Here are more photos of Catherine, the Princess of Wales, in Leeds on Tuesday. They actually convinced her to remove her coat when she went to the University of Leeds. Usually, Kate keeps her coat on no matter what, because she always wants to send the signal that she’s not sticking around for very long, that she’s not actually there to help or listen. So, it is notable that she removed her green bespoke McQueen coat and revealed a cream sweater dress with a belt. So, there you go. Someone fluffed up her wig at the university too.
At the University of Leeds, Kate unveiled that creepy claymation video and I wonder what the college kids thought of all of that. This too was part of her promotional blitz for Shaping Us, her new awareness-raising campaign to raise awareness of the importance of the Early Years, a subject for which she’s been raising awareness for years already. From the Daily Beast:
The solo project is an important insight into how Kate intends to harness her new role as Princess of Wales, and try to move on and away from the Harry and Meghan soap opera that has dominated the royal narrative for several weeks now.
The new campaign, called #ShapingUs, was described by aides as “a significant step up” after a decade of work by Kate on the issue, which has seen the creation of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
Aides told The Daily Beast she was aiming to “raise awareness of the vital importance of early childhood to lifelong outcomes,” saying she had “seen for herself how experiences in early childhood can so often be the root cause of huge societal challenges, from poor mental health to addiction and homelessness.”
Sigh… even when you look beyond the sloganeering of Kate’s dumbf–k Early Years campaign, the actual message is kind of disturbing. Kate looks at homeless people and thinks “they had a terrible childhood.” She looks at mental illness and thinks “their parents did a bad job.” She looks at addicts and thinks “if only they had gone to a nursery school.” There are so many factors and non-factors in why people fall through society’s cracks, why people become addicts, why people grapple with mental illness, I genuinely feel like Kate’s whole Early Years shtick is not even a chaotic neutral at this point, it’s actively harmful. Because instead of looking at addicts, homeless people and people struggling with their mental health and thinking “how can I help, what can be done, how can we raise money,” she’s thinking about how all of those people are a lost cause and society needs to focus on toddlers and babies… to the exclusion of everything else.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
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- Leeds, UNITED KINGDOM – Kate Middleton The Princess of Wales pictured visiting the iconic Kirkgate Market in Leeds. The Princess of Wales will meet vendors and members of the public. Her Royal Highness will briefly tour the market before joining a discussion with vendors and local people about their experiences of early childhood. Pictured: Kate Middleton The Princess of Wales BACKGRID USA 31 JANUARY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Leeds, UNITED KINGDOM – Kate Middleton The Princess of Wales pictured visiting the iconic Kirkgate Market in Leeds. The Princess of Wales will meet vendors and members of the public. Her Royal Highness will briefly tour the market before joining a discussion with vendors and local people about their experiences of early childhood. Pictured: Kate Middleton The Princess of Wales BACKGRID USA 31 JANUARY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Leeds, UNITED KINGDOM – Kate Middleton The Princess of Wales pictured visiting the iconic Kirkgate Market in Leeds. The Princess of Wales will meet vendors and members of the public. Her Royal Highness will briefly tour the market before joining a discussion with vendors and local people about their experiences of early childhood. Pictured: Kate Middleton The Princess of Wales BACKGRID USA 31 JANUARY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Leeds, UNITED KINGDOM – Kate Middleton The Princess of Wales pictured visiting the iconic Kirkgate Market in Leeds. The Princess of Wales will meet vendors and members of the public. Her Royal Highness will briefly tour the market before joining a discussion with vendors and local people about their experiences of early childhood. Pictured: Kate Middleton The Princess of Wales BACKGRID USA 31 JANUARY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Catherine, Princess of Wales arrives at the University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, where she will join students on the Childhood Studies programme which focuses on a broad approach to early childhood development, during her visit to the city for the launch of the Shaping Us campaign to raise awareness of the unique importance of early childhood. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Leeds, England, United Kingdom When: 31 Jan 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- Catherine, Princess of Wales in Kirkgate Market in Leeds, West Yorkshire, where she is meeting vendors and members of the public for the launch of the Shaping Us campaign which is raising awareness of the unique importance of early childhood. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Leeds, England, United Kingdom When: 31 Jan 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- Catherine, Princess of Wales arrives at the University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, where she will join students on the Childhood Studies programme which focuses on a broad approach to early childhood development, during her visit to the city for the launch of the Shaping Us campaign to raise awareness of the unique importance of early childhood. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Leeds, England, United Kingdom When: 31 Jan 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- Catherine, Princess of Wales arrives at the University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, where she will join students on the Childhood Studies programme which focuses on a broad approach to early childhood development, during her visit to the city for the launch of the Shaping Us campaign to raise awareness of the unique importance of early childhood. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Leeds, England, United Kingdom When: 31 Jan 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- Catherine, Princess of Wales arrives at the University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, where she will join students on the Childhood Studies programme which focuses on a broad approach to early childhood development, during her visit to the city for the launch of the Shaping Us campaign to raise awareness of the unique importance of early childhood. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Leeds, England, United Kingdom When: 31 Jan 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
Of course the writer gets to slam the sussexes. Kate is the one brings on the drama pretending she is an expert. The dm has about 10 articles about kate and her outfits.
