Call me crazy, but I actually don’t think Prince William’s big Jordan/Israel/Palestinian Territories royal tour is about William wanting attention. We’ve been following William’s comings and goings long enough to know that he would prefer to be tucked away in Norfolk with all of his cars and cheesy toast. I actually think this current royal tour was somewhat forced on him, because I simply don’t believe that William would have thought up this trip on his own. He’s been scheduled for some fun stuff, of course, but there’s also some dry, serious work too. This is Buckingham Palace AND St. James Palace AND Downing Street trying to force Prince Peter Pan to actually settle into the dry, dull work of being a future monarch. Just my opinion. But still, of course there has to be some minor kerfuffle. From Sebastian Shakespeare’s column:
Is someone trying to sabotage Prince William’s efforts to focus attention on his engagements? His trip to Israel should attract worldwide attention. However, courtiers have chosen the same week to publish the royals’ accounts, always headline fodder. Even worse, he’ll have to compete with Meghan, who is off to a Commonwealth awards ceremony with the Queen. No wonder friends say William is sometimes bad-tempered.
People do say William is bad-tempered. Words like “tantrum” and “lazy” and “brat” get thrown around a lot by unnamed royal courtiers whenever William f–ks up. It feels like… there are some people in various palaces who want to make sure that William knows he’s on a tight leash these days. That being said, royal peeps are also doing the most to make this trip seem very quaint and uncontroversial. This is an honest-to-God story from William’s first hours in Israel:
It is the most politically sensitive trip he has ever undertaken, entering a diplomatic minefield in the Middle East. As the Duke of Cambridge set foot in Jerusalem for the British Royal family’s first trip to Israel, he was faced with settling a debate that has raged for decades. Not the seemingly impossible question of Israeli and Palestinian lands, of course, but the age-old issue of cream versus jam.
The Duke, who landed in Tel Aviv, was taken to the King David Jerusalem Hotel where a freshly baked pile of scones had been prepared for him. There, according to Sheldon Ritz, the hotel’s director of operations, he was greeted with tea imported from England – the “best we can buy” – as well as fresh milk, cream and strawberry jam for his scone.
“We heard that there’s a big debate in England about whether you put the cream or the jam on first, so we’ll leave them to the side and let the Prince decide,” he told the Jewish News.
This is remarkable piece of royal journalism. I applaud you, Daily Telegraph. Honestly though, I didn’t know there was a debate about cream and jam and scones. Is it a big deal? Is it as big a deal as tea? And… people in the Middle East know about tea too, so I don’t understand why the hotel would have to import the finest tea from England. Maybe Israelis aren’t a tea-drinking culture, but Arabs are. I bet William got some good Arabic tea in Jordan, just sayin’.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Yeah, depending on where you are in England, you put on the cream first or the jam first. Yawn.
As far as I am aware, this is primarily a Devon (cream first) vs Cornwall (jam first) battle. Fairly pointless if you ask me, but there’s not a lot to do down there.
My inlaws are Devonians and they joke about this all the time. My husband says I’m being “devilish” if I serve him a scone with jam on first.
And bizarrely, whichever one you put on first, it tastes like a scone, jam and cream! I moved from a jam on first place to a cream on first place and I have to say this is one of the most moronic aspects of British culture wars.
I would have said jam first to form a more robust, fruit foundation and then cream to create a more stable scone structure, my thinking being that cream first would be difficult to add jam on top of it. My peasant is obviously showing (adjusts skirt)
My thoughts exactly! I would put jam on first, lowly peasant that I am 😉
It depends on whether it’s clotted cream or regular cream, and jam can be runny or more solid, depending on the pectic levels of the fruit. I’m usually a jam first girl, but sometimes, if it’s clotted cream, it can be the sturdier of the two so that goes on first.
In a similar vein, whichever you want more of is loaded in the bottom.
So, if it’s clotted cream and jam, clotted cream goes on first.
If your hosts are heathens and serve whipped cream, the jam goes on first.
(She said, classily chugging tea from a sportsdirect mug with her little finger sticking out)
y’all have no idea how hard I’m laughing right now. This is the cutest discussion ever to take place on CB.
