William on Graham Norton

[viques]

Poor Harry. As if his week hasn’t been bad enough he has now had to watch his brother appearing on the best talk show , holding his own, looking comfortable and relaxed, keeping up with the banter, making half decent jokes, telling stories against himself with humour.

Makes Harry’s attempt at tv chatting seem even more uncomfortable.

“Call me William” versus “I am a prince.”

I think we had a similar discussion a few days back.

The SG has been approved at £100m. Some 65% higher than 10 years ago and more than 90% higher than the last Civil List payment in 2011.

The SG Reserve is a slush fund underwriting various RF events and parties.

Any excess should be returned to the public purse.

I think it's interesting that W having castigated the BBC extensively over the Diana interview and 'demanded' it never be shown again now chooses it as a vehicle to polish his image.

a tax burden on treasury officials (I find that particular reason a bit of a stretch,

Do you think then they're likely to just wave it through?

Wouldn't that be a dereliction of duty?

Well - there’s 30 years between the two events….so…

I don’t actually. Given the size, breadth, reputation, global reach.

I think the interview was a travesty now that we know more about it. But I don’t see why he should be expected to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The 'demands' of the national broadcaster - funded by the public - were made just five years ago.

I think the interview was a travesty now that we know more about it.

I disagree.

Diana was gagging to get her side across and saw a credible platform to do it.

The Bashir tactics were clearly reprehensible but IMO unnecessary.

She didn't need an excuse.

Donal Trump would punish them and refuse to be involved in any way. William isn’t that.

True yet highly doubtful she would have chosen him to speak with if she knew how dastardly he’d behaved. The interview was tainted. Gosh and Charles Spencer was involved.

It’s perfectly legitimate for W to criticise the BBC over that debacle but that hardly rules out future cooperation with them. He’s who he is and they’re the public service broadcaster.

I wrote a stinking letter to a rail company several years ago but I used them again just last week.

I think in terms of criticisms to level at this transaction, that one is weak (a stretch). As I said previously, if the Treasury can’t cope it can create some additional job opportunities. No need to be waving anything through or make any noises about dereliction of duty.

Spencer introduced D to Bashir, didn’t he, and persuaded her to do the interview?

I don't think she was bothered about the individual journo. She saw the highly credible 'Panorama' brand and jumped.

I don't think the interview can be viewed as tainted. She later stood by her words and they are one of vanishingly few instances we have of her direct thoughts.

It should still be available to the wider public who paid for it and to historians.

CS was a credulous dupe useful idiot but will never own it.

Wouldn't more jobs to deal with be a similar drain on the public purse though?

(I don't think I'm the one stretching 😜)

Apparently.

I really don’t think anyone is owed that.

But Bashir’s lies and counterfeit documents had made her paranoid about plots to kill her. He truly messed with her mind, so the result was hardly a fair demonstration of her normal state of mind.

His actions caused her to ditch her royal security and we know what a tragedy that led to.

Yeah you can keep your nonsense to yoursef. There is no affair. Just lies spread by the Sussex Squad, end of.

The interview was absolutely tainted given it was obtained by lies, including faked bank statements, leading her to believe she was being betrayed by multiple people.

She was absolutely duped by both Bashir’s reputation and that of Panorama.

There's no verifiable evidence to corroborate this one way or another and there never will be.

In what way would that be a drain on the public purse?
(stretching ball passed back 😜)

There absolutely is verifiable evidence.

Patrick Jephson, Diana’s former private secretary for over seven years won substantial damages believed to be around £100,000 and an unreserved apology from the BBC following the Dyson report which investigated Martin Bashir’s deceit of Diana, involving forged bank statements, which deceived Charles Spencer in to thinking that Jephson was being paid by ”hostile entities” to spy on her. This in turn led to Diana believing that Jephson and other loyal aides were spying on her, totally destroying her trust in him and making her reassess her security arrangements.

And the Dyson enquiry established that Bashir then kept feeding Diana worrying stories, one of which ironically, that a plot existed to kill her.

And believing she had been betrayed from within, Diana withdrew from the very people who could have guided and protected her and put her trust in people who couldn’t.

Jephson was in this way alienated from her inner circle, and their professional relationship broke down and lead to his eventual resignation, when prior to that they had had a very happy and successful working relationship even though Jephson was there while Diana was navigating a very difficult divorce and negotiations over the custody arrangements for the princes.

For over 25 years, Jephson was haunted by the fact that Diana died believing he had betrayed her.

Incidentally Jephson donated the entirety of his damages to charity, especially a children's hospice in Wales that had been the focus of Diana’s first official engagement.

Anyone in any doubt about this should read
Dianarama by Andy Webb, a really excellent investigative journalist, who has dissected the whole sorry episode in detail.

This isn’t true either. It was widely reported at the time that Diana later came to regret participating in the interview, which according to Jephson, she only agreed to do as a means of protecting herself, given what Bashir had fabricated about her being spied upon and being in danger. and to send up a signal to the royal family that she had a voice and wasn’t going to be threatened or go quietly, because she was fearful she would lose custody of W & H, just as her mother had lost custody of her dc when the establishment had ganged up on her many years before,

Actually I have just remembered another bit of evidence that Diana felt physically unsafe and threatened as a result of Bashir’s deceit.

I forgot that the Dianarama book states that a week before the Panorama interview, Diana called a meeting with her lawyers and Patrick Jephson was also present to dictate her fears that Prince Charles was trying to have her killed.

Jephson later remarked in an interview that listening to her lay out her world view at that meeting "was just like hearing someone leave their last will and testament."

Jephson was originally named an executor in Diana’s actual will, but she removed him after he resigned in 1996.

Perhaps it might be a good idea to set up a separate thread to rehash this 30 year old interview rather than on this thread focussing Williams interview please ?