Prince William & Kate ‘disregarded the pleas of senior civil servants’ to cancel covid tour

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, visit Holy Trinity Church of England First School in Berwick-Upon-Tweed

It’s been more than a month and I’m still mad about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Covid Choo Choo tour to Scotland, Wales and England. The tour was billed as William and Kate being keen to “thank” frontline workers and, like, spread holiday joy. What it really was: Kate was desperate to ride on the Royal Train, at great cost to the taxpayer, and she wanted to air out her old coats. The fact that Will and Kate were maskless half the time also annoyed the f–k out of me, and no surprise, the lockdowns in the UK came soon after the Cambridges’ de facto superspreader tour.

In the middle of the tour, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon noted that she tried to warn the royal households that Scotland was, at the time, following strict protocols about travel and gatherings, and she seemed to indicate (correctly) that “being keen” isn’t actually a job for which English people can travel into Scotland. Now it turns out that there’s an electronic paper trail of senior civil servants warning William and Kate to postpone or cancel their superspreader tour.

The royal family ignored two Scottish Government warnings not to travel to Scotland as part of their much criticised Royal train tour. At the start of December, the Earl and Countess of Strathearn travelled to Edinburgh as part of a 1250-mile, three-day tour of England, Scotland and Wales. After criticism, the palace said the visits had been “planned in consultation with the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments.”

However, emails released to The National under freedom of information legislation, show that the royals ultimately disregarded the pleas of senior civil servants to postpone. The jaunt was been condemned as “highly irresponsible” and lacking in “empathy about sacrifices made by the general public”, by fuming politicians.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon refused to add her support to the tour, instead making a barbed reference to the fact she made the Royal Household aware “of the restrictions in place in Scotland so that could inform both the decision and the planning of the visit.” On November 12, John Somers, Nicola Sturgeon’s principal private secretary, told the Royals: “You’ll know that we are currently asking people living in Scotland to avoid unnecessary travel from local authority to local authority and to keep journeys within the area they live to an absolute minimum. I think my view is that at the moment the chances of the tour having to be postponed are potentially quite high.”

On November 19, James Hynd, the Scottish Government’s head of cabinet, parliament and governance, told the royals: “The Scottish Government is likely to bring forward statutory restrictions on non-essential travel both within Scotland and also into and out of Scotland. This is obviously likely to have a major impact on the plans you are working on I am afraid.”

Nevertheless, two weeks later, the future king and queen were in the capital. Edinburgh North and Leith MP Deidre Brock said it was “irresponsible to travel to eight different locations over three days”.

“The Scottish Government pointed out the travel ban twice and the Welsh Government made clear it wasn’t happy. This ‘work trip’ wasn’t essential work, it wasn’t for any of the exemptions laid out in the rules and the guidance. There are plenty of exemptions from supporting vulnerable folk to animal welfare but none of them cover a 1250-mile trip round eight different sites making connections between people who would otherwise not be connected.”

[From The Daily Mirror and The National]

As you might remember, William and Kate were eager to take credit for coming up with the idea for this covid tour all on their own, and that they designed it without taking into account the many pandemic protocols in Scotland, Wales and England. And clearly, they ignored all of the people trying to warn them that this was stupid, tone-deaf and genuinely harmful. I know the royal rota has worked overtime to present Will & Kate (especially) as “being very keen” during the pandemic, but from where I sit, ALL of the Windsors have been absolute a–holes. The traveling, the touring, the masklessness, the refusal to listen to government officials and civil servants, their absolute thirst to “one up” each other. They’ve been beyond pathetic in the past year. They’ve been downright dangerous.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meet Cardiff University Students

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, visit Holy Trinity Church of England First School in Berwick-Upon-Tweed

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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106 Responses to “Prince William & Kate ‘disregarded the pleas of senior civil servants’ to cancel covid tour”

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  1. Oatmeal says:

    Cue Willie incandescent with rage in 3…2….1…

    • PEARL GREY says:

      When is Wondering Willy ever not incandescent?