It seems to be about wearing thicker gowns to hide the extreme thinness.
You can tell the “gown-with-belt” rotation is probably the only original outfit idea Kate has had in years! It’s the only thing she can turn to when she’s not cosplaying Meghan!
Perfectly said @kaiser!
About kate’s outfit: This long coat is a look by meghan that kate has copied so many times it has almost become her look. Incredibly boring, however, because she really ALWAYS wears the same thing! She really manages to spend tenthousands on new clothes and yet it looks always the same and boring. The dress underneath and the belt: just horrible…
@Sam, it looks the same because it is the same. She has literally bought the same coat at least in brown and red (that we have seen)!! Not to mention that this one is almost identical to the one she has worn 2-3 times and it’s only slightly different in the shade of green (she wore it for military cosplay in the past).
Because the cost of living crisis, the colonialist mindset and family she’s bought into, late-stage capitalism, and showing up empty-handed to shelters and food banks has nothing to do with homelessness.
I imagine K’s reasoning is she’s thinnest, so no one else is hungry
Who wants to tell her it’s poverty that causes the problems she’s talking about in the early years?
“Did you know that in our country today, less than four percent of children receive their own pony before their fifth birthday? This means the United Kingdom’s youth is falling dangerously behind the curve in training for the vital skill of horseback riding. Children who start riding at the age of six or older will not be as balanced, poised, or elegant in the saddle.”
The news tells her every time she turns on the television, but she NEVER LISTENS to anyone or anything. This bloody useless woman is tone deaf and completely wrapped up in herself, just like her husband and father in law. Selfishness runs through the core of this family and the one with the heart, found a woman with a heart to match his and got the hell out of the toxic cess pit. We all know that banked need love nurturing and security. But FATE doesn’t and circumstance change. Mental health, addictions, homelessness are ALL features of every day life for regular people, but barbie botox remains untouched by it all in her ivory tower. I live in hope that one day she will say something useful, but as I don’t have about 100 year’s left, I doubt I will
Word!!
.. and lack of funding, the closing of hundreds of childcare facilities, lack of govt policy. But those facts are too political, aren’t they? And royals don’t do politics, right (sure they do, but not the kind that will get in the way of the Torie govt)?
This is just a waste of time and money 🤢
More importantly @ Swaz she is wasting the time and energy of the people that are actually doing the work. Why would anyone want her associated with their programs when she brings nothing but a photo op and a puff piece specifically for HER and her only.
And as others mentioned, she could personally donate scathes of money. Keen and Bullyiam are sitting on a nest egg that equal or extend many countries GDP.
Since we all know, she could not have come up with any ideas, so I wanna know who gave birth to this meaningless campaign, with no project, no end objective, no collaborative programs with existing organizations, no actual challenge to take over, no new ideas of what can be done to enhance children’s early years. Just “early years shape who we are as adults”, ok? Bam. Done. That’s it. It’s ridiculous. …but you know, true to herself, pretty empty.
I love this site and Kaiser’s coverage of the shitshow that is the entire BRF, but Kate’s crap is really starting to make me angry. Day after day we’re seeing badly needed resources wasted on this idiot, so she can go out in insanely expensive new clothes, say nonsensical things, preen for the cameras, then go home thinking she’s done a hard day’s work serving her country, and as a reward, her photo will be featured on front pages along with fawning commentary by Becky English or whoever. At this point it’s just so frustrating.