Of course, I’ve been known to throw down over gravy here in the Southern US, so… 🙂
@hufflepuff Now that’s an argument I can get behind. *scoops more sausage gravy onto her biscuits*
I’m dying @ “if your hosts are heathens…” 🤣
Why would anyone travelling want to eat the same food as at home?
I am Irish and had a friend travel to Greece last year on holiday, when she came home i was all excited to ask her about the food, she said it was great. She found a little English pub and had steak and chips everyday. I just don’t get it, she did not want “foreign” food while on holiday in Greece,
Tourists can be weird.
I knew a couple that frequently travelled to the Philippines to visit her family and they always took a bag full of tined sausage with them.
Not as gift for her family, but for him, because he didn’t want to eat the local food.
Human beings are weird.
Oh, wow! Greek food is amazing as well.
Brits have a reputation as travelers who want their home goods when they are abroad. I visited my relative in Florida a few years ago, they live in a Brit heavy enclave and the supermarket had British goods in it. These are things only a British person would eat.
Going to Greece and not eating the food should be considered a crime worthy of a ticket and a fine. I mean really! lol
I’m Canadian – but we remarked on that during a trip to Italy last year. We were in a Sorrento and there were dozens of “British” pubs advertising fish & chips & a pint. Tons of Brits in them too. Or in Mexico and we kept seeing Canadians going into McDonald’s.
Tourists can be very strange. I went to a hotel in Switzerland which had an interesting clientele of about half English tourists (who always had tea in the afternoon) and Asian tourists, who required a special section for breakfast so that they could eat only the breakfast foods to which they were accustomed. There were also strict warnings NOT to cook in the rooms as apparently Chinese tourists would bring hot pots and cook their food because they didn’t want to eat European food. (Actually I saw this warning a number of times when I was in Europe – even in France — can you imagine coming to France and not eating French cuisine? Well their loss! )
But if you visit China, you will find their breakfast/lunch/dinner rooms cater to both cuisines. It is harmless to do so and speaks very well of the accommodating country.
Oh yeah it’s harmless and all – but it does indicate a lack of being willing to try another culture’s food. Why not try a European style breakfast? It’s exactly the same as an Brit looking for a “full English breakfast” when in Greece. Narrowness of culinary horizons is narrowness whether it is British, American or Chinese.
It’s mostly just Brits and Americans who do this. Brits are known worldwide for showing up in foreign countries and wanting “proper English ______” and being very put out when they can’t get it. Likewise, many Americans I know just eat in McDonald’s regardless of what country they’re in.
What Americans are you traveling with?
I’m American and I don’t even eat McDonalds in America.
Don’t know about brits, but Americans are known for this, especially traveling with teens. The good point about McD’s is that the menu reflects local cuisine – because locals eat there too. And in some countries, only the well off can even afford McD’s, while here in the US sophisticatos look down their noses at it. So saying Americans eat at McD’s – it’s more nuanced than one might at first think.
LOL Minx…. same. Blech.
@Frosty, that’s interesting.
Somewhat in defense of this practice…when I go overseas I like to try the local food. But, sometimes the whole experience of being in a new place can be overwhelming and you want something familiar. I remember a few years back we went to India and I ate plenty of Indian food. But, I was also sleeping terribly (jet lag + anti-malaria pills), getting bounced around in a car, being treated as a bit of an oddity anytime I left the hotel room (I am a very tall and very white woman, I had people stopping and asking to take photos with me like I was some kind of curiousity). After about 5 days I had a breakdown at breakfast and said I just couldn’t eat curry anymore. BUT, their options for “western” breakfast were all weird too, relative to what I was used to. Like if you want cold cereal…it’s served with hot milk. If you want a bowl of oatmeal, it comes pre-seasoned with a TON of sugar. You can’t eat the fruit salad because you might get sick. I just wanted something plain and familiar for ONE meal and I was literally in tears over not being able to get it. I finally got some wonderbread type toast and butter for breakfast and it was nice to have, even though my husband was totally disgusted with me. And later that day I found a Chinese restaurant that served tons of vegetable dishes that weren’t spiced like crazy and basically gorged myself on steamed bok choy for dinner, and then I felt nicely reset and happy to try some more Indian food. But I really did need that fix of something more like my “normal” food to cope.
