Prince William & Kate still insist that ‘all rules were fully adhered to’ for their train tour

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meet Cardiff University Students

I’m pleased to see that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s ridiculous and dangerous Covid Choo Choo Tour is still making headlines. The tour happened about five weeks ago, just before the UK went through another round of strict lockdown protocols. Which isn’t to disregard the protocols which were already in place during the planning of the tour and the tour itself – William and Kate chose to ride the Royal Train into Scotland even though Scotland was in a much stricter lockdown than England. It was this stop in Scotland by the Keens which has caused the most controversy and consternation. At the time, Nicola Sturgeon let her displeasure be known, and now we’ve learned that Scottish government figures were warning Kensington Palace to postpone their asinine tour. So what do Will and Kate have to say for themselves? Well…

Prince William and Duchess Kate’s royal train tour to thank frontline workers across the United Kingdom may have been executed with good intentions, but emails released by the Scottish government today reveal that aides working for the royal couple ignored requests to postpone travel during nationwide restrictions. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s three-day trip covered 1,250 miles across multiple stops in Britain, but it was their visits to Wales and Scotland that were heavily criticized by politicians due to restrictions permitting only “essential” travel at the time.

Kensington Palace tells BAZAAR.com that the working visit adhered to all rules and “was planned in consultation with the U.K., Scottish and Welsh governments.” However, a Freedom of Information request made by Scottish newspaper The National revealed that Scottish government officials had emailed the royal household on a number of occasions to warn of the “major impact” the tour would have during such a sensitive time.

A spokesperson for the Cambridges responded to the new reports in a statement to BAZAAR. “The same guidance we gave last month [before the tour] still stands,” it reads, before reiterating their comments given during the trip last December. “The Duke and Duchess were travelling for work purposes and all rules were fully adhered to. The trip was planned in consultation with the U.K., Scottish and Welsh governments.”

Cases and deaths in the U.K. have recently hit new highs, as hospitals are currently at breaking point. More than 80,000 deaths have been recorded in the country—the worst death toll in Europe and the fifth worst in the world.

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

If you go to the story, you can see the full comments from John Somers, the principal private secretary to Nicola Sturgeon who warned W&K of the ongoing travel restrictions and then urged them strongly to postpone. James Hynd, head of cabinet, parliament, and governance also contacted Kensington Palace to warn them away from visiting Scotland given the restrictions on travel. And Kensington Palace is STILL insisting – after they got two very high-level warnings from Scottish political figures – that they coordinated their tour with Scottish, Welsh and English governments and they adhered to the “rules.” There’s this thing, it’s called “adhering to the letter, but not the spirit of the law.” That’s what W&K are doing – because they didn’t *technically* break any rule and because they were not explicitly banned from going on this asinine tour, they think they’re in the right. The spirit of the pandemic protocols is TO STOP INFECTIONS. Don’t travel when it’s unnecessary, wear a mask even if you’re outdoors, and for God’s sake, stop breathing on children.

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

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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78 Responses to “Prince William & Kate still insist that ‘all rules were fully adhered to’ for their train tour”

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  1. Merricat says:

    I wonder what impact the virus has had on early childhood. Maybe FFQ will have six questions on her next big think.

    • Nic919 says:

      Well right now there is a bit of a scandal with the private company providing food to the children in the UK and how bad the food products are. But princess wiglet has been hidden for a month now so she can’t be arsed to actually help feed young kids. Only useless surveys.

      • Dandun says:

        yes and when you see somebody like Marcus Rashford and all of the time and effort he has put into this issue previously and still continues to do so it really shows how little somebody like Kate does. She could bring a lot of attention to a cause like this that could actually make a difference to some children instead of hiding behind her survey.

      • Noki says:

        Are people complaining because the food is not adequate in standard or they feel short changed and the quantity should be more. This is only suppose to feed school going children, some people are complaining as if its for the whole family for 7 days.

      • Talia says:

        It’s that it has been costed and each parcel is actually worth £6 in a discount supermarket or £10 with brand name items but the (Tory connected) supplier is being paid £30 per parcel. While there would need to be some handling fee, it shouldn’t be 4/5 of the amount paid.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        They hampers are for the child/children who would normally have their lunch/dinner provided by the school. From what I’ve seen people are thinking its to feed the family, though I don’t know if the hamper is a weekly or daily delivery.

