry back".
But the thing is, I don't believe 'the old Haz' ever really existed, I think he's always been an unpleasant piece of work, it was just well hidden from us all by the MIGS.(doing a sterling job btw)

This is the sort of thing I meant about the inadequacy, Lunde

In fairness I'm sure many of us would struggle on joining such an institution, but it's not as if guidance wasn't available, and anyone with a half decent upbringing - or even a little basic common sense - might be expected to avoid some of Meghan's worst mistakes

Unfortunately she clearly had/has neither, and here we are

H bleating on about "endless play dates" with friends and family? What family ? Maybe Spencers?

The big problem is that Meghan wants to be a celebrity more than she wants to be a duchess. When Grace Kelly married Rainier III, it was a whole new life for her.

Had MM embraced the role, she’d now be in the “powerful woman” position she coveted. Somewhat… Her other problem was that she’d want to be seated next to Michelle Obama at a state banquet, not some random ambassador’s wife.

I’ve always maintained that the baby shower was a turning point for QE2 when MM’s true Kardashian colours were shown.

@FancyKitten what happened at the baby shower?

Being a royal duchess as it is, wasn't an appropriate role for Meghan. I'm not surprised she lasted such a short time.

To be fair, he wasn't a likable person. Nor was his wife.

MM & her glamorous girl crew hired a plush suite at a NYC hotel for a big, bold baby shower, ahead of Archie’s birth. It was all very SATC, MM was papped throughout her stay in the city, in varying fabulous outfits. The party itself was splashed everywhere. Including expensive gifts being delivered to the hotel, in the least discreet fashion. It was very OTT. The antithesis of the RF. So brash!

I’m very sure stern words were had with MM. Maybe even directly from the boss lady.

Poor woman, she couldn't leave the house and they took her passport...oh, wait...

It’s certainly no coincidence that Harry loathes the MIGS, they probably had a hard time trying to cover up his drug , alcohol, nightclubbing antics.
I too think he was probably a yobbish, hooray Henry type who didn’t give a damn about anyone else and that KC struggled to engage with him because his behaviour was so alien to him.

I think what all their missteps during the Nottingham visit show is that there is a LOT of preparation that goes into being a working royal and conducting successful royal visits. HaM weren't actually interested in the people they met or the work they are doing, they were using them to generate (what they hoped would be) positive headlines for themselves and content for whatever piece of self-serving shit television they're working on.

So they rocked up with minimal preparation or briefing. They hadn't thought about the kinds of questions they might get from the public who'd been hastily rustled up by their minders, or how to answer them without showing how utterly out of touch they are. The way Meghan behaved, it was clear that in her head this was The Meghan Show, all eyes on her as she flitted around the room bestowing a touch or a smile, then taking the lead and showing what an inspiration she is while filling food donation bags. It was all utterly insincere, but in her mind she's the star and can do no wrong.

As for scruffy Harry, he was bored and out of practice with doing these things and it showed. Old Harry used to be praised for being fun and charming, but new Harry was just going through the motions. This visit was all about them, not the charities, and that's the difference between two self-interested narcissists doing a visit and real working royals doing a visit. The one is about you and your work, the other is all about them.

Wrt KC3s health:
He knighted his dr in his NYH list - hepatic specialist. So, its likely pancreatic or liver 😕
KC3 has every right to privacy on his health.
I like that he has spoken about men checking for prostate cancer.
I think the SS hounding of C whilst she was undergoing surgery is unforgivable.

You'd have thought that H might have learned a thing or two from watching his father working late , preparing and briefing himself and doing the groundwork. Charles had genuine interest in the issues he was working on and the people he met. Prince Philip also put a lot of effort in with the Duke of Edinburgh etc. He surely knows what's required but seems to have amnesia. As for M, she's a total phoney.

Double the width of my bed IIRC.

Either that or she is someone else who he'd be estranged from at this point! I don't think Harry wanted to listen to anyone when it came to Meghan and if Diana had been alive these past 30 years she wouldn't be this sainted person who died at the tragically young age of 36. I honestly think Harry would still have chosen Meghan.

But then, if Diana had lived I suspect Harry would be quite a different person and maybe he'd never have been attracted to someone as brazen and fame-hungry as MM.

I have 3 DB's and, if there was enough food for second servings to be offered, they always were asked first and I rarely got seconds. And my portion was always smaller to begin with as DM thought boys needed more food than girls.

I can honestly say that this hasn't caused me any issues - it's something, when the subject comes up, that I laugh about. Of all the negative things that can happen to children in childhood, having a smaller bedroom or one less sausage at breakfast time are things which should come near the bottom of the list.

I doubt if there are many of us who couldn't come up with some negative aspects of an otherwise happy childhood but, of course, H is a prince so expected better and for those of you who haven't experienced a happy childhood, this must be particularly galling

HAM will see GQ as a huge success but I think it will backfire on them. I really don't see how this will end for Harry tbh