I can totally relate! As a kid I went to the US fr a year and although I loved it there, I missed German bread so much, it was crazy! I used to roam the supermarket aisles pressing the soft toast with my fingers, hunting for a real, solid wholegrain bread. No luck. First thing I did when I was back home is have real bread with stinky cheese. Heaven!
^^^ Love this! I lived in India for a year in the early 2000s, and took every chance to experience and participate in local culture that I could. And over the course of my 12 months I also visited every.single.McDonald’s on the entire subcontinent. (There were only about 5 then, but still!)
I think the difference is how long a person is in a country. A week long holiday is one thing but a longer stay can make someone’s taste buds homesick. When I lived abroad, during my meat eating days I became desperate for a turkey sandwich, an American burger, and a lobster roll.
Here I was in Italy and France and all I wanted was some deli food, a cheeseburger with cheddar and a lobster roll from New England. Then it became Mexican food.
My friend was obsessed with macaroni and cheese. She was so tired of trying to make alfredo fill the void and craved her mother’s cheesy baked macaroni.
Yes, this, plus–at the risk of TMI–some of us suffer distressing intestinal irregularities when traveling, and adding lots of different food/spices to the mix is just adding fuel to the (ouch) fire.
I have travelled to many, many places and love the food pretty much everywhere. But when you routinely drink multiple cups of tea every day (properly made with boiling water) it is very difficult to be in a place where you have no kettle and the “tea” is made in a microwave or with one of those “hot” water things and it is just wrong. I love many things about the USA, but the tea in restaurants/hotels/etc is not one of them.
My in-laws would visit my husband on all of his overseas detachments with the navy and they only wanted like, spaghetti and meatballs in Italy, McDonald’s in the UK. Even when they have come to visit us in various duty stations, they want Applebee’s. Imagine having family visit you in the Florida Keys and they think Outback is the best place in town. They had nothing but negative things to say about these amazing restaurants we took them to. Even my kids think Outback is gross.
I guess it depends on what they are hoping to achieve with this visit however there is unimaginable suffering happening in areas he will be visiting and a great deal of sensitivity/empathy is going to be the order of the day. I am reading a biography of Prince Charles and he is a very serious minded person as is the Queen so William needs to be careful to project the image of someone caring and concerned about Israel/Palestine or they will be very unhappy with him I’m sure. I hope William has his mother Diana’s intuition – she really knew how to read a room and respond with great rapport and empathy.
I think they have to downplay the importance of Will trip due to Trump and BIbi moving the embassy after this trip was announced. He can’t be seen as endorsing that decision.
Also an AP reporter was blocked from doing his job because muslim There are just so many minefields and tensions are high.
I just saw a lot of pics and comments about William’s trip to Yad Vashem in my Twitter feed, and I think he did well there. He seemed properly prepped, not flippant at all, and very moved (I don’t know how you could not be in there). He also had a sit down with the Israeli President Rivlin, and came away with a message for peace and communication with Abbas. All in all, I think he did very well today.
Considering the sensitivity around this particular trip he would have been put under pressure to read his briefing notes as bragging about not reading them (like he did in India) would NOT have gone down well. He needed to prove that he was up to the ‘not so easy’ tours, where it was all fun and he could wing it.
I am not defending William admitting that he did not read his briefing papers but the Foreign Office would not have sent an unproven royal to the Middle East, nor would a historical visit be used test case to see if a royal was up to ‘not so easy’ tours.
Reportedly Charles greatly wanted to be the first British royal to make a state visit to Israel and he was scheduled to visit Israel in 2017 but the Foreign Office cancelled the trip. The FO could have designated any royal, save the Queen and Prince Philip, to make this historical trip and they chose William.
This is the first time I see photos of him and think, yes, he is an adult now. Before I had the impression he was acting.
Does anybody know at which time the Queen and Meghan plus Harry are happening today?
I don’t think it’s being sabotaged. I just think it is more of a working trip than some of his other trips (fewer parties – it seems like most of their overseas trips involve a great deal of parties and receptions) and so there just isn’t as much coverage.
I hope the visit to Israel goes smoothly though.
I think I read somewhere that the goal of the visit was to remind parties in the Middle East that the UK’s policy tends to be not to take sides between Israel and Palestine (hence the visit to both regions) in the wake of the US moving their embassy to the USA.