      Of course the “dutiful, responsible, dependable” regal royals ignored warnings and disrespected the countries’ leaders. The Super Spreader Express tour was only ever to stroke the fture-fture king and kingmaker’s egos that any key workers would actually care for their empty platitudes, to boost their end of year engagement numbers and to try (and fail) to grab headlines from the Sussex money moves. They couldn’t care less about thanking anyone, otherwise they would have stayed home (which they are usually so good at) and encouraged the country to do the same, not go city hopping and breathing on everyone. Whatever happened to “following the rules and never putting a foot wrong”?

    • Elizabeth Regina says:

      They are both a disgrace. To disregard warnings for photo ops is a new low even for this lazy pair. They are the most self centred, navel gazers propped up by the media and establishment. And tax payers are happy to pay for them rather than hungry kids??

      • Sounds like “someone” FINALLY keenly ‘put a foot wrong’. I agree with you Elizabeth Regina, this was never about doing anything relevant or fundraising for pandemic relief. This was about photo ops and aggrandizement and being on public display on the 👑🚃🚃🚃, but somehow — now that they are still being called out for it and held accountable — this will be blamed on someone else…..Meghan probably.

    • Elizabeth Regina says:

      PS: Cue another Sussex bashing article in 3, 2, 1.

  2. Seraphina says:

    They are no better than Melania, when she was assisting in her coffee table book while the capitol was in turmoil. They only care about themselves. Bill and continually show the public who they really are. The BRF should resign as well.

    • (TheOG) Jan90067 says:

      LOLOL They will NEVER VOLUNTARILY give up the world’s greatest grift!

    • GuestwithCat says:

      They’re arguably worse than Melania. Melania has very limited intellectual and personality capacity to act independently and when she does do so, she’s so freaking lazy and resentful that her wrathful influence mostly is limited to inflicting herself on innocent rose bushes…oh jeez, sorry my train of thought got derailed to William and his work with rose bushes.

      Anyway, Melania just wants to shop and be forgotten. She doesn’t even want to do Vogue covers, which from what we’ve seen of how they’re photographing powerful women in Washington recently, would involve only standing haplessly in front of hideous drapes. Which probably is how she spends her time at Mar-a-Lago anyway. That shows how much she can’t be bothered with anything to do with her role in Washington. Like a dissipating fart, the stench of her presence will be gone soon enough.

      William and Kate oddly enough have each other in such an endeavor and seem in lockstep when it comes to inflicting themselves on their Royal subjects in the most grating and dangerous ways possible. They’re “stronger together” in all the worst possible ways and are part of an institution that looks deeply entrenched and hard to dislodge. Like a bloated tick. So given that fact, I vote them as much, much worse than Melania.

      • ennie says:

        Guest, you’re on fire today!

      • Becks1 says:

        Also, (and I cannot believe I am defending this woman) – at least Melania never signed up to be a public figure. Remember how ticked she was when he won?? William may not have “signed up” for this, but Kate sure in hell did, and they could have looked at any of the other working royals for an idea of what they “should” be doing, and instead they say nah, we’re going to go live in Wales, and then we’ll be at Anmer, and then we’ll come back and be FT royals but just kidding! Kate’s pregnant again! etc

  3. Digital Unicorn says:

    Of course they ignored everyone – this was nothing more than a PR stunt to repair their brand.

    • Myra says:

      The media in its drive to damage the Sussexes have ensured that the Cambridges never need to face accountability ever again. The Cambridges, as a result, naturally feel above reproach and have disregarded common sense in their own bid to appear relevant. They haven’t cared about the message they send by not masking up, travelling for non-essential purposes, not working enough compared to older royals and the cost of their wardrobe.

      • Elizabeth Regina says:

        This is all true. But what the rota reporters and the RF don’t realise is the simmering resentment against the useless ones the Sussexes left behind. Yes the press may have taught the country to hate Meghan and by extension Harry, the rest of them are far from loved. Before the pandemic most people had a benign indifference towards them. Now after all their COVID jokes, travel stunts and the woeful government’s incompetence and inability to feed our children etc many people are livid and very soon will turn their anger on the RF.

  4. Merricat says:

    They insisted on the vanity tour, despite the warnings and restrictions. The Covid Cambridges.

  5. Sofia says:

    Not surprised. I know some people tried to say that the government were chucking them under the bus, it wasn’t their idea it was the government’s and they were forced to do it and blah blah blah but I think their staff at the very minimum had the idea and were willingly ignoring emails from the Scottish government. And since the staff work for William and Kate, some of the blame does fall on them as they’re the boss – even if the idea wasn’t their idea.

