All of the British papers had stories about Queen Elizabeth this weekend and it’s getting to be… a lot. In the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview, one of the most damaging things to the monarchy wasn’t even what they said explicitly, it was just the vague impression – received from a series of breadcrumbs left by Harry – that the Queen is not really in charge. That the Men in Grey are running the show, with the Charles Regency in full effect. Which is why the Mail on Sunday actually ran a panicked little story called “The Queen is not a puppet! Her Majesty has never been more in charge or more ready to be ruthless after Harry and Meghan’s claim that ‘men in suits’ run the monarchy.” These people are so obvious, my God.
In the refined environment of Windsor Castle, a calmness is slowly being re-established following the tremors of that Oprah Winfrey interview. When not at her desk working, the Queen is said to enjoy playing cards with her lady-in-waiting.
‘There is a sense of order, not panic,’ a source says. After all, there are more pressing national matters than the Sussexes’ salvo of woes.
Worries about the global pandemic and financial earthquake apart, the Queen was greatly relieved to welcome home her husband after four weeks of hospital treatment. Prince Philip, less than 100 days shy of his 100th birthday, is said to be in good spirits. Yet for all the outward calm, something profound has changed at Windsor – and decisively so.
For these are extraordinary times for the Royal Family. In response to Harry and Meghan’s incendiary and hurtful accusations – addressed to a global TV audience of millions – the Queen has responded with a show of force. She has made it as clear as possible that she, and she alone, remains in charge. Such leadership is vital. The Sussexes’ claims are not just hurtful, they are dangerous to the image of the Windsors and of Britain as a country.
Yeah, if you have to make this big of a point that Liz is in charge, then she isn’t. She’s just a pawn of a far-right wing (and incompetent) political operation. And notice that these Men in Grey can’t even get their stories straight – Liz doesn’t even care about the Sussexes but she’s in charge of this far-reaching response to the Sussexes across several palaces. Uh-huh. Speaking of, it certainly sounds like *someone* knows that there’s a lot of racism in the palaces:
The Queen is to appoint a diversity tsar to modernise the Monarchy, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Sources say the proposed move is an acknowledgment that ‘more needs to be done’ to champion minorities’ rights and follows the explosive claims made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex of institutional racism.
As part of a major drive encompassing Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace, aides will undertake a ‘listen and learn’ exercise over the coming weeks which will involve speaking to a range of businesses and individuals about how the Monarchy can improve representation. Plans seen by this newspaper detail how the Palace will ‘seek independent views’ to help assess and improve the approach to diversity – including ethnic minorities, the disabled and the gay and trans communities. The potential recruitment of a diversity chief to champion reform is also set out.
A Royal source said: ‘This is an issue which has been taken very seriously across the Households. We have the policies, procedures and programmes in place but we haven’t seen the progress we would like and accept more needs to be done. We can always improve. We are not afraid to look at new ways of approaching it. The work to do this has been under way for some time now and comes with the full support of the family.’ The project has been given fresh impetus as Harry and Meghan appear to step up their battle with the Royal Family over racism.
This about how f–king stupid these people are. They had a front-row seat to their own vile, racist, misogynistic smear campaign against Meghan and it was so bad that Meghan LEFT THE COUNTRY and called out their racism in a huge interview… and it’s only now that they’re doing a little bit of busywork with a “diversity czar.” Lord. “I’m astonished and shocked to learn how racist we’ve been for centuries!” GMAFB. But sure, Liz is “in charge.”
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, WENN.
The good thing that came out of this is that any racists in the palace will have to thread very carefully now, or stories might come out.
Actually all of this means next to nothing, unfortunately.
I’ve worked in diversity; SOOOOO many companies freak out and hire a diversity trainer/consultant/ leader/ expert when their asses get put on blast. The only way to really change things is by removing the people at the center who are the worst of the problem and at this particular institution, those are the exact people who are never ever ever going anywhere. It’s a wash.