Pure conjecture on my part but they could be trying to downplay the visit in the Western media so as not to show up Trump. Especially if it’s not really for us but to try to reassure parties in the region.
+1
+2
I had never noticed how much William’s teeth resembled those of a beaver
And that’s his fault how they are teeth we wonder why people have body image issues
Well it is a stereotype the Brits don’t have great teeth. But we Americans are very obsessed with having straight, perfect teeth. The rest of the world doesn’t seem to have this fixation. I had mine for 3.5 years and I pissed off my orthodontist (who also refused to pronounce my name correctly no matter how many times I insisted my name wasn’t Emily and to this day I hate orthodontists) by refusing to wear my elastics because I would wake up in the middle of the night in so much pain in tears from those things pulling my jaws tight so I stopped wearing them. One of my bottom teeth is slightly crooked from not wearing my retainer… it doesn’t keep me up at night!
FFS
Really? He’s being criticized for his teeth?
Beatrice is attacked for her teeth and eyes constantly. Every single story that includes Beatrice on CB, there will always be at least one person saying something negative about her teeth or eyes, and others who chime in and agreed.
Not saying either is right, merely pointing out that *always* happens to Beatrice on here.
Funny how he’s being over shadowed by things that haven’t even happened yet! And the Telegraph piece on scones was 1/3 of the article of yesterdays engagements. Israeli media were meant to send tv crews to his arrival yesterday but cancelled it because nobody cared. It’ll be interesting to see will today’s engagements get much coverage because he hasn’t so far.
I saw that tweet about the TV cancellation. Poor William
Israel is not a member of the commonwealth and doesn’t have historical ties to the UK. I can’t imagine why Israeli’s would be interested in this visit. If they are into royal gossip, they have plenty of regional royalty to gossip about.
Ummmm what? Did you just say Israel has no historical ties to the UK?!
Churchill would be shocked to hear that there are no ties between the UK and Isreal
Let me restate that, they have no colonial ties.
@Megan, they have no colonial ties now but back in the day what is now Israel and Palestine was a British Mandate (Palestine) under British rule. Israeli law has is roots in British law. It was the British withdrawing from the region that created the state of Israel so there is quite a lot of history there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_relations
Megan, please read some history of UK and that area. You’re not coming off strong here.
Megan, the British Empire was larger than the Roman Empire. It’s reach extended all over the globe. It had colonies in Oceania, Africa, Asia and yes, the Middle East. Part of why there is so much tribal tension between factions in the Middle East is due to the British. They were the ones who drew the boundaries and determined where each nation began and ended. They even appointed allies such as the ancestors of the Shah of Iran, who was violently deposed decades later . The lasting legacy of British rule in the Middle East is the CREATION of Israel out of Palestinian tribal lands. That is not to say they endorsed the creation of Israel, but once they Ben-Gurion declared the state of Israel.
Yet, the fact of the matter is that Israel IS a colonizer.
Lord Balfour was the driving force behind the creation of Israel. The British were basically in charge until they were forced out after the Holocaust. There is a lot of history there.
Looool @Megan “they have no colonial ties” ffs pls brush up on the history between the two countries.
This is one of the run-of-the-mill, not very glamorous visits that royals are expected to do and Whiny Willy is no exception. From what I have seen in the media, it all seems to be going well and he is knuckling down and getting on with it. There would be more interest if Kate was there but then it would be all about her clothes rather than the diplomatic events.
Clothes or not, the women bring attention to this trips.
Yes, true.
these not this. lol
I agree with you. I always look to see what Kate is wearing which really isn’t the point of these trips. Lol
“Run of the mill”? This is first royal visit to Israel I believe and what’s amazing is he’s visited Palestinian Territories as well. Nothing run of the mill about that; in fact it is unprecedented. Makes me wonder why now though.
I watched CTV news and William’s middle east trip was one of the last stories reported. The birth of his children got much more media attention. And William is a brat. At the time, Diana did little to curb his brattiness and Charles was more interested in playing polo and meeting Camilla.
The only way Diana could get William to do something sometimes was to say “well, I guess Harry will have all the fun then!” and then William would come running. I thought that was a very interesting thing when I saw the video of her doing it.
from twitter
“Anshel Pfeffer
@AnshelPfeffer
Reality check for the “historic” journey by Prince William to the region: During his visit to Jordan, King Abdullah wasn’t even there.”