    • JT says:

      William and Kate deserve all of the blame for this. Leadership starts at the top. We all know that their staff does whatever it is they say, including organizing a smear campaign. This is on them. Even if this wasn’t W&K’s idea, they had the responsibility to postpone or completely cancel this tour. CBers here came up with so many good virtual ideas that would have been better than this disastrous PR exercise.

      • Becks1 says:

        Even IF their staff didnt tell them about these emails, and about the discouragement from the Scottish government – its all STILL on Will and Kate as the bosses. They are supposedly in charge, so the buck stops with them – like you said @JT, leadership starts at the top. If their staff didnt tell them about the pushback from the scottish government, then that says to me that Will and Kate only want “yes men” around (which we already kind of knew) and that their staff didnt think to bring it to their attention because they knew it would set them off (ahem PWT ahem.)

        But even without those emails – why would someone say, you know what the public needs right now, in the midst of a pandemic?? To see US!!!!!!!! Let us take the royal train to spread our joy throughout the land!

        I swear its like a plot straight from the Windsors.

      • JT says:

        Exactly @becks1. Did they really need government officials from three different areas to tell them that this was a bad idea? Does anybody have any common sense of there? How dim can you be? All of the whining over Meghan sending 5am emails and these fools just ignore theirs. W&K are nearly 40. Grow the f*ck up. If they want people to treat them with respect and admiration, give people a reason to damn it.

      • Sofia says:

        Agree with both @JT and @Becks1

    • Elizabeth Regina says:

      I wholeheartedly agree. The pair of them are nearly 40, profoundly lazy and directionless. They live for the perks and doing as little as possible. I am astounded that they dare show their faces. History will not judge them well despite the embiggening pieces in the BM.

  6. Carrie says:

    At this stage I really think we go with Bill and Cathy Trump. They are truly Trumpian. Lazy and ignorant.

    • Kalana says:

      The British Jared and Ivanka. Intensely focused on image and their own needs. No substance.

      Will and Kate haven’t earned their leadership positions or even any real money in their lives. Of course these two products of nepotism are arrogant and deluded.

  7. Jay says:

    Politicians and hospital board members are catching flack here where I live (Ontario) for irresponsible travel while the rest of us remain in lockdown. I hope there are consequences for this complete disregard for others. If they have gold standard advisors, they were nowhere to be seen when it comes to a superspreader tour. Also, do you think we’ll hear more British politicians distancing themselves from this mess?

  8. BitsyCS says:

    Such spoiled, entitled jerks. How embarrassing there is even a paper trail. They owe everyone an apology and honestly, this is the kind of shit you should have to step down from public life for. If you can’t be responsible during a pandemic, cannot recognize what your duty is, you aren’t even qualified for a dumb, ceremonial job. It’s truly pathetic the lack of duty and leadership they show – I have a dumb leadership role (PTA president) and I insist we model cautious, best practices, regardless of what anyone wants to do. And no one cares what the random elementary PTA is doing. Spirit wear pick up had to be set up because our school went virtual and we were outside for it where our county doesn’t require masks – guess what I REQUIRED MASKS. this isn’t hard. These are not serious people. They are giant self absorbed babies.

    • Donna B. says:

      I don’t think PTA president is a dumb leadership role. It is a very admirable position; you care about the education of our children.

  9. Implicit says:

    I called them Trump 2.0 after Mz Keens pussybow obsession started and they have not disappointed:(

  10. Becks1 says:

    I mean could the Scottish government have been clearer? It’s obvious they didnt want to have to come out and say “dont come” but they were certainly getting very close to that. “tour may have to be postponed,” “impact on the plans we are working on” – yeah, they were saying “dont come” without actually coming out and saying it.

    Such a bad look for the Keens and I’m here for the backlash. they should have kept their butts home, they have no problem doing that the other 11 months out of the year.

