The Earl and Countess of Strathearn’s Scottish tour ended on Thursday, May 27th. It ended, I think, in controversy, with William and Kate’s handlers/courtiers pulling some sketchy drama with the “secret meeting” with Gordon Brown. Brown is working on an anti-Scottish-independence group and obviously, the Windsors don’t want Scottish independence either. But the f–ksh-t around the secret meeting emphasized how inappropriate and political it really was. Will and Kate probably could have gotten away with positive (or merely neutral) reviews of their lightweight tour if not for that meeting and the drama around it. Which makes it especially weird that Katie Nicholl at Vanity Fair doesn’t even mention the meeting in her exclusive coverage of the tour. Her piece is mostly about how Will & Kate really nailed the tour and did good work on behalf of the crown (eh), plus she interviews Dickie Arbiter, who sucks. Some highlights:
William has been playing his most senior role to date this week: According to constitutional expert Alastair Bruce William, William has been laying the foundation for the monarchy’s future in Scotland. “Scotland holds deep importance to this heir and being Lord High Commissioner will only increase his understanding of the unique traditions that peg Scotland as unique, significant and ancient,” he told Vanity Fair.
William’s dull Lord High Commissioner speech: “William demonstrated in his speech that he understands the constitutional importance of The Queen’s promise to protect the Church’s privileges,” said Alastair Bruce William. “Succession may be automatic, but a new monarch has to make a promise to uphold the privileges of the Church of Scotland. By referencing it, William showed that he understands the constitution.”
Scottish independence: The debate about whether Scotland should retain the monarchy shows a divided nation. A recent Sky News survey found that 39 per cent were in favour and 39 per cent were against, with 22 per cent saying they didn’t know. William and Kate’s recent visit could see the result of the poll change significantly, according to former Buckingham Palace spokesman Dickie Arbiter. “Things are very much in the balance in Scotland and William’s visit is significant,” Arbiter said. “He could be the Royal Family’s secret weapon when it comes to the United Kingdom. The appointment to Lord High Commissioner is another part of William’s learning curve but the trip has also allowed him to lay down markers for the importance of the monarchy to Scotland. By sending William on a tour like this, the royals are appealing to the masses and particularly the younger generation. They are the leaders of tomorrow.”
Will & Kate need the youths to love them: “By all appearances he and Catherine have been a success,” Arbiter said. “William is showing himself to be very personal, his address to the National Assembly was spot on. I think we are seeing him evolve. That’s what the monarchy is all about. It evolves through the younger generation and in 30 years time it will be George’s turn to do the same thing in Scotland.”
The small crowds: Despite the smaller crowds, because of social distancing, there was still huge support for the royals. “He was remarkably attentive when he spoke to the Scots from the Regiment of Scotland who had put on his Guard of Honour and took time to speak to a number of the soldiers which was very well received,” said a source who was with the Duke.
Again, no mention of the Gordon Brown stuff, which ruined whatever goodwill the Keens might have accumulated. I can’t believe this is really the plan moving forward for the Windsors though: setting the bar lower and lower, sending Will & Kate out on lightweight “tours” where they watch movies and get photographed doing fun vacation activities, and then they politically interfere with the democratic process. And then adding an embiggening layer of bullsh-t on top. “He could be the Royal Family’s secret weapon” and “another part of William’s learning curve” – sounds like William is getting infantilized just as much as Kate these days. They’re treated like overgrown toddlers who need applause for dressing themselves and not making asses out themselves too much. This can’t be the way forward for the Windsors.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Wait a minute! I thought Kate was the secret weapon.
Came to say exactly this!! LOL
Exactly!
No, Kate is the Crown Jewel. This week. 🤦🏻♀️
Meeting with GB was probably the real reason for going to Scotland in the first place. What fools. Love that “only 30 years until it’s George’s turn” comment, tho. Wishful thinking?
William spent the majority of this Scottish vacation (because that’s all it was) looking bored, ill, vacant, strained and exhausted. It’s amusing to watch the rota rats try to convince everyone that he nailed his UK saviour tour and that the Scottish people who want independence will change their minds as a direct result of William’s visit. Kate had to grin and guffaw like a lunatic to make up for his wretched appearance. Where oh where would Statesman Bill and his revolutionary linchpin be without the royal rota to prop them up daily? They are forever on a PR campaign to compensate for their inability to garner genuine praise for their actual work.