@thatsnotokay EXACTLY. Someone needs to point out to Keen that there are record numbers of unhoused people, many of whom are educated and have held jobs for years. Many of them stable, productive citizens of society until an unexpected downturn and lack of safety net forced them onto the streets. There are also many mental illnesses that don’t manifest symptoms until early adulthood…it doesn’t ALL tie neatly back to the early years. Guess what? Record numbers of reported teen depression and suicidal ideation. Did all these children have horrible childhoods? No. The world is not as simple as you are, Kate.
And yes, I agree that if you were given the tools to better regulate emotions and cope with stress early on, it’ll prevent people from turning to drink, drugs or make impulsive decisions, but show us those tools. This is not a trailer, where you’re scared of giving away plot points—MAKE your point.
@ Lux, but Keen can’t make a point because she doesn’t have one. She only has this meek, useless project which she threw together on a whim, or her staff did, which they have been proven to be utterly useless. Now that Keen is on this high she is going to be out and about for a few weeks, until she becomes tired or her face starts to look more haggard, to create this illusion that she is creating change. But the reality is simply puffing herself up and being photographed for the masses.
Inequality of resources and opportunities couldn’t possibly be a factor. It’s lack of awareness of the importance of early years, doncha know..
This vain woman may end up doing more harm than good with her “awareness campaign.” The last thing parents need is to be guilted or shamed if they’re unable to provide a magical/perfect first five years of their child’s life.
What this campaign continually forgets to mention is why the first 5 years are so vital. It’s because our brains are developed for the most part during those years, so we learn our basic skills then. But that doesn’t mean that nothing can go wrong later in life. The human brain isn’t fully developed until 21 (approximately). And even them plenty can still go wrong.
The Shaming Us campaign
Haha, brilliant!
@Carrot, omg 🏆
Exactly
@ Carrot, yes👆👆👆👆👆👆
Brava 👏👏👏👏
As a teacher, we were taught that the most important years are ages one through five. A child’s whole personality develops during this time, how they feel about themselves and view the world, and whether they bond with their parents. I taught kindergarten, 1-2 grades. It’s easy to spot the children who are not receiving attention from parents. By that time, it’s hard, if not impossible, to make up for it.
@Caren, you wrote a cogent introduction to the BS-named Early Years platform. This is much better than Don’t be poor and Don’t be brown. Too bad you aren’t among K’s teachers
While I definitely agree that you can spot the leaders, doers, followers and outliers, I would disagree that a child’s entire personality is formed during this period. Yes, it is a time of rapid physical and cognitive development, language and knowledge acquisition, as well as a crucial period for creating emotional and social bonds; however, your teenage years have huge impact on the person you become and you often hear of how a once gregarious child has turned inward or someone shy coming into their own (growing into their skin). If my entire personality was formed by five, I would still be shy, silent and cry at the drop of a hat (for the record, my friends now describe me as being an extrovert who is quite passionate about her opinions and isn’t afraid of voicing them).
There’s a reason why Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten is a perennial best seller.
Not only that, but how many of us have had pretty c**p early years and still have turned out to be decent people who contribute? I find it insulting on so many different levels… smh
“After 5, throw them away, your job is done. I don’t even care if they have food to eat during that time or if you can afford childcare or healthcare for that matter”- Kate, the keen expert
Maybe she’s building up to send them all to boarding school after Louis turns 5. They will after all be set.
Equality, no, no, no, there are several palaces with lots of chimneys that need sweeping by the over 5s, Kate is busy seeing which child will fit where, and if she is such an expert, maybe she can tell us WHY George looks so pale and tired all the time, WHY Charlotte has taken to crossing her fingers all the time, and WHY does Luis think its OK to lay hands on her face. Just asking Khate dear???
She hasn’t gotten this much solo attention in years. I bet BP told KP to step up and make her look somewhat passionate about something as the Sussexes are making them look like pointless amateurs. Charles had to approve of this media blitz especially in what is suppose to be ‘HIS’ year.
So all these billboards and the claymation and putting it in theaters across the country cost money. Is the money for this coming from the royal foundation or is it duchy of Cornwall money? It’s def not the SG money is it? I’m genuinely confused about that. And also just wondering now that they have the Cornwall money, how much do they still answer to Charles?