      • Alarmjaguar says:

        I saw those Twitter threads with pictures of what the contracted company sent claiming it was $30 (British currency) worth of food and it was nothing vs what people could actually buy with the same amount. Clearly the contracted company was making a huge profit off of children going hungry!! It was shocking

      • tcbc says:

        @Noki Have you seen the photos of the actual food provided? A child would eat more in one day. Plus the the company is charging the government 30 pounds/order on what looks like 5 pounds worth of food. It’s disgraceful, and people have a right to be upset.

      • Kalana says:

        Does Britain not have the equivalent of EBT cards? Why even waste money by having a middleman company?

    • Sofia says:

      I don’t even know what Kate’s purpose with the EY is. Yes she wants to raise awareness but is that it? What will that awareness do? Is it going to lead to policy changes in the UK? Will Kate go “political” to advocate for those? I doubt it? Does she want more funding into EY? Good idea but it’s not being made clear.

      Kate and KP should have picked sport as Kate’s interest/project. It’s the one consistent thing about her: she loves sports. She likes tennis, she likes working out and she’s in her element at this outdoorsy/sporting engagements aka she’s much happier and genuinely enjoying it IMO.

      • Amy Bee says:

        It’s not to influence or change policy. I think it’s so she is seen to be productive and caring. I think KP should have modelled after Princess Anne and the Queen instead of trying to make her an advocate.

      • Sofia says:

        @Amy Bee: I completely agree that Kate would be better of doing the “bread and butter” engagements. I (along with others) have been saying that for months. I was just saying that if Kate needed a big passion project interest, EY was not the way to go and she could have chosen to focus on sports instead as she really likes that.

      • Amy Bee says:

        @Sofia: I don’t understand why she needed a passion project to begin with. Would the rota have criticised her if she just did as Anne and the Queen do?

      • Ginger says:

        Yes, Kate should stick to bread and butter engagements, it fits her more. Launching projects are not her thing. You can tell she gives zero craps about charity work. They shouldn’t push her to be something she isn’t.

      • Becks1 says:

        Kate absolutely should stick to bread and butter engagements, she doesnt have the drive or the interest to launch big projects- but the problem with the bread and butter engagements is that you have to show up consistently. With projects like the Early Years or the garden, she gets a lot of mileage out of them while someone else does the bulk of the work. She has no desire to work like Anne or even like Sophie (who has always outworked Kate), and so she doesnt. If you are going to stick to bread and butter engagements, then you have to do more of them.

        Of course then you have someone like Charles who does big projects and lots of daily engagements.

      • Sofia says:

        @Amy Bee: she doesn’t need one but if the palace are so adamant she has to have one then sports was the way to go. That’s what I’ve been trying to say.

        And no, she wouldn’t have been criticised. In fact bread and butter engagements would mean Kate would be photographed more which equals to more revenue for them

      • Amy Bee says:

        @Becks1: You make a good point about the bread and butter engagements requiring Kate to get out more. Maybe KP could have made an arrangement with the rota saying that Kate would for the most part be a stay at home mother until the children go to boarding school. I just think her doing these big passion projects without the passion sets her up for failure. The same goes for William.

      • JT says:

        One of the RR stated in an article that the early years will specifically NOT change any government policy. The entire initiative is a waste of time only created because Meghan’s cookbook was about to be launched. Kate had no intentions of being a project based royal until Meg came along. Even William had to come up with something, earthshot, afterwards. Although Harry always had projects, William never had any plans to create anything and didn’t for years.

      • Becks1 says:

        @AmyBee – you know, in some ways I would respect Kate and the Cambridges/KP more if they did just come out and say that – “for the foreseeable future, the Duchess will be focused on raising her children and providing a solid foundation for them and will not a full time royal while the children are in the house, although she may do some royal engagements.”

        I think people would go through the roof, but that’s basically what she’s doing anyway, so just come out and say it rather than all this BS about how keen she is every year.

        (and that’s not getting into the whole “can she be a SAHM when she’s on the royal payroll” part of it.)

      • GRUEY says:

        Her apologists will argue the usual: she can’t get involved in child hunger solutions; she can’t actually spend her own money; she can’t actually *do* anything. What is the point of these useless idiots?

      • Kalana says:

        Her apologists won’t even bother defending her. They’ll simply ignore the problem and change the conversation to her title, her hair, her clothes and being shitty to Meghan. That’s it.

        The Cambridge stans know there’s no substance there. They follow Kate because she’s a living doll to them and a symbol of white supremacy. That’s it.

    • Noodle says:

      @merricat, every single professor in my department is researching and writing about how the pandemic has impacted education and educational systems, more so what can we learn from this to improve those systems. I mean, we all know she is keen for keenness alone, but this is a huge missed opportunity for her.