They’ll make a good show of hiring someone, demonize THAT person when things get uncomfortable. Get defensive and complain about being “policed” and eventually push THAT person out having made only minimal change or growth (because the diversity person “didn’t understand the ins and outs of their organization” or some other whining bs complaint.)
It’s so funny that royals really are just like white folks (and their organizations) anywhere else.
JFC, racial diversity and racial equality are NOT the same.
Replying to myself to add that I think that Queen Elizabeth herself is way more racially progressive than the rest of the family and that the Firm goes out of its way to hide and prevent that from being known. Read up on her relationship with Nelson Mandela (Mandela is the only person in the world who publicly addressed her as Elizabeth or “Lizzie” and they were pen pals and real friends), how much she adores Barack Obama (it’s actually quite hilarious, she’s been trying for years to have him and Michelle invited to visit her again, but nooooo idiot advisors won’t allow because he’s a former President and it’s against protocol), her and Michelle embracing and what the Queen herself said about it, which is frankly pretty badass (how she was pleased to show affection and respect for such a powerful woman, meaning Michelle, and that there is no real protocol for a meeting of two such women). The entire concept of the British monarchy is racist AF, but I suspect that she personally has evolved and that the Institution is appalled and wants to bury it.
LadyE, we know that but they don’t because they are not capable of identifying the difference.
I see your points and they are all outstanding. It seems to solidify that TQ is not being advised wisely, or truthfully, and that the men in grey suits are fulfilling their agenda or the agenda of CH or Baldimort. TQ must take a stand, publicly, about the treatment and the continuing onslaught of the racist smear campaign against Meghan. It’s up to TQ to make a public statement and to publicly call off the dogs against Harry and Meghan. They are the ones that have paid the price of these ludicrous scumbags from BP, close source of BP, CH and every news organization that has participated in the ongoing smear campaign. This will never end until every one is put in their place.
@uptown girl- But, that’s where it gets interesting, right? Why should QE do that? Because ultimately doing that is providing cover for the RF and I’m not really convinced that she wants to save their butts. Look, it seems that she is totally chill with H&M, zooming with them and sending waffle irons to Archie. This is Charles and William’s mess. An apology and denouncement would just increase pressure for “forgiveness” and for the real Firm endgame to get Harry back because they need him and they know it. But, Harry and Meghan don’t want to come back and I think that it would be incredibly harmful to them mentally if they did re-engage. So, I actually support the Queen letting C and W do their absolute worst and continue to destroy the monarchy’s future, and certainly do real damage to the Commonwealth, as long as Harry and Meghan are safe and prospering outside of the UK. I personally believe that the Queen has accepted that her heirs are going to crash and burn the monarchy and she is ok with that. I don’t want her doing damage control for them and, again, any apologies should be and I bet have been made privately when she speaks with H and M.
“Sources say the proposed move is an acknowledgment that ‘more needs to be done’ to champion minorities’ rights.”
Maybe they should recruit a biracial HRH Princess of Color to do full time Royal Duchessing. Wait! Wait! They had one until she resigned. Do you think they may try an recruit another? LOL! LOL!
Does not diversity need to start from the top down?
The BRF needs to learn that race, racism, diversity, and equity are all different things and all essential if they want a truly inclusive institution. Hiring more BIPOC/LGBTQ is not the full solution.
Yup. Imagine bringing in even more POC to subject them to the same torment you subjected a biracial member of the royal family. And they will be less powerful to have their voices heard. Charles famously kept one of his royal aides on the job even after he had called another member of staff the n-word. How can you invite someone to work in such an environment?
@myra- that is the tip of the iceberg with that particular aide. Oh goodness, are you familiar with that man?? I think it’s around 2002-03, but there was a very, very huge scandal involving him raping a junior aide and him being involved sexually with Prince Charles (Charles outed himself as the “senior Royal”, I remember reading about it in the Guardian and US papers at the time). He was eventually forced to resign because of allegations of embezzlement or some financial shenanigans. THEN, for reasons I cannot fathom, Charles put him in charge of his private company and like 2 or 3 years ago rehired the dude to run one of his Royal charities. NOW, that same aide is the CEO of the new stream-lined Prince Charles charities, so basically overseeing all four of them. That whole situation with that man is just beyond me. Smells to high heaven.