“Anshel Pfeffer
Anshel Pfeffer
@AnshelPfeffer
Reality check no.2 for Prince William’s “historic” visit to region: One of the main Israeli television channels planned special live broadcast of his arrival and cancelled due to lack of interest.”
I’ve read some of the tweets and articles from haaretz and this trips is ill advised. It’s being used to undermine the role of the west in Israel-Palestine conflict.
William is being compared to Jared Kushner.
The real political significance of William’s visit – another diplomatic win for Netanyahu. @Anshel Pfeffer
It is not great that William is being compared to Kushner, especially since the later is a criminal. But what they do have in common is that they have both been given positions because of who their parents are and their skills are limited. Israelis are not here to make the BRF feel important. They have bigger issues than helping promote a vanity tour. The UK govt is out to lunch if they thought that sending William would get them more power at the bargaining table. To be fair to William, I don’t think any royal would be able to do that at this point except maybe the Queen.
As much as William has put off “being a Prince” and doing his “duty”, I think he is WORLDS more “prepared” than Kushner for all of this. Kushner has NO training at all for ANY of this.
And, as having been brought up by a criminal father, and now his criminal father in law, he has modeled himself in the same fashion, basically as a shady, corrupt criminal in this grifting family.
I don’t think William is anything like Kushner. Yeah, William is privileged, but I don’t think he has any desire to destroy the world for his own personal gain. And, yes, he has personal gain through inheritance, but the extent of his interest seems to be playing polo with other rich people in estates that the taxpayers decided to randomly give him through chance luck, not actively destroying countries so he can make more millions (which I know his ancestors did way back when, but he’s removed from that era and has been brought up more with the idea that he has to “represent”).
William is a product and recipient of chance luck, but I don’t think he’s actively malicious against other countries and peoples just to go “Ha ha! Look how many millions I made off of ripping people off!”
William may overestimate his abilities with the press, but I don’t think he overestimates his overall intelligence like Ivanka and Jared do. William is more like a regular pampered celebrity you can get annoyed with from time to time but then ultimately forget, while Ivanka and Jared are in a wacko class all their own that make people want to take to the streets.
William is where he is because he was born to it and has to adapt to the role he was born to (whether he likes it or not), but Jared and Ivanka have actually taken it upon themselves to destroy the world so they can get richer, so, yeah, I don’t get the comparison. Had William not been born to his role, I don’t think he’d have any desire to get in the middle of conflicts. Jared, on the other hand, wants to insert himself into everything….
If William is being compared to Kushner than Harry should be as well.
I don’t think it’s an apt comparison at all, for reasons everyone has well stated.
-perplexed
Agreed! William’s only crime is being a member of the lucky sperm club. Yes, he’s boring, but I’d rather have him be a boring, rich, family guy, than the alternative. He’s harmless and he isn’t anything like Kushner. Kushner and his wife have no business being in the role they are in and their ideologies actually cause harm to our country.
@ minx am talking about this trip and also i think Jared is taking a trip to Israel. PS I don’t agree that Will is like Kushner at all. I am just following the banter that Israeli reporters are having on twitter.
Amy, no, I know you weren’t the one making the comparison.
Why are people commenting on the “lack of media interest” on this trip? It means nothing. Let’s get real, everyone with a clue knows he has been sent there because of Brexit, and Bibi benefits from the great PR lol. A few years ago, this trip would’ve been unimaginable. The UK needs to strengthen its ties with different countries. Hope he treads carefully in the West Bank, but he has done well so far.
While i believe the whole commonwealth revival is linked to Brexit , i cant really see the link between Brexit and the M-E.
It’s more of a political minefield than a business opportunity . I am glad however that they are visiting Palestine, that’s the reason why Israel isn’t giving much coverage to this, they are pissed off that the palestinians aren’t being swept under the carpet.
MrsBump you are wrong and you fail to see that just like any country not all of the citizens are on the same page.
Also then whose to blame when he visits other countries solo and they don’t care either? Remember the posters from India last year that said the Indian media and people didn’t care about W and K’s visit? So where is the plot in that?