    • Nic919 says:

      The problem with the archaic monarchy is that the government cannot be as direct with them so the Scottish government couldn’t say “stay home you fucking fools” but they got pretty close to that. And still KP didn’t get it.
      I should note that it was pretty quick turnaround for the FOI requests to be provided so I strongly suspect the Scottish government did not object to the request.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        Given that the same Scottish gov gave permission for Celtic football club to flounce off to Dubai for a sunny ‘training camp’ just before the current lockdown came into effect it doesn’t look good for their enforcement of the guidelines.

        Celtic are on record to say that they would never have gone on the trip if the Scottish gov had said no – Sturgeon is only making a fuss over the trip after it made it into the press. It’s also worth noting that the Scottish FA also approved it alongside the Scottish gov and a full risk assessment was done. Its an annual trip that was planned for a long time but again they wouldn’t have gone if they had been denied permission.

        It doesn’t look good for Sturgeon if both the RF and the biggest football club in Scotland ignore her gov guidelines. The later she had more control over as she could have stopped it but she’s a big Celtic fan so there is that.

      • Nic919 says:

        The lockdown was in effect when the covid Cambridges came to visit though so there is an arguable difference. If it wasn’t in place when the football club left for Dubai then they don’t need to get into arguing if it was essential work or not because there was no ban on travel at that time. Many others travelled up until the lockdown was in place. With the Cambridges, it was a clear contravention of travel between borders and pretending what they do is actual work is a joke.

        There is a whole other issue of professional sports clubs having more leeway, we see the same here with the NHL in Canada, but their environments are controlled and contained and they are not inviting the general public to visit them in a maskless setting, as was done with the Cambridges.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        But the point that can also be made that lockdown or not the Scottish gov have been telling people not to come into or leave Scotland unless absolutely necessary – that has been their stance for the past 3/4 months. Neither Celtic or the Cambridges had a good enough reason (regardless if they are exempt because of bubbles etc..). No one should be exempt.

        Even when in Dubai members of the team management were seen and papped not wearing masks or practicing social distancing in what is assumed to be a controlled environment. 13 players and 3 staff have since been diagnosed with COVID (or self isolating).

        https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jan/11/celtic-trip-dubai-under-scrutiny-after-player-tests-positive-for-covid

        But i guess we all have examples of one rule for the rich and powerful and another for the plebs. Just last weekend BoJo was spotted out for a 7 mile cycle without wearing a mask.

      • Becks1 says:

        I think its a little different for the royal family than a football team – even though I see your point DU that its an inconsistent message if she allowed that trip but is complaining about the Cambridges – but that aside- I would argue the royal family has a higher burden. they’re supposed to be setting a good example. Supposedly the whole country looks up to them (lol) and we’ve had such an emphasis over the past year about how the royals cant wear masks because it would go against government guidelines!!!!!!!

        But here, the royals are clearly willing to go against guidelines or suggestions or whatever, even when the actual scottish government is saying “er, maybe we delay this a bit?”

        It’s not a good look for Sturgeon if she let the soccer team travel but is now complaining about the royals, but I dont think that absolves the royals at all.

      • steph says:

        Does anyone know the exact wording in the travel ban in relation to working? I’m asking bc if it’s a blanket ban on all non essential workers both the Cambridges and the football team were in the wrong. If the ban is on travel not essential to an individual’s job, regardless of what it is, then only the Cambridges are actually violating any policies.
        I don’t know much about sports and whenever I hear training camp I feel like it’s a retreat. However, for athletes, training is essential. So if that’s what they’re really doing…
        The Cambridges don’t have that excuse bc of the sheer amount of leeway in their positions. Even if they say a morale boost was essential they had non travel options to do that.

  11. Blue36 says:

    Notice how the rota is silent about this? This was so tone deaf to do and I’m surprised they ignored government restrictions. They really are entitled huh?

    • Ginger says:

      They will be completely silent on this because they were selling this tour as the greatest thing ever and everyone was thrilled to see them. They will just make up another Harry and Meghan article to try and steer the attention away from this.

    • Nic919 says:

      Palmolive is trying to suggest that the Scottish government wasn’t clear enough in their emails and should have been more direct. I mean what isn’t clear with “we will have a travel ban with no end date in sight so it would be better if you postponed this”.
      None of this choo choo tour was essential work and they all know it. Only buffoons and bootlickers pretend otherwise.

      They helped spread the variant with their actions. People will die because of their nonsense. But it was essential for Kate to get her train tour.