Their budget as Prince & Princess of Wales probably increased by a lot, so she needs to do a lot at the beginning of the year to spend a huge chunk, so that for the rest of the year, there will be less and less budget, meaning less and less appearances, meaning less and less work. This year, the coronation, so a lot will be spent over that I’m sure, so dont expect to see them tooooo much after may!
They matter…..but not enough to fund them properly. I need that money. To shine a light on how important they are.
Maybe she does read comments. She got criticized for not taking off her coat and working at the foodbank so now she is taking off her coat so she will appear to be working.
All I know is that Kate’s veering into Michelle Bachman territory. For those who don’t know, or remember, that’s a former (Minnesota?) congresswoman with the “crazy eyes” who thought she could be president after seeing Hillary Clinton run.
The Bachmans have been florists for ages in the Twin Cities. Roses anyone?
@ Debbie and @ Julia K, between you commenters, as well as a host of others, coupled with Kaisers Emmy worthy picture selection, this website never disappoints in making me laugh!!!
Thank you to everyone who brings me such great laughter and brightens my days!!!
I saw a photo on Twitter of the police holding people back at the Leeds market so she could wander around alone for photo opps. The poster said a colleague commented that they wished she’d hurry up ‘I want to get a jacket potato’! Sums up the interest she was generating.
That would be a nuisance if you needed to get your shopping done so you could get somewhere else or complete your errands.
She went during lunch hour interrupting the people with actual jobs who only have a limited time to take their lunch. Something Kate has no clue about.
I guess that means the market traders’ takings were down, especially during their busiest time. So inconsiderate. Do the royals not even think about people who (unlike them) need to make a living?
My daughter is a student/lives at University of Leeds. She says any talk of Kate receiving a rapturous welcome is highly exaggerated, and that most talk in the halls were students musing whether they should throw eggs or not. LMAO
I went there, I can believe this, lol.
I went there as well, so I have the same reaction.
@Jessie, that’s great, thank you for sharing! 🥚🥚🥚
Tomatoes are a classic option by the way.
Keen does love red, so I think tomato’s would be the obvious choice!!
She’s been working this campaign so long, curious what she thinks of the now 10-13 year olds she once claimed to care SO much about… now that their precious early years are gone, what did her “research” ever do to better any of them? (Obviously nothing.. but lord it’s infuriating). Early years are important, no doubt. But just bleating it over and over like a mindless goat doesn’t help anyone. Get a grip, England.
She definitely knows how to make complex things sound simple. As someone who was violently bullied at school from the age of eight until the age of fifteen when I was finally able to change schools, I dare to say those years have caused me more challenges than the first five years of my life. Should I think that if my parents had done a better job, I could have just shrugged my shoulders instead of crying when my classmates broke my wrist, cut me off socially or harassed my family? We were all middle-class children in a good neighborhood, attending a school labeled excellent and with parents with a higher than average income. She’s being actively harmful and ignoring the fact that we develop, change and get shaped by our environment much longer than for five years. The first years are building blocks, yes, but even if things go wrong much can be healed. I know many wonderful foster parents who’re helping older children with a rough start to heal.
500,000 workers on strike today including teachers and children could not attend schools while the Princess of Wales is fronting an expensive awareness campaign on the first 5 years.
Independent schools like the one the Wales children go to are not striking, so kates wonderful children can continue enjoying their perfect childhoods with their perfectly formed brains undisturbed by all the shamed parents and teachers and their quaint industrial action.
@noor exactly! The mass strike today is fundamentally about underfunded schools as well as teachers not getting adequate pay. All of this affects the quality of education children receive and that includes kids upto five years too.
K releasing this, I hate to say it but mainly gaslighting campaign(especially towards parents) (because I’m sorry but that’s the vibe I’ve been getting from the messaging so far) is terrible timing but also perfect karma
This really is far too complex a matter for her. Rather than focusing on such a large topic (“the early years are important”) she should have focused on a narrow issue in that topic – such as safe outdoor spaces for children to play (imagine playgrounds all over the UK sponsored by the Royal Foundation), or literacy (again, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library gives her a GREAT example to follow), etc. By making her focus on the whole topic of “early years” it just means she’s never going to do anything concrete (which we all knew not to expect anyway) and that she just discusses the topic in these broad statements because she can’t understand the complexities.