      • Elizabeth Regina says:

        Nah! She is waiting for other people’s research to be completed so she can pen her name to it. I suspect her name is not the big draw that KP thinks it is and many academics are wary of being associated with her.

      • Kalana says:

        Academics already spent a year compiling research in 2019. Kate gave them no credit for their hard work and instead debuted the groundbreaking result of 8 years of *her* work: the 5 question survey.

    • Ariel says:

      Hahahaha- Thank you Merricat, i needed that laugh this morning.

    • Alexandra Eyfjord says:

      Hah!

  2. Nic919 says:

    Pretending what they did was work and therefore an exception to the lockdown is something that should be challenged in court. This is how much the monarchy has corrupted the UK that no one is seriously challenging that this crap was actual essential work. And even using the charity exception it fails because in Scotland the rule states that the exception for charity only applies if the work could not be done in any other way which we know is false since they zoomed themselves to the bone prior to this.

    The emails from the Scottish government are clear in suggesting that they postpone the trip until the lockdown was over and they chose to ignore it. Outside of replying “stay the fuck away morons” how much more specific do they need to be?

    KP, in particular William, was out of touch and did not care to listen to what the plebs in government were telling them. This is a failure of being too arrogant and consistently wrong about how to handle covid. No other politicians were doing these ego trips during the pandemic except for Trump so that should have told them how bad of an idea this was.

    • Myra says:

      Eating marshmallows in the cold is hard work and completely essential, too. She totally deserved a brand new £1k+ dress every week during the pandemic after all that heavy lifting. Their smiles uplifted the mood of the nation and filled the empty bellies of England’s children. Just seeing them happy, well-dressed and not black stabilised the country after all that Brexit shambles (which we totally no longer want to hear about anymore).The health workers were lucky that the heir to the throne graced them with his presence. They should be thanking him, if anything.

      • L84Tea says:

        “Just seeing them happy, well-dressed and not black stabilised the country after all that Brexit shambles”

        This line got me. It’s hilarious and yet so sad because there’s so much hidden truth in there.

      • CrystalBall says:

        Very well said!

        You would not think a pandemic is happening when you see the royal nitwits without masks engaging members of the public. They are shamefully arrogant and out of touch with reality.

    • Noodle says:

      They are redefining “consultation”. To them, consultation is when you coordinate something with someone, they say no, and then you do it anyways. What a spirit of cooperation and collaboration with these two!

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      The RF, esp the Cambridges, have always done what they want – nothing gonna change there.

      Its interesting that this story still hasn’t gone away – someone is pushing it, why else would they use an FOI request to get emails.

      The press are getting antsy that they are not getting click baity stories from the RF and the Cambridges. Time to feed the kids to the beast, again.

      • Becks1 says:

        It hasnt gone away and the KP line hasnt changed – didnt they have that same like about “adhering to all guidelines” and working with the different governments when this first happened? Its been a month, you would think that they would have come up with something better by now, especially since we now see what exactly the scottish government was saying to them.

  3. Lizzie says:

    And trumps speech inciting an insurrection was appropriate. Sure.

    • Elizabeth Regina says:

      Exactly. The way they are not being held to account is astounding. This is blatant gaslighting of the highest order. This pair are in for a rude awakening from the public. Even the covid express photos show so many breaches. Well they wanted the spotlight? Now they’ve got it.

  4. Chaine says:

    Starting to feel as if the Royal COVID Tour will be one of the things about this couple in history books centuries from now noting the role they played in accelerating this pandemic.

    • Nic919 says:

      You can pretty much guarantee that at some locations they helped accelerate the spread of the variant. Especially any of the maskless events. That pantomime had to have been a super spreader event too. A bunch of children indoors without a mask was idiotic because kids can spread covid even if asymptomatic. The UK government has been so stupid about masks and safe distancing and now they are dealing with about 2000 deaths per day. All the guidelines people have been very quiet for a while now.

      • ABritGuest says:

        that March 2020 video of William joking that he and Kate were spreading the virus is so ironic in context of this train tour.

        The free and fearless press aren’t really going to hold the royal family accountable so.. you only have to look at how the press report on Andrew & Epstein. Must be nice

        Marcus has been like the official opposition on this school meals issue. I thought KP would try to attach to him but the right wing media has started to attack him for making the tories look bad. So perhaps KP will stay away.

        Re query on early years I saw a RR call Kate a campaigner on early years which is interesting. Thought that’s not what royals do. it would have been interesting to look at early years in context of this pandemic & how to help young ones & parents cope. But oh well.

        I always thought Kate should have made sports a focus & do something like Michelle Obama’s let’s move initiative so could combine love of sport with issue of getting kids physically fitter seeing as child obesity has been a concern in recent years.

