As we discussed, Prince William’s new private secretary Ian Patrick already seems to be in over his head. William has been trying to brand himself as a “global statesman” for a few years now, ever since he saw his brother get embraced internationally and also get invited to speak at the United Nations on Mandela Day. William wants the exact same thing as Harry, but without having to do any of the work. William wants to show up somewhere and have everyone scream “the global statesman is here!!” All of which to say, William has now blundered into the Israel-Palestine mess with zero training, zero briefing and nothing but self-interest and vibes. He’s issued a bizarre set of statements about his “concerns,” statements which… in retrospect were completely unnecessary, given today’s event.
These are photos of William visiting the British Red Cross headquarters in London. It wasn’t some highly political event after all – just a prince visiting the Red Cross HQ, speaking briefly with the head of the Psycho-social team and getting an in-person briefing from British aid workers about how they’re getting medical supplies to Gaza and working in partnership with the Red Crescent. He also did a video link-up with people on the ground in Israel and Gaza. That’s it. Kensington Palace could have done a brief preview of this trip by saying “the Prince of Wales will visit the British Red Cross HQ today to get briefings on what is happening in Israel and Palestine.” And that would have been perfectly acceptable and even royally “apolitcal.” There was no reason for William to issue two statements within 24 hours, neither of which sounded like they were vetted by Downing Street. That being said, Richard Palmer claimed on Twitter that Peg’s statement today was “run past the Foreign Office before he issued it.”
I know everyone has their own trending topics on Twitter, but from what I can see, William is being ripped to shreds for being political in the most bone-headed way. It’s not just by regular anti-royal critics either – there are historians and policy experts criticizing William’s statements and his event. It’s like people don’t even understand that William merely wanted a quick “statesman” photo op and he really doesn’t give a f–k about anything other than his competition with Harry’s successful trip to Canada.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The Prince of Wales during a visit to the British Red Cross at its headquarters in central London, to hear about the humanitarian efforts taking place to support those affected by the conflict in Gaza Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 20 Feb 2024 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales speaks to Barbara Smith of the Psycho-social team, British Red Cross, during a visit to the British Red Cross at its headquarters in central London, to hear about the humanitarian efforts taking place to support those affected by the conflict in Gaza Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Barbara Smith Where: London, United Kingdom When: 20 Feb 2024 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales talks to employees during a visit to the British Red Cross at its headquarters in central London, to hear about the humanitarian efforts taking place to support those affected by the conflict in Gaza Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 20 Feb 2024 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales talks to employees during a visit to the British Red Cross at its headquarters in central London, to hear about the humanitarian efforts taking place to support those affected by the conflict in Gaza Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 20 Feb 2024 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales during a visit to the British Red Cross at its headquarters in central London, to hear about the humanitarian efforts taking place to support those affected by the conflict in Gaza Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 20 Feb 2024 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales during a visit to the British Red Cross at its headquarters in central London, to hear about the humanitarian efforts taking place to support those affected by the conflict in Gaza Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 20 Feb 2024 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
His courtiers need to rein him in so he does not make embarrassing statements
To late on that one.
Countdown started on Ian exiting the bldg in haste & by his own accord in 3, 2, 1 ….
Haha 🐴. I was wondering if his nostrils were always that big when looking at this new set of pictures, but maybe that’s just a symptom of turning literally into the ass he is (many apologies to donkeys who are adorable).
But just visiting the British Red Cross for a meeting isn’t nearly grand enough. Because William does so little, each event has to be puffed up as world-changing.
He would be better off sending one of those life-sized cutouts of himself for these photo ops. The cutout would have just as much knowledge and personality.
That’s ridiculous, the cutout would have more personality. 😏
This is going so bad.. been watching this disaster explode on Twitter love to see it. Getting the popcorn 🍿 because you know it is going to get much worse because Peggy doesn’t know when to just stop.
I know the people around him in that first photo are seated BUT he still looks like a giant idiot.
He looks like the 88year old Duke of Kent here. The Duke of Kent was always so charming at Wimbledon and knew his limits as in plenty of pleasant small talk and no fatuous claims about bringing about world peace.
He’s no charming Himbo, that’s for sure. Pasty, bloated and scowling at all times.
In that photo, he looks like he is explaining shadow puppets.
This is the look my dog gives me when I say something he doesn’t agree with
He is being DRAGGED on SM over this – the response has been savage.