      • JT says:

        I thought being too direct was a no no in British culture? At least that’s what said about Meghan. The Scottish government was perfectly clear, W&K just didn’t give a f*ck.

      • ArtHistorian says:

        So he’s basically saying that the Cambs’ staff is too stupid to read between the lines. That’s not a flattering image of how they run their office.

    • steph says:

      Is the daily mail part of the rr or just a really popular sh*tty tabloid? I read this article there.

  12. Implicit says:

    MR I’m the Next King must Be absolutely incandescent with rage that he doesn’t have Harry to throw to the wolves nor Megan to blame for everything. What is he doing with out his kicking posts? Watch out Harry and Megan there will be another smear campaign for existing just to take some heat off of the Covid Cambridge’s

  13. Ginger says:

    I laugh at the articles saying Will and Kate had a “good Coronavirus” and how people look to the RF for strength during this pandemic. The RF really messed up during this. Their actions prove how little they care and they used the pandemic for good PR. They can’t even wear masks consistently. They really are pathetic.

  14. Lizzie says:

    Uh oh, three day photo op backfired. New photo of the Cambridge kids coming up in 3,2…

    • JackieFox says:

      They did. After the backlash from the train trip, they pulled out the Cambridge kids and took them to that pantomime. I wonder if they’d have taken their kids out into Covid commoner land if the train trip was a PR success. Once the shallow UK media saw the three tots, they went ‘aw look how perfect the Cambridges are’, and immediately forgot about the train trip. They were probably briefed to run with it.

      • Becks1 says:

        And then they followed that up with the stupid Sandringham outing, and now this story has gained traction again. So the photo-op only worked for a little while.

  15. Amy Bee says:

    I’m not surprised by this news. William and Kate are just terrible people.

    • Amy Bee says:

      Of course, there’s complete silence from the royal rota on this story. No surprise about this either.

      • Keen Kate says:

        The rota should have picked the Sussexes, they would have made more money and had more to talk about: proper projects well thought through.

        There would have been no need for silly puff pieces about Willnot and Cannot who have no real work to write about, just their keeness and ‘not fake but real’ smiles. The British public and media used to think they were only ornamental and lazy.

      • JT says:

        They absolutely should’ve chosen the Sussexes. W&K gave them nothing prior to Harry marrying and they give the press nothing now. They’ve always been lazy and boring. Out of their own mouths Meghan brought a spark back to royal reporting and she made them so much money. If the rest of the firm were unhappy with positive coverage of Meghan than the press should’ve said deal with it or will give the royals something to be mad about. We all know the press has all of the secrets and therefore has all of the power. The RF would’ve just had to sulk about.

  16. ABritGuest says:

    They did this for PR& visibility. Betty said that she has to be seen. If Wills is taking after her, wouldn’t be surprised if this mantra is drilled into him & that’s why they wanted to do this. The rota also wanted content with no royal tours & Sandringham cancelled. Wonder how much Westminster was pushing for this too although they tried distancing themselves at one point.

    It was actually a great idea& maybe they can look into it again when things are safer. Doing it when they did was wrong especially when there were great ideas for how to do similar virtually. It’s even worse now we know they ignored official warnings& that timing wise there was a spike in the winter & subsequently U.K. covid cases are almost at March 2020 levels.

    Plus the royals haven’t even been modelling good behaviour. These royals are lucky the press will cover for them though.

    • JT says:

      But they have barely been seen this year which, incidentally, is the same amount they’ve worked in previous years. Someone here said that W&K have the same numbers as the queen. A 95 year old woman. This is shameful. They need a new playbook and staff that can actually think outside of the box. No wonder they’re always copying Harry and Meghan. Nobody over there has any good ideas. It’s incompetence galore, like the trump administration.

      • Mignionette says:

        It’s nepotism. A lot of courtiers are family friends, old school chums etc etc.

        Basically people of the ‘right social status’ who want to be Royal adjacent without the talent. That may have been ok in the days before press scrutiny, but really the BRF need to employ proper employees now.

        This is why the courtiers hated Meghan so much. Her American competitive efficiency must have been terrifying for them.