I’m getting whiplash.
To what? Their self-destruction?
Not really sure how the eldest son of the POW is a secret? These stories are getting really odd.
The idea that a middle aged, ridiculously rich white guy is the key to winning over young Scottish people is laughable. Bring on independence.
It is laughable. This tour had got so little attention that even the Camb stans were complaining about it. Then william f’ed up by getting involved in the independence debate, which many scots were outraged about. But the tour was a succes? Honestly they make question every article i’ve ever read about these 2 pre-meghan.
Huh? The Scottish people are also white? What race would be key to winning them?
Actually Scotland has significant diversity. It’s not just white people, especially in the cities. Also the point is that Will is extremely privileged overall and this makes it easy for him to be cut off from and ignorant of ordinary people’s lives.
Asian ethnicities
The Asian population nearly doubled in size between 2001 and 2011, rising by 69,000.
2.7% of Scotland’s population identified as Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British. This was about 141,000 people, split between:
50,000 people who identified as ‘Pakistani’
34,000 people who identified as ‘Chinese’
33,000 people who identified as ‘Indian’
21,000 people who identified as ‘Other’
4,000 people who identified as ‘Bangladeshi’
African, Caribbean or Black ethnicities
African Caribbean or Black groups made up just over 1% of Scotland’s population.
This population had grown by 28,000 people since 2001. More than 36,000 people identified as African, Caribbean or Black, split between:
about 30,000 people who identified as ‘African’
just under 7,000 people who identified as ‘Caribbean or Black’
Mixed or other ethnic groups
Under 1% of Scotland’s population identified as having a Mixed, Multiple or Other ethnicity.
This was 34,000 people, split between:
20,000 people who identified as ‘Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups’
9,000 people who identified as ‘Other: Arab’
5,000 people who identified as ‘Other: Other ethnicity’
You know what young people like? EU passports.
Yup. EU passports and working and studying abroad. The more I see of geese jokers the more I think the monarchy will draw to a close after the Queen dies.
Funny how an hour ago we had a story about kate being the crown jewel of the monarchy and now all of a sudden its william
And the bar as always been remarkably low for these 2 but now the royal rota’s have actually resulted into lying (they’ve always lied but this is just blatant)
Yeah. Secret weapon of doom and destruction. :’)
Came to say the same. Secret weapon of mass destruction? Definitely.
That second pic 😂😂 he’s always embarrassed when she takes the mike. Reminds me of the video from Pakistan tour when she was reading few words from many flashcards and then took like thirty seconds to change the card and read next. The whole time Elegant Bill looked like he wished the ground would swallow him.
Vanity Fair is definitely William’s crisis manager. Clean it up for the people who read long form articles and still have paper magazine subscriptions. The last Vanity Fair article on William also had a slightly more elevated tone and lacked that usual tone-deaf tackiness.
The Times is William in general. TOB story and Roya Nikkah’s work is too sloppy to be the result of working with a professional crisis manager. Page Six, and Camilla Tominney is the Middletons.
I thought KKKate was the BRF’s secret weapon? I heard she just found her feet.
Me, reading the headline – “no, no he could not.”
It’s weird that they’re stressing that Will and Kate appeal to young people, when they really don’t. Harry and Meghan appeal to young people. W&K appeal to the Dickie Arbiters of the world.
Do they think Scottish people are stupid? like if I’m Scottish and I’m sort of meh on whether to remain in the UK, maybe I haven’t researched it enough, or I see the pros and cons and can’t quite decide- but then I see William beach yachting and i’m going to say “oh yes!! We should totally stay in the UK!” I mean maybe that would change a handful of opinions, but I can’t imagine it’s going to help that much in the long run.
I agree. If I was a Scot and I wasn’t sure whether to vote for independence or not, I’m not going to go “I’m going to vote no!” If I see the Cambridges going land yachting or watching a movie.
Like you said, it might sway some people but it’s not going to make a dent in the independence movement.
This is an example of something that won’t be true, no matter how many times it is repeated. Stating that W&K appeal to younger people is joke and insult to them, IF they care enough to notice.