Why does one sibling turn out “better” than another? Why do people raised in the same household have wildly different outcomes? Why is education so often seen as a “one size fits all” idea (thats usually bc of funding based on what I know of it), why does it seem like youth sports are becoming more and more expensive and thus less accessible, why are summer programs so $$$ (and again thus less accessible for many), and so on.
I feel like this awareness campaign of hers is just bothering me SO MUCH MORE than her regular uselessness because she is taking a general topic that could use so much help – actual ideas, resources, etc – and using it for her vanity project, and shaming parents everywhere while she does it.
She’s trivializing the whole topic with her empty campaign. That’s what so dangerous about it.
The arrogance of acting like she’s the first to say early years are important is what is galling. It’s been decades of child psychologists stating this from Piaget on and clearly the Surestart program that was in place under the Labour government shows people in the UK knew early years mattered.
She’s offering no help and stating platitudes that contain judgment about parenting styles especially when no everyone has the same privileges she does.
@Becks1 Your playground idea is great.
Kate is starting to sound bothered by all the homeless she has to step over while shopping – also, I’d like to see her research. I’m not convinced that later issues are completely “rooted” in the 5 years, as she says. Do the first 5 years have an impact, sure… but this “root cause of everything in society” palaver is going to end up being a paean to trad-wife childcare.
Archewell, incidentally, partnered with another organization to build a playground for the children of Uvalde.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-city-of-uvalde-archewell-foundation-and-kaboom-unveil-a-new-playground-to-bring-hope-and-healing-for-kids-and-families-in-uvalde-301652133.html
Now, THAT is going to have a tangible positive impact.
Reading through this Early Years twaddle, I’ve been thinking about two programs that I’ve worked with in the past: Kaboom — which QuiteContrary has described, and Head Start — which others have mentioned. I don’t know what programs are available in the UK, but if Kate and her team simply focused on doing fund raising and (gulp) calling attention to the benefits of programs like these, she could do a lot of good with minimal effort.
The process of designing and building a Kaboom playground can be very empowering and involves the community— including the kids — as essential stakeholders in the projects. I can’t say enough about the valuable work that they do!
@becks1 you reminded me of this story: https://www.upworthy.com/kids-raise-money-for-adaptive-playground
Using the Royal Foundation to fund playgrounds like this for pre schools like this across the UK would actually be a great project that would lead to tangible results.
BTW, what happened to Kate’s “gardening” phase where she experts design a garden to provide play spaces for children. She featured it at the Chelsea Flower Show if I remember correctly. Her own children got to play in it, but no other children could because children under a certain age were not allowed into the display grounds. She could have had a long campaign to fund playgrounds; they could all be named Princess Kate Playgrounds- that would be a legacy project. We should send suggestions to KP to help her actually do some good. Also, Archewell helped fund a playground recently. She already has something to copy.
Steph, that’s really a wonderful idea! Unfortunately, the Royal foundation spends most of the money in promoting campaigns for these two, so I doubt something will change in the future.
@Tamsin there’s also a princess diana playground in hyde park. I’m surprised she hasnt’ copied that already.
@Tamsin, IIRC she “designed” (lmfao) a log that was sold for some exorbitant sum so kids could “cloud-watch” — I think that was sort of in conjunction with her whole garden…thing?
As far as actually duplicating the idea of her playground for children all of the country, no, nothing ever happened. In fact, I’m pretty sure Kate forgot about it as soon as she got her photo taken with the Queen, who actually came to see it.
All I remember from Kate’s short-lived gardening phase is her hilarious “Wrecking Ball” photo, and the way the same exact Erdem dress she wore to the garden’s “unveiling” was worn by the 86-year-old Duchess of Kent around the same time, and the Duchess looked better in it than Kate. (Seriously! She styled it a lot better than Kate did.)
As a public health nurse that spent 10+ years doing home visiting with families and had extensive training on parent child interactions and infant mental health. She can just go fly a kite.
It is harmful messaging. There are so many actionable items that she could focus on that affect the early years that it honestly really angers me.
My only comfort is that absolutely none of her bullshit is getting coverage in Canada.
Shoutout here to the request that something SPECIFIC be done (love the idea of playgrounds!) I am in my 50s and remember the excitement I felt when Reading is Fundamental came to my school in 4th grade. Each classroom had the opportunity to go to the school gym where free NEW books were spread out on tables and we could choose one to keep based on our own interests. Once chosen, a volunteer stamped the inside cover with a “This book belongs to (my name) from Reading is Fundamental” stamp. I still have my Mrs. Piggle Wiggle book almost 50 years later!