        Personal anecdote here but I work with a lot of North American’s in my line of work i.e. USA and Canada. I’ve seen first hand how some Brits find Americans in particular annoying, too confident and pushy.

        Notice that ‘pushy’ was a word that TOD (Sammy) used from the get go. This is why I have always felt she had been groomed and primed by RR’s whom in turn had been groomed and briefed by courtiers.

        That was the whole narrative against Meghan initially and I am guessing that is based on orders from William.

      • ABritGuest says:

        They wanted to be seen with the plebs. No doubt the royal press were fed up with zooms& wanted better views of Kate’s outfits for their affiliate links.

        There was the bare minimum the royals had to do in order to be effective during this pandemic & some couldn’t even do that. That’s why they need the rota though. The ruling class get by because there’s very little real scrutiny of their actions or consequences for them.

        I was just speaking to a friend from the Caribbean that’s recently moved to the U.K. from Japan and we were talking about networking & how British society can be so closed off compared to others making it harder to break through careers wise if you don’t have the right contacts book. I imagine Meghan’s direct approach in reaching out to people & trying to make things happen would have been off putting to aristo types who don’t have to do that because of their family connections& regraded as ‘pushy’.

    • Becks1 says:

      I do think the idea of a train tour could have worked maybe in May or June as a “tourism is back!” kind of thing. I dont understand what Will and Kate are thinking sometimes. Their summer vacations to Cornwall – bc I think there was more than one – those could have been very easy PR wins. Show some pictures of the Cambridges in vacation mode, getting ice cream, bicyling around, whatever – with the caption “look how much fun you can have within the UK! Stay here!” The Spanish royals did something similar last summer and I thought it was pretty successful. Or there are always some pictures released of their summer vacation and again, I think its successful because it does what the royals are supposed to do at least in part- promotes the country for tourism.

      But like everything else with these two, the Cambridges completely missed the boat.

      • Sofia says:

        I agree. I said it when the news of the tour happening first came out that the tour itself isn’t a bad idea TO DO IN SUMMER.

        Good idea, horrible horrible timing.

      • Charlie says:

        Maybe, MAYBE, If they had used this as an opportunity to distribute vaccines and essential items – but anything of substance seems to genuinely escape these two.

    • Lizzie says:

      I think the whole idea behind the train tour specifically was to do something that the Sussex’s cannot do.

    • Nic919 says:

      They created situations where people gathered to see them when the fast spreading variant was boosting in numbers. It is next to impossible that they were not directly involved in spreading covid in some of the areas they visited, especially where everyone was unmasked.

      And all for their own ego. Such useless buffoons.

  17. SarahCS says:

    I am SO pleased that this has come out. It was an awful idea which actively put people at risk and went against every piece of guidance and what all visible ‘leaders’ should have been doing. They live in their own gold plated bubble surrounded by sycophants and need to be called out when they are doing things this bad.

    • L84Tea says:

      I am here for the fact that they are still feeling the backlash for this a month later. Normally with Bill and Kathy, that’s unheard of. You two clowns wanted all the credit for that assbackwards idea, well, have at it. Spoiled, entitled brats!!

      • JT says:

        I think the backlash is still there because this is serious. People are dying, governments have to fight to get people to stay still, and here are W&K saying f*ck you to everyone. Royals are supposed to be a soap opera. A distraction. What happens when the royals are no longer a diversion but a part of the problem? This right here. People aren’t going to forget this for a long time, especially those who’ve lost loved ones to COVID. They’ve done the opposite of the queen raising morale during WWII, supposedly their inspiration.

    • Nic919 says:

      And frankly what they did was contrary to the law because pretending what they did was work is utter bullshit. And the Scottish rule stated that charitable work could be done only if it could not be done by another method. They could have done zoom videos. There was absolutely no need for this stupid covid tour. Their entourage helped spread a deadly virus. Good job Billy! Killing your future subjects is always smart.

  18. JT says:

    What I don’t get is royalty as a job is purely symbolic. They don’t have to solve a crises, they have no real power. Why is it that the entire House of Windsor is so damn bad at modeling good behavior and being role models? Everyone keeps saying that they are uplifting the nation, but how? All they have been doing is flaunting in the plebes faces that the rules don’t apply to them. They’ve been MIA for much of the year and they’ve hardly raised any money for charity. They visit hospices with no masks, breathing all over vulnerable people. They can’t even keep up a consistent zoom schedule. Why are they so bad at this? Who is advising them? My God.