    • Elizabeth Regina says:

      I hope there are some brave investigative journos out there who don’t fear the palaces so that the truth can be reported more extensively. This pair of lazy do nothings are not remorseful in the least. The anger they have roused will not go away easily.

      • Nic919 says:

        The FOI requests came from Scottish journalists so that is one foot in the right direction. The English RRs are not actual reporters but court stenographers. This train tour was an obvious story for them but they chose to promote it instead of criticizing it for the infectious ego trip that it was.

      • Elizabeth says:

        It’s really interesting to see the difference in countries where Murdoch media has and has not gained a foothold. In New Zealand, for example, if I remember correctly, there is not a right-wing propaganda media like in the UK or US, and people aren’t as heated and generally have progressive politics. I am all for actual principled journalism, but not for racism and “alternative facts” masquerading as some noble cause.

  5. Sofia says:

    I don’t understand (well actually I do) why KP can’t release a statement saying something like: “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had the best intentions when undertaking this tour but now understand in hindsight why it wasn’t such a good idea. They would like to apologise for the disruption caused to the frontline workers and also extend thank yous once again to said workers. In the future, their royal highnesses will be wearing masks to all in person events once lockdown lifts and look forward to helping the country from Zoom and not disturb the vital work of the frontline workers”

    And No10 can do their own apology to Scotland and Wales.

    • Chrissy (The Original) says:

      Nice idea but it’s not gonna happen. The BRF really think they can do anything they want, to heck with the fallout. Their attitude us that it will all blow over and it will as long as the Queen is alive.

      • Sofia says:

        I know this hence why I said I understand why they don’t. I was just giving ideas the same way a lot of people have given great ideas on what Kate can do despite the fact we know Kate and her team won’t implement or even have said ideas.

      • ArtHistorian says:

        They think so BECAUSE there will never be any consequences for them doing stupid shit – other than some bouts of bad press that will eventually go away. They are protected by the entire establishment and the press they generally interact with has pretty much become their own tool of propaganda.

    • Amy Bee says:

      That would be admitting they were wrong to do the tour.

      • Sofia says:

        Which the RR can and could easily spin it as “let’s all move on and accept their apology. they had noble intentions! they’re only human despite being royals and at least they’re not in California like some of the other royals”

        That would be enough for the royalists tbh

      • Lemons says:

        Yeah when the RR is in your pocket, I don’t see the issue with making a quick apology. They could even add “We’re human and make mistakes.”

    • Elizabeth Regina says:

      They are not that smart or remorseful. They are used to being pampered and shielded. They are also used to someone else being thrown under the bus for their mistakes. The irony is that the only international coverage they got for their ‘work’ during the pandemic has been for the choo choo express of doom. The world and his mother saw that it was a bad, bad idea. Why on earth did they not and why can’t they get in front of it and apologise?

      • Sofia says:

        Because they’re surrounded by “yes men” who only say what the Cambridges want to hear.

        I’ve said it above and I’ll say it again: they could very easily apologise for it and make a big deal about how this is a learning moment for them. No need to worry about the royalists/general public believing it because the RR and everyone else will spin it as them being “noble and brave”.

    • Alexandria says:

      Has the Crown or an heir even said sorry or apologized for something?

  6. Talia says:

    The rules are designed to reduce not eliminate risk which is why they apply if it is essential to go out / travel. The ideal situation would be them not following any of the rules for going out because they haven’t left their (very large, servant equipped) home for a completely non-essential tour.

    Also, the nature of the tour with multiple stops across the country and hundreds of people coming out to see them at each stop was even more likely to spread the virus than actual essential trips which often involve going to one location then going home.

  7. Amy Bee says:

    Kate’s too close to that child in the picture. If she wants to go up to anybody like that she should have been wearing a mask. I don’t know, for someone who’s husband allegedly had COVID she seems to not care about infecting people.

    • Myra says:

      She is too close to the guy in red, as well. I hope she is aware that the metal barrier between her and him doesn’t prevent the virus from crossing over.

      • JT says:

        I don’t see how KP can say they were following all of the rules when there was a mask mandate and the tweedlekeens were breathing all over people. Wasn’t there a limit on the amount of people that can be grouped and W&K came with an entire entourage? People can see with their own eyes that they didn’t follow all of the guidelines. And they didn’t listen to the government as shown in the emails.

      • Becks1 says:

        @JT – you raise a good point. It’s not just that william and kate traveled to Scotland and then Wales. They brought staff, including RPOs, and the rota also went with them (not sure how many, but certainly a few.) So in every picture we see of Kate and William, there is staff in the background or back on the train, the RPOs are there, the reporters are there – and they all went back to their families in London or wherever afterwards.