With Chuck out of action the gov is MAKING him do this – the King for all his faults would have managed this a lot better.
There is no way he wants to be doing any of this – like the BAFTAs it’s nothing more than a photo op for him. He WILL put his pegs in it, remember when Poland complaint about him after he visited there? Oh to know what he did during that trip. He is not fit for the job and it cannot be hidden any more.
Is the government making him do this? This feels like his own self-aggrandizement. Isn’t this going to backfire for the govt or is this some big plan for a distraction from whatever the govt is actually doing? I’m actually confused by all of this.
Well, the UK government are pretty terrible at both policy and PR, so it’s entirely possible they’re trying to get him to do stuff and it’s not working out – that’s pretty much par for the course with them.
Considering that the U.K. created Palestine and bears a great deal of the responsibility for the current mess, this is rich. Always fascinated by the fact that it was the same guy who partitioned Ireland and declared at the end of WWI that there should be a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Tories seem to want to restart The Troubles in Northern Ireland, letting William lose on the Isreal/Palestine question seems like a great idea.
Actually Palestine was there, it was the British that created Israel with Balfour. But yes, in a very problematic way that sowed the seeds for all the chaos and violence that has followed. And I definitely agree given Britain’s historic role in this ongoing tragedy, William should have been extra careful. But I sincerely would be stunned if he knew any history on the matter. It is honestly shocking that he thought it would be wise to enter into this topic. I guess Harry’s trip and those gorgeous photos really sent him into a spiral lol.
@Concern @Em – Thank you both for bringing up / discussing THE hidden, but important, topic behind Willy’s theatrical gestures and utterances.
I just…what in the world do non-royal gossips like us make of this? Especially coming on the BAFTA disaster? Do people get that he’s a bafoon?
DM comments indicate a lot of flag wavers strong belief that a, Willy is very hands on behind the scenes b, entitled to pace himself as he won’t have a moment to himself when he’s king and finally c, much too busy looking after Kate to look at films. However they are equally matched by folk smelling BS as workshy Willy’s reputation is well known because he just coasts and won’t do basic preparation. Another poster stated most of us DGAF because they are totally irrelevant to our daily lives.
@Snaggletooth I know it’s just a typo but my brain read “bafoon” as a portmanteau of baboon and buffoon. 😁
What on earth was the point of that statement? Visiting the red cross is fine, that’s the kind of visit he should be doing, in a “lets find out more about this organization in general and how this organization is specifically helping in this particular crisis.”
But issung that statement first made it seem like he was getting ready to make some big political waves and instead he…..went to the red cross.
maybe it was just about getting more press on the visit bc people THOUGHT something more significant was going to happen?
how many times a day do you think Anne rolls her eyes at these antics?
I really think he embiggens these events because he does so few of them. So, every sparse visit has to have maximum impact – like he just has to put his hand on something and it will be healed.
The statement was to distract from the bafta gaffe.
He likely did this because his staffers are connected to David Cameron who is the current minister of Foreign Affairs and he knew he could put out a statement without much push back.
I agree with you. I think that William (Seeker of headlines) was dismayed about all the mockery from the Bafta awards, so he sought to change the subject by, oh, I don’t know, bringing peace to the Middle East, for a change. One, two, three, he went to Jared, and bingo, there you have it: this latest snafu. He’s a walking, talking, gaff machine.
I dunno… I think both Israelis and Palestinians have complicated thoughts when it comes to the Red Cross and there’s suspicion on both sides for different reasons. I’m no expert so PLEASE don’t get mad at me. All I’m saying isn’t that when it comes to Israel and Palestine you have to vet and research everything to last, tiniest detail. Everything is soooooo loaded. He should not be wading into this.
In his mind it probably IS that significant. How lucky for these foreign folk that I deign to show an interest AND give some of my time.
I agree, I don’t see the point of issuing the statement and then visiting. Since it was an opportunity for “listening and learning”, why not listen, learn, and then issue a statement?
I think he’d be better off opening a cheese factory in Scunthorpe and cutting ribbons rather than issuing pompous word salads. Global statesman, still trying to make fetch happen?
Hard agree. If he could just force himself to do a few normal events the royalist could all pat him on the back for his stiff upper lip and keeping calm and carrying on. This is such a terrible idea.