    • Kalana says:

      Because part of privilege and status is getting better treatment than other people and both Kate and William are defined and very greedy about their privilege. They won’t make themselves do what everyone else is required to do because then they’re not special anymore.

  19. TheOriginalMia says:

    Entitled, tone deaf twits didn’t listen to reason before embarking on their pandemic tour. Color me not surprised. Of course, they didn’t listen. They are the FFMonarchs. Kate wanted to ride on the train. William wanted to show up his dad. Of course, they weren’t thinking of the plebs. It was all about them.

  20. Mignionette says:

    Courtiers throwing these two under the bus now that COVID is raging in the UK and we’re about to reach 2,000 deaths a day….

    Stevie Wonder saw this coming.

    • steph says:

      Holy sh*t! Are you guys really approaching 2000 deaths per day?! That’s getting close to our (america) numbers but yall have a lot less people. That is terrible and my heart goes out to you all on that side.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      Yep with restrictions about to get even tougher – have seen talk of reducing the rule of 6, removing support bubbles and even only allowing people out once a week.

      The next 2 weeks are going to be awful in the UK, esp in London where its the current hotspot for the new variant which give it a few more weeks will be rampant in the rest of the country as the fkwits are not following the rules.

  21. The Duchess says:

    Well, of course they did. They believe their own hype so much, they thought that the plebs would’ve wanted to see them regardless of a global pandemic occurring or not. They really think they are God’s gift! If this is their way of thinking, then the monarchy needs to go now rather than later, but the Brits will forever be brainwashed by this circus show.

  22. Pétulia says:

    Unfortunately and that really bothers me, this news won’t reach mainstream media. W&K are seen as saint that can’t do no wrong. The RR lack critical thinking to even covers this.

    • Becks1 says:

      This particular news might not, but the actual train trip was covered in major newspapers here in the US, along with their maskless light walk in Sandringham. (Washington Post and New York Times both had stories about it.) So while this whole “the government said this but we heard that” might not make it back into the mainstream press, the final impression of Will and Kate in 2020 in the US for anyone who was paying attention was, “we dont follow the rules and we dont care.”

    • Alexandria says:

      Isn’t the RR made up of mostly tabloids? Do the tabloids in the UK write up critical pieces?

      I don’t understand why the BBC doesn’t write about this.

      • Sofia says:

        It is. The only non-tabloid newspapers are the Times and the Telegraph, both of which are Tory leaning anyways.

        The rota was never established so that critical pieces about the BRF would be written. It was established so that a select group of people part of the rota would go to an engagement and then share that info with everyone else not in the rota. It is a way to save time and effort by the larger media and the BRF so that not everyone needs to go to Anne’s latest hospital opening or whatever and if they didn’t go, it meant they could still write about the event.

  23. February-Pisces says:

    I think they did this train wreck tour because the ratchet rota was getting angsty about the lack of content this year. Whilst the Keens have been ‘zooming’ the ratchet rota have not been able to take their own pictures and get their own content that they usually get during engagements. I think they were most likely complaining to KP that business was suffering and they weren’t making the cash they usually do. The Keens need to keep the ratchet rota fed otherwise they risk being turned on. I think that was the real reason for this disaster train tour. With the rota being fed, they were never going to actually criticise this so the Keens thought they were safe, and would continue to be embiggened. I don’t think they were prepared for so much criticism elsewhere.

    • Keen Kate says:

      I think this was the case @FEBRUARY-PISCES

      • JT says:

        The rota still aren’t making money on the Cambridges, so it’s high time some stories get leaked. Nothing W&K have done made a dent in the news, except this awful COVID tour, so the strategy of kissing ass is not working.

  24. Keen Kate says:

    These two are so stupid and arrogant! The same goes for their staff and much of the English media. Glad to see that Scottish politicians/civil servants and newspapers are calling them out.

    Their idiot fans were insisting that the UK government requested this trip, no they did not!

    This is what happens when you’ve got a massive ego and you’ve never really had a proper job.

    Put this on your front pages English newspapers! Have this as your lead story English news programmes!