MagnoliaRose – you have an axe to grind with W&K, so you try and paint everything they do negatively. That former colonies dont care so much for royalty is hardly surprising.
however in this particular instance, i feel this trip isnt simply PR, Britain doesn’t stand to gain much from it in monetary terms, so i’m still puzzled by why they are doing it at all.
i stand by my comments regarding the right wing israeli press
MrsBump, the UK, and Israel have been strengthening their ties even more over the past year and a half. Post-Brexit, Britain needs Israel, not the other way around – there are many trade deals etc to be done. This is a business visit. No member of the RF could visit Israel in an official capacity and not go to Palestine. That would be far too contreversial. I’m just glad that he’s going to be interacting with the communities there as well.
Oh, I can’t comment on the Israeli media coverage, but it looks like they are split between making fun of him for being there and others being happy that finally, a British Royal is visiting. The furore was over KP wording when they rightly stated that he was going to be visiting the Occupied WB.
The only person sabotaging William is William. He’s trying to come across as serious, but refuses to actually put in the work, his typical schedule of lightweight events reflects that.
William has no charisma whatsoever and seems like a manchild all the time. It is good that he is trying but it is also a little painful.
Magnolia – have to agree with you. I had been focusing on Kate’s lack of charisma these past few years, but now that William is ‘doing more’ I can’t help but notice over and over he is kind of a dudd. And I don’t see that changing.
Looking at pictures it struck me that William doesn’t look comfortable in his own skin which might explain the lack of charisma. Meanwhile over at Buckingham Palace Harry is giving a speech in the presence of the Queen and Meghan’s looking at him like his words are the most brilliant ever uttered lol!
It’s impossible to get proper tea outside of the UK but it’s mainly due to the way it’s served (a Liptopn tea bag next to a cup of hot water is not tea!!!!).
Please don’t confuse the rest of the world with the way Americans drink their tea.
And please don’t generalize all Americans that way. We do not all dip a teabag into hot water (and definitely NOT Liptons! lol)
Iced Tea is awesome and that’s why I’d never attack americans and their tea habits lol
I still remember the first time I ever tried it – Boston 2010. It was a magical day. I still can’t do it myself, though
I’m a a tea drinker, I seldom drink coffee. My European friends all know how to make a good pot of tea. Although I’ve been living in America for decades, I grew up in a commonwealth country. While a few Americans ( esp those in metro areas) do know their tea, whenever I’m driving cross country I’m always given a cup of hot water and a Lipton tea bag. And yes, I do get irritated. I’ve made at least many, many cross country trips and have driven on the 10, 20, 40, 70 and 80. Lipton and hot water is de rigeur. How hard is it to up your tea game? Coffee has gotten so much better in the last 20 years. In SF Bay Area (where I reside) when you order tea you often get a pot of brewed tea. Unfortunately it’s a FACT that a good brew is not available in many places in the US.
Sunny, I was once given a microwaved mug (the mug was hot!) with a lipton tea thingy on the side. I was in NYC. I just sent it back. However, I discovered iced tea and liked it a lot.
Argentina had such an influx of british inmigrants that tea time is sacred and so is the way we brew our tea.
Here in the US, a great many people like hot tea, but in general, we’re more about coffee and iced tea (and proper iced tea is made with tea bags, not instant).
I’ve only been to America twice so I have no idea how Americans drink their tea. Why would you assume I’m speaking of America? I’m half-Israeli and have travelled very widely all across Europe (Western, Central, Eastern, Baltics, Scandinavia, Mediterranean, through to Turkey and Russia). Buy a cup of tea in any of those countries, you may or may not get something very nice, but it won’t resemble a British ‘cuppa.’
Whichever is sturdier of the two. Especially if the scones are very warm, you don’t want everything to melt off.
I don’t actually believe William cares either way.
Israel/Palestine is such a contentious issue that divides people, I almost think he WOULDN’T want anybody paying attention. If a perceived gaffe of any kind happens on either side of the issue, he’d probably prefer pay attention to at what MM is wearing.
This story seems….I don’t know… worry of sabotage doesn’t make sense.
Its not getting a lot of attention here in the UK either, primarily because its him and the UK press are not particularly fond of him. He lacks charisma and doesn’t/can’t emote empathy, all he does is emote boredom (as does Katie Keen).
It’s a shame as the trip should have generated interest as he is the first British royal there in an official capacity. I guess things could have been different if it had been Chuck or Harry or even TQ herself.