So many brave ordinary people demonstrating in the hundreds of thousands right now in their own countries, trying to halt an ongoing genocide. This lightweight representative of so much that is wrong in the world should stay far, far away from this issue.
Pegs only interested in one upping his brother. That is it. It drives him crazy that his brother is thought very well of in the international community. This is his incredibly arrogant way to out do Harry. This is not his place to involve himself in but he just can’t help himself. The press should rip him to shreds. He is taking his one sided competition to places it absolutely doesn’t belong. Sit down Peg.
Medical supplies, tents, food, water – there are so many things that are needed in Gaza.
And of course a ceasefire.
I highy doubt Bulliam’s statements was OKed by the Foreign office though, as he didn’t mention the (well-being of the) hostages at all.
The whole thing just seems typical for him, in the midst of a crisis he interrupts likely underpaid, overworked professionals from doing the job they need to do to address said crisis just so that he can get some brownie points from the media for his little “learning” opportunity. “Me me me” at its finest.
Pretty sure Punxsutawney Will is seeing his shadow as we speak and will swiftly return to his hole for six more weeks.
LOL
Psycho social team????? Sorry but I just spat out my tea, (More tea in a bit),
Sorry but Williams team hate him 😂and they realise he needs help.
Hence the “how to be sociable with a psycho” meet up 😂😂😂😂
Bet they sat there and the team were thinking “man this is really bad, where’s the tranc machine.
Now, ahem, remember how I said (from Heather) BIG changes at the Palace.? Well we all remember that within weeks of the Queen’s death, Charlie made an awful lot of people at Balmoral redundant!!
The changes have started and something is afoot because NOW Balmoral is advertising for staff again, previous employees need not apply. It would appear that SOMEONE is taking up a long term residence there, more when I have it peeps
OOOOOO!! Thanks for the tea Mary Pester, are the PoWs being banished to Balmoral or just a newly ‘single and ready to mingle’ William? Will Kitty remain at Adelaide Cott with the kiddos? So much dirt to be revealed…
Or maybe Katie is being banished to another part of the realm – to recuperate of course.
@MaryPester, I wonder if it’s Andrew so that Will can finally get his precious Royal Lodge!
Why would it say previous employees should not apply? Are they trying to save money on even lower wages? Do they distrust previous staff for leaking (that’d be rich) ?
Because they would have gotten redundancy pay and, as with all household staff they all signed an NDA
Long term residence? Is this like a Las Vegas residency? LOL.
Hmmm, that’s interesting. I wonder if Charles is going to make that his permanent Scottish base and deed/give Birkhall over to William?
I can’t believe they would station Kate at Balmoral or that William would move there. So wonder what’s going on, if anything?
@becks1, there’s plenty going on and my T has been red hot till now, ask the rest or our celebchy friends x
@Mary Pester thank you for the piping hot tea! This Mystery of the Missing Princess is driving me crazy so I am grateful for any piece of the puzzle you can provide.
I can see CarolE accepting Balmoral as Kate’s booby prize. It’s very grand, it’s where the Queen died, and Harry hates it. It’s so far away you could hide a comatose princess in its tower and no one could ever get close. It smells of compromise.
Were they advertising for household help AND nursing care?
@becks1 you are assuming that William is going to live there.
Now that is interesting! Previous staff need not apply, eh??? Wonder what that was about??
I read his statement about the need for more aid and terrible human cost of the conflict and, while it is political, I thought it was even handed, well worded, and very true. There’s nothing I can see to criticize it and I’m not clear what was embarrassing about the statement.
Whatever one thinks of the statement, there is no way in hell William wrote it.
@brassyrebel, agreed, it’s words of more than one syllable, so no way the antichrist wrote it
It’s the sort of thing the Royals put out all the time – the UK equivalent of “thoughts and prayers”. Because they don’t have any real power to make change, and they need to be careful not to piss anyone off. In this particular case its weird that William supposedly said he wanted to make peace in the region “his life’s work” – I wish people would press him on that because my mind boggles as to what he thinks he can do. Even if he’d done something like International Relations at uni, and/or worked for the Foreign Office after … or if he’d shown a particular interest in patronages like the Red Cross or Amnesty … I just don’t get it at all.
Huh? I thought his “life’s work” was to eliminate racism is football.