Is William really that big of a secret in the UK? Is he 4?
Right? I laughed out loud at that quote. He’s literally the heir to the throne, how secret is he, exactly?
LOL!
Can Will & Kate’s separate PR teams, like, have one meeting together and get on the same page? One minute Kate’s the secret weapon and the next it’s William. It’s seems like it would help both of them to promote themselves as a couple.
They certainly need to space out when each will be called “secret weapon” because a week apart isn’t enough.
Not even a week. It seems like on Monday’s we get “kate future kween” and Tuesdays were getting “william the statesman” then on Wednesdays its “kate the lynchpin of the monarchy” and on Thursdays we get “william the stable, level headed family man that wants to modernize”. And on Fridays we get “kate has been finding her voice and coming into her role”.
Then throw in a few hit pieces towards the sussexes and e few about kates clothes and we have the full cambridge pr.
Did Kate steal William’s pr and beat him to the press? We know how Kate likes to steal the details of other people’s lives and pretend that it happened to her.
He could… but he’s not.
Bingo! He’ll never put in the work because he’s been told his entire life that this is what is owed to him.
Posting from Scotland and their sad little holiday up north failed to make the news. Most people were unaware they were even in the country before William’s meeting with Gordon Brown, so now there’s either sheer indifference or rage at the ignorant royals to choose from. Nice one Wills.
Jessie, is the reason that most people were unaware they were even in the country until the Brown meeting because there wasn’t much media reporting about it? Or, could it be that people just didn’t pay attention to it because it wasn’t important to them? There have been some good articles that I’ve read in the past by the Scottish press which I thought was reporting the facts–such a change from the British press. I have no doubt that there are tabloids there, too, but it seems that you get a more balanced media.
The Brown meeting seems so ignorant on the side of the brf that I keep thinking they wanted everyone to know about it, so they could gage the temperature in the country regarding independence. Is that even possible? Otherwise, this has to go under my heading of stupid. That’s a word that I use rarely.
I’m surprised they mentioned small turn out’s. I figured no one showed up and they drug those little kids out because the kids had no idea who they were supposed to see and asked Keen if she was the prince. LOL
That’s what I was thinking. At least they have the pandemic to blame for a low turnout.
Low turnout due to the pandemic. Don’t think so, they are as boring as plaster. Then they should have stayed home instead of putting people at risk. Kate just got the shot.
These people are obtuse. This is the 21st century, It ain’t your nan and great nan’s world anymore.
Seems like Nicholls is getting ahead of the fact that no one came out to see them by saying it was due to social distancing. Social distancing does not dull enthusiasm. The truth is there were no crowds of Scots clamoring to see their FFK&Q. If there were, we’d have seen them.
Also, saw a Twitter post that the schoolteacher at the school they visited did not know they were coming until that day. When you have no crowds, just haul some little kids out of their classrooms and into a line to make it look like the Cambridges had fans waiting for them.
So, he’s now being embiggened for actually taking the time to speak (and listen – granted not his strongest skill) to some people. I’m sorry, I just stubbed my toe on the bar because it’s so low.
How do they think this is making them look good???
God, his droning voice is like a mosquito, you just want to slap him to make him go away.
They say it will be George’s turn to charm Scotland in 30 years, so does that mean they don’t expect George to start working until he’s 38?
It’s hilarious how they are lowering the bar for royal children, every single article. If this keeps up, an actual frog will be eligible to assume the crown.
They have zero relevancy with young people. Good luck to the monarchy
He’s literally the future king??? Secret weapon how? 😭
Really. I think the “secret” part of the tour got outed anyway.
The more these people talk the more they show that the monarchy is in trouble. If William is the secret weapon then the Royal Family is doomed.
They are trying to PR spin themselves into relevancy and competency. Now I know PR is part of the game but it can’t replace actually doing the work and doing it well. People have eyes and ears. The RRs are literally telling them not to believe their own eyes and ears.
Snuffles, I wonder if it has occurred to anyone in the Firm that making W and K sit down and read everything about the charity before going that they might be able to ask good questions or hold a conversation? Yes, I think TQ or PC can tell W&K that it’s time they worked for a living. How hard would that be? Seriously!