IMO the Queen would have gotten more attention, but neither Charles nor Harry would have gotten more attention had they, like William, attended without their wives.
Harry would have because he’s charismatic. The pictures of him are better than pictures of William. But both men would have received more press attention if they had been accompanied by their wives.
It’s partly that and partly that there’s a crazy amount of antisemitism here in the UK and the press never report anything about Israel unless it’s negative and makes Israel look bad.
Whether people like to admit it or not, the Royals soft power/charm offensive obviously works. The government wouldn’t keep sending senior members to different countries if they weren’t serving a beneficial purpose (the numerous deals) especially to multiple countries within the Middle East. I don’t see how Harry would be better here when you remember his Nazi crap. Someone obviously thought William could handle this instead of Charles…. and the Queen doesn’t do these types of tours anymore.
Not a royal follower, but have to say this is the most important state visit the royals have done in at least half a century.
He’s doing fine. He’s shaking hands, smiling for the camera and so far has not said anything stupid. The media only cares about drama and fashion.
True. I think lack of news is actually a good sign.
Seeing the leader of Jordan be a sycophant with Trump yesterday (which made me physically ill)…and seeing that William is over there now…Something is up…Me and mines are just trying to figure what….
I felt really bad for Queen Rania yesterday. She had done so much for refugees and had to stand next to the racist pig who caged children and smile:(
My sister is in Israel this week and couldn’t go somewhere due to restrictions because of Will’s schedule. I told her to stop by and say hi, lol. I feel like I know him the way we talk about him and his family here!
It’s not as big a deal as the “Milk in first” issue, but people will judge you on which order you put them on. To me, the cream acts like butter and prevents the jam from soaking into the scone, so if you don’t like soggy scones, you put the cream on first. But in the UK it’s a cultural signifier which says whether you come from Devon or Cornwall. Now I wonder what the Duchess of Cornwall puts on first.
“Milk in first” is when you put the milk in the teacup before the tea. It’s a lower class signifier, because you do that to ensure the milk doesn’t curdle when it’s a bit past its best-before date. Rich people just buy fresh milk.
That’s kinda interesting raincoaster because I put milk (or half and half) in first because if you pour the coffee (not tea, ha!) slowly, the milk doesn’t chill the coffee. Nothing worse than lukewarm coffee. And horrors, sometimes I put milk in tea, the once a year I drink black tea, if that.
I love the dialog on cream vs. jam. I am a clotted cream first (buy it at Wholefoods in the US _ from Devon)…
Two things from KP
1. West Bank and Gaza – I believe were called the “Occupied Territories” – most mainstream Israeli media don’t use that term (even though true IMO – don’t want to start a fight on that one)
2. In Jordon he was matched up with a future peer (of sorts)… and KP referred to him as Prince WIlliam in one tweet..
That’s all & thanks for this post and the debate on jam vs. cream..
Seriously, what happened to William? I was never an avid royal watcher, just someone who’d watch for a time when some big historic event happened (usually a wedding, birth, or a death) and then check out again. But I remember, before William married Kate, he seemed to be quite charming and engaging and do his charity work very well. I remember distinctly him working with homeless charities in particular.
So coming back and looking again when Harry and Meghan because a thing and seeing all these things about William being lazy and not wanting to do anything was a big surprise to me. And looking into it and finding that talk to be true was wired. I feel like I’d read him compelty wrong back in the day seeing it all laid out like that.
Well, maybe he’ll be like Edward VII (Bertie) who was a lazy and idle for the majority of his life, but DID step up to the plate when his mother Queen Victoria died, and ended up not being that bad of a King (at least from what I’ve read and heard of him).
What I find more hilarious than this scones article is the fact that people here seem think it was serious!
The Telegraph is making fun of this visit (and rightly so). William’s self-importance, grandeur, and prissy, pampered-poodle lifestyle (with scones and debate over jam and cream) is the polar opposite of Israeli culture and lifestyle. Israelis are tough and very hard to impress. They’ve got far greater concerns and better things to do than pay any attention to yet another foreigner using Israel as a stage to make himself look and feel important—particularly one as high-strung, high-maintenance, and delicate as William. Israel is not the kind of place where people fret over “jam or cream first?” on scones, FFS.