But, on the racism case against him, Charles proposed that man to coordinate Harry and Meghan’s wedding ceremony. Serious. Just WTF. As you say, I can’t even imagine the nightmare of a minority working in that environment.
Oh my!!! There is still so much I don’t know about this family but Charles rehiring this guy tells me that the family is indeed very, very racist. How can you keep problematic people on staff? So the guy is a rapist and a racist and still heads a charity for Charles, smh!
Hahaha nothing says “very much not a racist organization” quite like hiring a diversity czar.
Nothing to see here, definitely not panicking.
What do we think, guys, who are the candidates? Some old white guy from the house of lords whose family came from South Africa?
Next in line is a white farmer from Rhodesia (the “country house is a virtual shrine to Cecil Rhodes who still gets angry that he lost the family farm (covering half the country) was lost to “the blacks” who “got agitated”. Instead of, you know, talking to the black member of your own damn family. This should be fun to watch.
This is baffling. The RF said Harry and Meghan are lying and there’s no racism in the palaces yet they are hiring a diversity czar? This makes their narrative difficult.
Also the word diversity is so telling- note that it isn’t equity or inclusion. Also, who would want that job? What an absolute nightmare.
Diversity is risk management. Sprinkle a few Black and brown folks around the organization to prevent lawsuits!
It’s all performative because if harry addressed racism TWICE in public statements im sure he was talking about it behind the scenes. They didn’t bother to address diversity then. And it wasn’t long ago that a “palace aide” was furious that meghan pulled “the race card”.
Also, if they want to save the RF image, PUBLICLY apologize to meghan and call of the attack dogs.
Thank you! To get started… APOLOGIZE TO DUCHESS MEGHAN!!
Definitely. The first step is to apologise to Meghan, the victim of their racism. The second is to acknowledge that they were wrong to say that the family is not racist. A blanket excuse for the entire family when their racism is well-documented is honestly insulting. Third step is to clean house.
I’m unclear why openly mocking people for discussing racism they experienced (“the Sussexes’ salvo of woes”) is thought to be a good look?
I think they play to a very particular audience who think like this.
I pity the poor fool who ends in that role. He/she will be underpaid, overworked and probably will need to put up with a load of horseshit from these people.
They’ll resign in less than 6 mnths, just watch.
I’m sure the diversity tzar will be in charge of setting up photo ops with black run charities full of black and brown children. Or maybe setting up tours to majority POC commonwealth nations so that the white royals can be photographed walking amongst their black subjects. You know, the important stuff. 🙄
That’s great but I will say again–while you’re out hiring people and making public statements, you’re doing seemingly nothing to repair our relationship with H&M. Do I have this right?
When the RF gave this treatment to Diana, they had no go-to like racism to distract, and just denied they were making her life hell, she was suffering and was eventually sick with bulimia.
Addressing racism is so important, but it feels like they have entirely turned away from H&M and have seized on this issue as massive avoidance of the real work they need to do. It feels as if they are colder than ever to their son and daughter-in-law. So I’m hearing nothing of value in these statements that ignore family and make hay of a social issue.
Totally not the point, but who is the queen’s lady in waiting? Is that the awful Angela Kelly or someone else?
Here: https://royalcentral.co.uk/uk/queen/who-is-susan-rhodes-the-queens-lady-in-waiting-152309/
So, I’m a white immigrant to the UK. The amount of xenophobic and racist nonsense that I’ve heard – in a casual, ‘at least you’re white’ manner has been startling. I’ve heard it (among other places) at border posts, while applying for documents to stay here, and in the hospital delivering my child. I can only imagine what someone who isn’t a cis gendered, white, English speaking person would encounter. But – point this out to a British person (even one who has just suggested Meghan played the race card) and you get blanket confusion, attempts to explain that I misunderstood, and being told I don’t understand the UK. I’ve been here 13 years, while somethings have changed – there are lots of Black Lives Matter signs on display – many things haven’t.