      • JT says:

        They don’t go anywhere alone. Ever. Not even in their private time. W&K just shuffling between homes breaks guidelines. Now would be a good time for a zoom call for new content so that people forget, but the Cambridge’s are probably on vacation. Disappearing during a national crises. So much for raising morale during tough times.

      • Becks1 says:

        Oh that’s right, I forgot they are on vacation. When was the last time we saw the Cambridges?

      • JT says:

        @becks1 a week or two before Christmas. Maybe more to be honest with their habit of hoarding content.

  8. Neners says:

    From a PR standpoint, if you have to keep working overtime to defend the tour, then the tour is a failure. It was a crap idea. This is what happens when you live in a bubble of privilege divorced from real life accountability and surrounded by sycophants.

    • Elizabeth Regina says:

      You are so right. Nobody wanted that tour. They could have done plenty other things to thank key workers but it had to be all about that pair. When you are used to centering yourself putting others first will feel like oppression.

  9. February-Pisces says:

    The fact the Keens went ahead with the train wreak tour against advice, knowing they were breaking lockdown rules goes to show just how arrogant and cocky they are. They thought that they were able to do whatever the hell they want, because they press will always embiggen every single thing they do whilst covering up for them.

  10. Prema says:

    They should have gone to Scotland, Wales and England by train to authorize a large Xmas bonus payment to essential workers, then travel by air to do same for Northern Ireland essential workers. No meetings with large groups etc

    • Keen Kate says:

      As if, these two 🤣

      KP got a £10 million pot of money to spend on Covid related issues and they have only given a small fraction of it away via their silly umbrella organisation

  11. Kitty says:

    Like I said before, their titles/status are becoming very meaningless now. The fact that royalty influence and star power is diminishing and the pandemic has exposed that fact.

    • wendy says:

      They have been meaningless for decades now and few outside the UK and maybe some fringe Commonwealth areas truly GAF about the BRF.

      It wouldn’t surprise me if every last one of them is waiting for Betty to draw her last breath hoping the Monarchy fails…it will probably hobble along for a bit for Charlie due to some nostalgia, but after that the entire house of cards will likely fold and I doubt any of the inhabitants cry a tear over it. They will continue on moneyed, titled and landed without any obligation to the plebs to account for their stolen riches.

  12. SarahCS says:

    Didn’t the guidelines say ‘no non-essential travel’?

    There is no way this waste of my taxes was in any way ‘essential’.

    • kelleybelle says:

      Nope, it wasn’t. Total bollocks, and also a complete waste of money on clothes … and hair extensions.

  13. tee says:

    the palaces are allergic to accountability. but that seems to be a thing for public figures these days.

  14. Over it says:

    Always in the right these two . Never do a thing wrong. Trying to make people believe that the bride to be made you cry at her dress fitting. Meghan fault . Not being a kind supportive brother, and throwing him under the bus , Harry fault, super spreader train tour, Scott or the aides fault. When will William and Kate grow the heck up and take responsibility for all the shit that they do ?

    • Keen Kate says:

      God, I want Meghan to say that she didn’t make Kate cry. I highly doubt both Kate and Meghan were there anyway. Kate was busy with her newborn, her hair and her diet/exercise. Meghan was busy with her new life (inc. new house/new country move) and wedding planning.

  15. Nyro says:

    These two just keep taking L after L. The future future king and his queen, folks. What a clown show.

  16. Kalana says:

    The Crown can never be wrong. Anyone who tries to claim the Crown is wrong is an anti-monarchist and not worth taking seriously. Rinse and repeat.

    The family thinks in terms of photo-ops so as far as they’re concerned the tour was a success.

    If other people get hurt in the process then oh well. The Crown matters more than them.

  17. Mia says:

    I just love what @Elizabeth Regina said – “When you are used to centering yourself putting others first will feel like oppression.”
    Basically white tears in a nutshell

    Imagine how many children could be fed with the cost of any one of Kate’s coats 😒

  18. Dee says:

    Compare the Covid Choo Choo tour to what Princess Sofia of Sweden did, actually volunteering in a hospital. Kate and Will never do any actual work. It’s all keeness and pretense.

  19. candy says:

    There were many instances when the tour didn’t adhere to the rules – the point is people aren’t capable of following these rules. There were photo documented instances of this (like masks down around their chin, not staying 6 ft apart, etc), which is why you should largely quarantine unless you’re an essential worker. They are very out of touch.