  25. Julia K says:

    They are both almost 40 years old; a bit late in the day to expect adult decision-making with critical thinking skills. This is what will always be, U.K.

  26. Lizzie says:

    Top CEO and gold standard advisors at work.

  27. Tre2 says:

    I really had high hopes for that polar express in Scotland but the covid devil smashed it into a billion pieces. Next time, send BOJO
    “ON YER BIKE.”

  28. Le4Frimaire says:

    Ok, now I get why the UK press we’re putting out all negative these Harry and Meghan stories about social media and the wreath. KP had probably been contacted to comment for this COVID train story.

  29. Kalana says:

    Kate and William tried to pull the same embiggening stunt after the fires in Australia and in that case were firmly told no and to raise money instead.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      Yeah, they wanted a free holiday to Australia as thats how they often treat their international engagements.

      Their 2nd trip to Canada was because William let it slip to the press that Kate wanted to go back and next thing Trudeau invited them – it did not go down well with Canadians. They tried the same PR trick with the Aussies who told them to fk off. I think i recall reading that, again, Kate wanted to visit.

    • I’d forgotten about that, Kalana….but you’re right. They were told to stay home and raise money that Australia didn’t have time to fart around with a royal tour while they were dealing with those devastating fires. The Cambridge’s will never learn.

  30. Delphine says:

    I really do believe Kate did this because she read an article about Meghan having ridden the train while she had not. I wish I could find it. It came out 1-2 days before the tour was announced.

    • steph says:

      There were plenty of articles noting that Kate had never ridden the train right after the actual event of Meghan riding it with the queen. However most of them were smearing Meghan bc she didn’t wear a hat. Maybe Kate was too busy rolling in her glee about it to notice that her never riding the train was pointed out.

  31. steph says:

    I don’t know if I’m surprised by this or not. I’ve known for quite some time that they are lazy, self serving, egomaniac with little intelligence who think they are the smartest ppl in the room. So that they put together a dangerous and disastrous event flaunting the rules doesn’t surprise me. I guess I am a little surprised that they disregarded a direct request from the government. Or maybe I’m surprised that there was such a direct request at all. UK officials seem to kiss the BRFs as*es as much as the courtiers and rr.

  32. Lizzie says:

    These two are so thirsty for attention they literally do not care who they kill. Did they pick up and spread the new variant? Doesn’t matter, Keen has her hair blow dried and we must all admire.

  33. Kitty says:

    Am I the only one who thinks their titles/status are becoming useless and meaningless each passing day?

    • Mignionette says:

      ^^ Yep hence why they had to ride the COVID express so that everyone could see and remember Kate smiling manically like a lunatic.

      I am giving it 10 years.

      Whilst the Tories have protected the BRF, they are also all about the bottom line. If it’s more profitable to break up the Union and turn the UK into the new Switzerland that’s what they will do and that could become problematic for they Royals as they become increasingly toothless and redundant.

  34. CrystalBall says:

    It was extremely selfish of them to go on their PR tour – one rule for them, another for everyone else. When will they ever grow up?

    Wiglet watch for those who have trouble spotting it: Kate’s wiglet is very visible in the top photo. It is clipped on right behind her parting across the top of her head. Riding higher than her own hair and a different colour. Once seen, it can never be unseen!

    • Wiglet Watcher says:

      Crystalball… you from the early wiglet watch days? Can never be unseen was something LAK used to say.

    • Nic919 says:

      Another example is to look at the photo in the pink suit where she and Billy exposed first responders to his covid posted a few days ago. Her hair is much thinner in that photo. There isn’t the volume like there is here which is obviously aided by a wiglet or extensions.

  35. Megs says:

    Not much to say, but at least Celtic provide entertainment value. I still haven’t figured out W&K’s purpose (tbf, neither have they)

  36. Sunnyvale says:

    They singlehandedly made the case for Scottish independence+Republic. I don’t see this dying down anytime soon. I bet it’ll be debated more soon especially in English channels despite however they try to cover for them. Im waiting for the national or some researcher to dig deeper into this and analyse covid cases since this disaster tour and link it to the rising cases. I bet that they’ll be uncovered as responsible for the rapid spread of the new mutated virus into other parts of the UK