Dibs on them hiring a white guy.
@Dee I think they’re going to hire William’s one friend.
I’m getting “Diversity Day” episode of The Office vibes
Hahahaha! Exactly Rare0217.
I think Harry threw down the gauntlet in that interview, no subject was off the table and he will reply forcefully to anymore lies leaked by the palaces.
It was telling how the Queen diary was suddenly filled, so she could not meet Harry proves she is not in charge, any other grandmother would’ve found time, but not Ms duty before family.
So glad Harry and Meghan left that backstabbing family, they do eat their own.
Must be a lot of blowback from Commonwealth countries with minority majorities. This is week THREE of the Oprah interview and the fallout continues.
Fallout from Chernobyl, another nuclear explosion, continued for at least 5 years. Chucky and BPwBT really have very little hope to set this nuclear explosion right.
The last time these inbred* had an “appointed czar,” it didn’t work out too well. Maybe it will this time.
Recollections must not vary anymore huh?
All they had to do was be nice to Meghan.
This was such an unforced error. And they keep repeating it.
They didn’t even need to be nice to Meghan. They just had to NOT attack her and be racist. That’s it.
Ironically, the fact that they were so shitty at their jobs means that she only lost 2 years to those assholes. If they had been more clever with their gaslighting, she could have lost decades. She and Harry are still the winners, as they get to live their lives on their own terms, and they already know that they can produce good work. Willnot on the other hand, has to scramble to figure out how he’ll handle all of the comparisons that will be happening in the future. He still has to worry that his utter inability to do his job will become public knowledge. He still has to suck up to the Daily Mail and the Sun, and toss his children to them as sacrifices. He has to cover up his wandering more carefully now. He gets to live with his choices, for once in his miserable little life.
They should hire a PR firm that specializes in crisis management while they’re at it.
I really dont think the queen is that much in charge. I think she probably has certain areas where she still cares and exerts control/power (ahem Andrew) but I imagine to a large extent she’s just tired and tapped out, which is understandable at 94, almost 95. So outside of those areas, the men in grey reign supreme and I think that Charles is trying to exert some control and the courtiers may be pushing back. It all seems very messy and I think this was inevitable when they set up three courts. William and Kate should have always been under Clarence House.
Oh and to add- if this is a real thing, a genuine thing – if they are going to bring in a “diversity czar” and anti-racist experts to examine the workings of the palace, to really address these issues, then that could be a good thing. But I think we all know its not going to be genuine and is going to be more like, “look we hired three more POCs ,we’re so diverse and not racist now.”
Yeah but they still kicked out the only black/biracial woman to marry a senior royal. Ran her off and her Prince! What the hell is the diversity czar supposed to do if the Family is the problem?
I wonder, will the family be part of this, diversity thing, or just the staff. The racism seems like it starts at the top. Who will monitor the foxes?.
Every employer or organization with 50 or more employees SHOULD have a diversity officer, with a staff, in its HR Department. The Diversity officer is responsible for training on diversity, reviewing hiring and promotions and discipline AND handling employee complaints of discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, age, religion, gender, sex. and disability. Not having one is a major liability when an employee sues.
Hard to imagine how it makes you look good to insist “no! the 94-year-old brooch nut IS in charge! No one tells her what to do!” Oh, ok. In that case it must be a VERY well run organization!
First the discussion of racism in the firm, not the family, is just deflection from William or Charles making a racist statement.
Second, “We have the policies, procedures and programmes in place but we haven’t seen the progress we would like and accept more needs to be done.” The wording of this statement is such a passive, slimy way to shirk responsibility. “We haven’t seen the progress we would like” means we haven’t enforced antiracism policies. Here’s a clue about being less racist: hire some people of color in top positions in the Firm.
I really think William made the racist remark.