Dolly Parton is finding something like that here in specific states. Every child of a certain age gets a certain number of free books a year. Sorry I can’t remember all the details but it’s such a great idea.
I wonder how the conservatives feel about the fact that a focus on the early years leads to the obvious question about what can be done: better, free childcare, free or subsidized whole food nutrition, paid leave to take care of sick children, etc…
Don’t worry, the tories are busy organising a letter writing campaign to try and persuade mothers to get back to work so that’s keeping them busy. Obviously no mention in the letter of the cost or availability of childcare.
Is that professor in the picture trolling Kate by wearing a very Meghan outfit? The green leather Boss skirt with the green silk blouse.
I don’t know but it is possibly the most anti-early years outfit I could ever think of. A white dress, expensive belt and suede boots, perfect for smearing jammy paint hands all over.
She’s so out of touch it’s unbelievable!
@aidevee here’s a finn6 little tidbit about the belt, it’s from a GERMAn company. Now k NEVER wears anything from German designers (pls corrrect me if this is wrong guys I will happily take this statement back) but who do we know has an event coming up in Germany this year? Also i say this because yes it sounds incredibly stupid but Karen’s done this before. During the ‘Ever So Keen Flop Tour of the Caribbean’ K wore DUTCH brands on multiple occasions. So know if meghan wears anything from this brand whilst in Germany, she’ll get ripped to shreds because “oh how dare Meghan copy Kate”
Perhaps, but the matching greens explains why Kate removed her coat for the photo ops!
I hadn’t even considered that, but da** I do think you’re right! God forbid she not stand out by matching anyone who should be mere background in the photo
This scene is all I can think of, every time the Waleses show up in public doing ‘good work’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rGtkjExAy8
The only good thing about this is that it will die without a trace by the time summer holiday season comes around.
Respectfully, I have to disagree; I don’t think she is implying that anyone beyond age 5 is a lost cause.
She is trying to drill down into the cyclical nature of deprivation – she’s right that setting families on the right path while their children are tiny can be transformative.
But her messaging is confusing, vague and lacking in substance, so it’s not surprising that you have arrived at that conclusion. We are on day 3? 4? now of this campaign and we still don’t know what to do, who to go to for help or how to access all this so called expertise.
In the meantime, we have literally thousands of teachers on strike today because the government has slashed budgets (including those of early years settings) to the absolute bone.
So this just looks like Kate waving cake around while the peasants all March out, furious, hungry and cold.
I hugely protest the continued lie that Kate has been working on this Early Years program for ten years. Ten years ago she was childless and spending her days shopping and hanging out in Bucklebury with CarolE and Pippa. There is no “center” for Early Childhood anywhere. It’s not at Kensington Palace, because Kate moved out of KP months ago. And it’s not at Windsor, because she does not have an office there. The only physical manifestation of this supposed center is the box of engraved stationery on which the relaunch of her endlessly redundant awareness campaign is announced once a year. The only awareness that concerns Kate is that she looked bad and lazy once Meghan came to town and began to identify causes and start helping those in need. Then Kate became aware that her uselessness was exposed.
@harper! No truer words… 💯 this is dead on! This is absolutely the case. Will and Kate were called lazy for years because they did absolutely nothing and had no substantive projects to claim, knew that after the Sussexes left that would be constantly compared to them. Ergo Earthshot and the Foundation for Early Years.
Finally someone else sees through the BS PR
Thanks
@Harper completely agree.
Harry said in Spare that it was unfair to call WanK lazy, but they both could have pulled some secret moves/projects behind the scenes and launch them when nothing was on the horizon for the rest of the family. THAT would have been the non-lazy thing to do for both of them.
The Early Years idea was first pulled out in late 2018 I believe. Possibly early 2019, following on from the hasty announcement that Kate was going to fix the children of “Broken Britain” a few days before Meghan’s Grenfell cookbook launch.
I think it was Camilla Tominey who tried to claim that Kate had been secretly working on her passion for the early years since becoming a royal and they’re still trying to push this, but she very obviously hadn’t to anyone who was paying the slightest bit of attention.
So she’s been at this for 4 years instead of 10. It’s a strange choice to try and push the 10 year passion line, because it makes her look even less effective.