As far as the tours, I don’t even know where to start with that. Perhaps, once they figure out how to do a reasonable visit to a charity, the firm could start working on how to teach them what they need to know before going to another country. Good luck with that.
Yes because this Mr Burns-looking guy is exactly what will attract young people to support the monarchy. Fate gave them a secret weapon, envy made them kick it away.
Great comment Myra.
I’m not from Scotland but did try to look up some of the newspapers there and saw very little coverage of the charm tour.
Also, the pandemic is good coverage for the lack of crowds. The same excuse was used for the low crowd turnout mourning Prince Phillip. At the hight of the pandemic people worldwide turned out to protest the death of George Floyd so if people wanted to turn out for Phillip or for Kate and Will they would have.
William is the BRF’s secret weapon only if their goal is suicide.
Do they really think Scots came up the Clyde in a banana boat? They aren’t interested in the people of Scotland, they’re interested in what the land can offer them ( hunting, shooting, fishing etc) not about the issues that affect the people that live here.
It’s only a couple of hundred years ago they were turning the people who lived on that land off, to freeze or starve, so that they could have their shooting estates and sheep farms to themselves with no pesky inhabitants. Descendents of the survivors are all through the Scottish cities and the Commonwealth, and having none of this self-serving nonsense from the bloody royals.
He appears to be the secret weapon to get Scotland to vote for independence. TOB’s bungling shows that Harry was never given credit he deserved for excelling at his tours.
The only person who believes William is a secret weapon is Rose. Sorry, strike that. Has a secret weapon..
Why are they still referring to William’s “learning curve”? Dude’s going to be 40 next year. When I was his age, I was established in my career. I don’t get the UK’s lack of outrage over William and Keen continually getting a pass for not being up to the job.
We just (barely) got through the nightmare of having a grossly unqualified person as President of the US. Granted, the British monarch doesn’t have nearly as much power as the POTUS, but it’s still a high-profile role, so why would anyone want to tolerate such laziness and ineptitude, especially when the US showed the whole world what a disaster that can be?
The only reason why the RF don’t want Scottish independence is because then they won’t be able to freely visit their so called castles and continue to treat Scotland like their backyard playground like they always have done 🙄
Scotland is too beautiful to have leeches like the RF sucking up all its goodness
If Scotland does gain independence, what happens to the castles there? Would the royal family be able to keep them, or would they have to buy them? Would they have to be given back to Scotland?
I can’t believe that, even for someone who is opposed to independence, the Royal family would be a factor in their decision. Particularly this deeply unimpressive specimen.
It doesn’t help that the article is all about what William is “learning” about Scotland, as if this is something to celebrate in a man pushing 40, rather than about Scotland itself and what the Royal family can offer (if anything).
William is just LEARNING about Scotland? He turns 40 this month. There are future kings and queens are more prepared. Princess Leonor, heiress to the Spanish throne, is giving speeches to grand assemblies at 15.
Didn’t he go to college there?!
I meant learning in terms of kingship.
I look forward to Baby Girl Sussex’s birth.
Oh, like the Death Star?
“Succession may be automatic, but a new monarch has to make a promise to uphold the privileges of the Church of Scotland. By referencing it, William showed that he understands the constitution.”
LOL. Courtiers and crisis managers wrote whatever William read out. William is known for never preparing for his engagements.
Yes, just like a child references spaceships and astronauts and thereby shows a deep understanding of astrophysics. 🙄 Really, this is just embarrassing for all of us. Please stop.
Here’s hoping this encourages Scottish Independence!
“It evolves through the younger generation and in 30 years time it will be George’s turn to do the same thing in Scotland.”
I can’t. Scotland needs to put this quote on their license plates, like each state in the US has a motto. I feel like centuries worth of justifiable struggle and death are being boiled down to this lazy family saying, “wellll…if you don’t like us now, give us 30 years.” FFS, just let Scotland be its own country, without pretending like you even remotely care.
Best part of this for me is that in Scots, calling someone a weapon is an insult. It means the person is a complete and utter idiot. So this reads very differently to a Scottish audience.
Reminds me of the time some film quoted a review from an Irish newspaper on its posters describing it as “brutal”, not realising that in the vernacular, that means “terrible”.