This weekend, I reread Sally Bedell Smith’s biography of Chucky,, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, published by Random House in April 2017. Smith goes on and on with concrete examples of Charles’s diversity work with the Commonwealth starting in the late 1970’s about the time of founding of The Prince’s Trust. The diversity work of The Prince’s Trust is also heavily discussed. I have no evidence to support my gut feeling but my gut is telling me that Charles is probably the least racists of all the BRF. Baldemort probably secretly joined The Proud Boys, had Bigo Barnett to tea and probably looks forward to meeting “QAnon shaman” Jacob Chansley once he is released from jail even though Chansley would probably only have lunch at Highgrove due to his only eating organic food.
I’m with you on this, Becks1.
That’s Bay lol but I do also think 100% it was William.
I was listening to a podcast today and Lainey was on it talking about why she thought it was Charles, and she said because Harry’s whole manner changed when he talked about his father – there was such a sense of hurt there, and with William he was very blank. And while I agree with that, my final take on it is the opposite – there was hurt and disappointment from Charles bc Harry expected him to stand up for him, and he didnt – but he was carefully blank about William bc he can’t let a single emotion show or else it would all come out.
Lainey did that podcast the day after the interview. She has since changed her mind based on how William has reacted, the “black friend” story being the clincher.
But I agree she was wrong about Why Harry was prepared to call out Charles and said nothing about William. Billy has been cut off and for some time now.
But I thought they claimed “recollections may vary” on the issue of racism? Surely if the family and the Firm are “very much not racist”, they wouldn’t need to hire a “diversity tsar”, right?
These people are so breathtakingly stupid. They truly live in a vast, gilded echo chamber.
This is an admission of guilt.
Side note, but this talk of “diversity initiative” reminds me of the Gimlet podcast about the BA kitchen and the kinds of bandaid solutions (mostly, making a POC “in charge” of “fixing”
the whole pervasive institutional racism without giving them the power or money to actually change anything, then watching as they burnt out and left) they tried before their brand blew up.
As several have said above, these are likely to be cosmetic rather than structural changes – I don’t even know, how can you make an institution that was built through colonization, on the backs of black and brown people, and that literally values one family’s pure special blood as making them fit to rule…how can you make that less racist?
This is obviously just performative action. People were commenting about the racism Meghan has received right from the very beginning. The palace have read all the comments on social media. We have been saying for the past few years and they were all well aware of that, but still chose to stay with the same smearing tactics, regardless of how racist they looked. They can act shocked all they want, but they had no problem with everyone thinking they were racist until Meghan and harry actually said it.
The palace showed they asses and have been for the last 4 years. But once you reveal your racism you can never take it back, history never forgets, and the royals will forever be the villains in this story.
I’ll believe it when I see it. They’re not hiring a diversity tsar, they don’t think they have a problem.
I don’t get it. They go out of their way to hire a diversity tsar (wasting tax payer funds) for appearances and yet they don’t address the fact that the Equality Act that was introduced to the UK in 2010 is something the Royal households are exempt from. The Independent wrote a really good article on this. Wouldn’t the simplest solution be to get rid of the exemption for the royal houses? They don’t want to make any real impactful changes, it’s all performative smoke and mirrors with these people. Why are they exempt from following UK law? I’d provide a link but it keeps eating my post. Just look up “independent, equality act, royal family” to read all about their exemption status.
This is equivalent to your son/daughter marring a POC. You and your family treat the POC with obvious racism and is called out for it. In response you provide diversity training to your staff but NEVER address the racism within your own family….basically its an insult to Harry, Meghan and Archie.
Panic has ensued. It’s incredibly obvious. But these ppl can’t be saved because whoever thought of “diversity tsar/czar” is still gainfully employed. I don’t think anyone clearly thought that through.
The language in these articles is transparent and sickening. Total DARVO. Yes, the “accusations” were “incendiary” because THEY WERE TRUE. As for being “hurtful”, yeah, abusers always find it “hurtful” to be called out on their shit. Ugh, these people are such slime.