@Belli, I said something similar to your last sentence the other day— her lack of output looks *a lot worse* if people believe (lol) that she’s been hard at work on this for over a decade! But I guess her teams feels she needs to offer some sort of explanation for what she was doing for all of those years when in actuality she was doing nothing besides shopping and getting her hair done.
she started this bs in 2012
I checked this a few days ago, but the very first mention of kate wanting to work on a large project was in the September 14, 2018 Becky English article in the DM talking about broken Britain. Prior to that she did nothing. And even with this the survey never happened until early 2020
It is an absolute lie for anyone to say she’s been working on this for a decade and even pushing it to say five years.
All Kate’s doing with this fake project is proving that her early years were indeed fundamental – she’s a lazy woman who did bugger all growing up and has been forced to land on the shoulders of educational experts because she has nothing of her own to fall back on. Meghan has shown her up for the do-nothing she is. It’s collapsing round her ears because it is sham.
Yeah, this does not make CarolE and Mike look great
This woman is a complete idiot with no substance or brain. The only thing she brings is those crazy eyes, crooked lips , jazzy hands and her clear obsession with showing us how thin she is. Nothing else.
This campaign is nothing but another failed campaign to make this woman look smart and hard working. She will do nothing as she always done , forget about this awareness campaign in a month and come back in 2-3 years with the same BS and another awareness campaign.
This is such a huge waste of time & money, but Kate doesn’t care because she has nothing but time & money. She needs to be organizing food drives for the starving children in her country.
My sister has a learning disability and I noticed a marked difference in the programs and supports offered after she turned 18. I also always wondered what happened to the rest of her classmates. People fall through the cracks of the system at any age, but especially as you get older. It’s shocking to see homeless children, but no one bats an eyelid at a homeless teen or 20-something.
Unlike Princess Baby Brain’s thinking, the “arly” years doesn’t set you up for life. A well-funded social safety net does. If she really cared, she wouldn’t have picked a topic so non-controversial, she would have picked something that actually does need awareness. She just picked the “arly” years because she wanted to pose with cute babies. She doesn’t want to get close to homeless 30-somethings or 40-something drug addicts.
Kate didn’t pick anything. This was chosen for her as she was doing nothing except shopping and vacationing … and working out incessantly.
And babies cute or not don’t ask any questions, very convenient.
That Kate “spent ten years” working on this superficial initiative is one of the British press’s biggest lies. It’s a bald-faced lie. It was introduced because Meghan was on fire and Kate was looking every bit like the lazy duchess she is. They had to do SOMEthing and this was it. Specifically, it was Camilla Tominey’s lie. Any new initiatives or additions to this smoke-and-mirrors thing are just that, smoke and mirrors. “Work” involves showing up and saying how important the first five years are. Ugh! How many times can it be said. This “research centre” at the palace is even more laughable. Harper is right on.
Sept 14, 2018 is the absolute earliest they can pretend she was thinking about a project like this and even then it wasn’t well defined. And of course it was because she had learned of Meghan’s cookbook launch that was coming up within a few days.
The vibe I get off this is peak mom-shaming. “Oh, you sent your child to daycare? Only read to them once or twice a week? Let them watch tv so you could cook/wash/work? Didn’t feed them an all organic diet? Didn’t put them in a dance program until (checks notes) AGE 6?! Poor thing is doomed… you should know, it’s all your fault.” The whole campaign is so shallow yet seems actively harmful to me, especially in those early yrs of parenthood. But I’m sure she’s enjoying her photo ops… that’s all that matters, right?
Someone upthread corrected the title of the campaign to Shaming Us and it’s dead on.
It was Carrot and it’s perfect.
Motion for Kaiser to refer to this nonsense as the “Shaming Us” campaign from now on, just like she did with the Jubbly. Because for sure, what all moms need is MORE GUILT piled on us.
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! How does this woman live with herself? Seriously? Is she that controlled/drugged/idiotic that she has NO shame instinct or self-awareness? I suppose the answer is yes. Does her “team” hate her with the passion of a thousand suns? They simply MUST. Nobody would suggest anything she says or does as a good idea–maybe it’s a big joke among the staff to see how long she will go along with it? GOD. It has to be. It’s is the only thing I can figure at this point. And that may be the most tragic bit of it all.
Stupid stupid people. The way to “try to move on and away from the Harry and Meghan soap opera that has dominated the royal narrative for several weeks now” would be to STOP mentioning H&M. They (RF/BM) are insane. They’re as bad as the orange isht gibbon at this point.
Kate’s only doing this project because Meghan as a working royal was showing her up. She’s probably pissed that Meghan has left and she’s stuck having to do this Early Years campaign.
I think she may be leaning towards an intellectual disability. If given an IQ test she might fall outside the 85 to 115 range, not so low as to be considered having a developmental or learning disability but also not quite within one standard deviation, which is fine. I’m not saying this to put her down, it’s just something to consider. I landed on this observation because if she could have wouldn’t she have made more of an effort, she had years and a lot of resources.
I don’t agree that she would have made more of an effort. Motivation doesn’t have anything to do with intelligence. Besides she’s surrounded by an entire of team that’s whole job is to make her look good.
I disagree, with a learning disability to get her A-Levels and a degree she would have had to put in a huge amout of work.
And with this dekoration she would be far better and engaged at her job.
I think its a mix of lazyness, medication and lack of nutrients. A body in starvation mood doesn’t have the reserves for intellectual curiosity or engagement.
She has a severe restrictive eating disorder. When you’re not getting enough calories, your body starts eating itself, and that includes the brain.
Are you implying there used to be intelligence??
Kaiser hit the nail on the head. Kate’s project is severely flawed but it’s not really about helping but helping herself. For some reason, KP believes she needs a legacy project when what she really needs to do is go out a do lot of engagements.
Finally, she shortened her dress. She wore something that doesn’t make her look like a grandma.
Everyone above pretty much covered what she’s not doing. I can’t decide whether it’s because she’s incapable of doing anything else or her team are incapable of doing anything else. I’m starting to think it’s both. It’s gone past cluelessness on their part to shocking on mine.
I liked her outfit because I frequently wear a sweater dress with boots. But one news site—hello or something like that—called it a bodycon dress. Like, do they know what bodycon means?
She’d probably look younger if she would just EAT something. My goodness!
She can disappear
One wishes
Approximately 85% of British schools are either fully or partially closed by strike action today, and the bulk of Britain’s train network is offline. Keen shows up one day before all hell breaks loose to swan around in another bespoke McQueen and show off her bony rib cage. The irony isn’t lost on me. She couldn’t give two farts about “Aeyly Yahs” or “Shaping Us” or anything that doesn’t involve shameless self-aggrandizing. The country is crumbling, schools and preschools are dangerously underfunded, parents can’t afford day care but need to work so they can buy food, pay for heating, gas, and rent while she jazz hands her way through yet another affront to the people she’s supposed to help. I hope the entire body of early childhood experts rises up and publicly slams this fake-work of Kate’s and demands proper funding. Rishi Sunak and his rich Tory cronies should be ashamed of themselves — they seem determined to take from the poor and give to the rich.
This just in – childhood is important. Those statements really imply that it’s a matter of choice for parents in the UK to deprive their children and not the result of poverty, racism, and sexism. As if those parents are taking their children for granted and if they could only *realize* that childhood is really important you guys they would…change their ways? As if the parents have the resources to do it and are for some reason choosing not to? As if they’re not looking in the eyes of their hungry, disabled, discriminated against, bullied, sick child every day and crying themselves to sleep in despair because they can’t help them?
Kates mumbling Early Childhood campaign about nothing much is an embarassment. There are no goals, no projects, no plans other than photo opportunities for more new clothes, and her repetitive hollow statement about the first 5 years being important. A “hands on” mother with a team of nannies and many servants, is clueless about the average person. Kate is multi talented, she has ability to always be the tallest person in the room so that she can loom over others, she also has the ability to be a clothes hanger with not much style and also has the ability to seek out a camera lens to dominate most photo situations, including the Queens Jubilee balcony photos. She seems to have learned very little during the 20 years that she has been involved with the BRF, other than to behave as though she is superior to all others, her mumbling and unintelligible accent is bizarre. Her consistent behavior states that she is either bone lazy or well below average in intelligence or possibly both. Her narcissistic cunningness from the time she set her sights on William says everything about her character.
“Shaping Us” sounds dystopian. The whole thing sounds dystopian.
Bless her heart! 🙄
The belt with that ugly 70’s dress is too small. The pin should go in the middle hole. This woman is skin and bones. How can a belt be too small for her?