It was a statement. And, except for the repetitious use of “I”, in a combination of words William has never used before, until the recent hire of his new chief of staff. Perhaps he actually means these words, but past statements have proven to be only hot air – odds are this will be the same
@SSF I completely agree. Let’s not forget the context either – my recollection is that his statement near the start of the conflict was broadly supportive of Israel and he will in the coming days being visiting a synagogue and condemning anti-semitism. I think he did a lot to try an insulate himself from criticisms from one side that he seems to have ended up getting anyway.
I don’t see this as a clumsy renegade intervention? I’m not sure why this should be a surprise or considered outside his remit? He also made statements about Ukraine, raced to make them one might say, and the resistance from the expected quarter (Russian comms) was relatively slight. His course has been set because nobody stopped him then. TBH, I welcome the degree of consistency. I was really looking forward to joining in the pile on about this when I saw the headlines but I would actually defend him, it turns out, based on what I have seen of his speech.
As much as I hate having Royalty and act like they are neither use nor ornament I will say that there are certain regimes, usually also still running monarchies, who seem susceptible to influence from the British Royal Family. It’s possible that even the horrid Andrew has assisted with UK aims in the Middle East in his stated role of Trade Envoy. Not enough to be worth what he costs, mind. William’s not going to bring peace to ME but maybe he is in a better position to facilitate diplomacy than a regular politician and that’s part of why we saw him in Jordan for example?
In response to WAITWHAT I always thought that Meghans combo of International Relations and Theatre (which I asssume helps with the public speaking) were the perfect set up for royal life. Combined with the genuine interest in activism? And familiarity with dealing with (normal and reasonable) media? Also, the environment isn’t something she stresses in particular therefore, despite the attempts to style her an eco -hypocrite along with Harry, she hasn’t really opened herself up to that kind of criticism, IMO? Harry must have thought he’d won the lottery when he met her, she’s the full package. The UK failed her massively, every front page since she left should be an apology! She was PERFECT. No one is going to marry George or Louis now, not after what we did. It was hard enough for William find anyone, I dont understand why Royalists don’t see this.
Yes, I do believe the “Harry wants to re-royal himself” bullshit was a wake-up call from the British media to William. “Do something, idiot! We got bills to pay!” they are saying. The only reliable thing they can do to make him work is exactly what Diana did when William was a child: “You’re not coming? Okay, the Harry will have all the fun.” “NOOOO!” William screams and runs after his mom.
I hope that whatever bad deeds he has done are found out before he becomes King. Maybe that’s the media/KP strategy–keep his shennanigans on the down low–once he’s King he’ll be above the law and they won’t matter anymore.
Looking back a bit, I think the king and heir have been on the outs for a while. Not only did Charles put out a statement saying William wouldn’t be burdened with filing in, I believe that the Wails family showed up to Sandringham Christmas morning. I know Anmer is on the same estate, but it just seems to say Chuck and Bill had a big falling out. Now Chuck has agreed to meet privately with Harry for the first time in years maybe. Not looking good for Bill.
Did William make a donation? If not then this visit is a waste of time and just a photo op.
That right there. He barely cares about his own family members never mind the suffering happening in Gaza.
To have to entertain this idiot must be exhausting.
There are lots of controversies around KP. This one is not in media but from closed people. Kate business tusk force have collapsed. IDK how far this is true. But I heard this while discussing about bulliam’s sudden interest in gaza few hours ago.
Kate received funds in millions from business firms for her shaping us campaign and Task force blah blah. But there wasn’t any accounts for spendings and records about performed tasks. Now bulliam is responsible for this as waity do little is hiding. May be, he visited redcross to build his lies like he and waity donated that money for gaza emergency program (my friend’s assumption).
I really want to know, waity really misused the funds or it is just a rumor. Additionally another story about Carol which is plausible. Kate gave some of the gifts she received as a royal, to her mother Carol. Some are quite expensive. And carol sold them to earn a big money.
I really need any CB fan to confirm the above rumors.
That’s great scoop, @Honeybee. I also wonder if some companies had to step back from the task force after she was outed as having expressed concern for Archie’s skin color.
I would be more shocked if it turned out they weren’t misusing funds and royal gifts.
I have always assumed that the “business task force” was simply a way for companies to further their connections or get their CEOs on the honours lists. It’s purpose was always kind of murky and the royal foundation has been accused of keeping shoddy paperwork before.
But the companies that signed up to this task force did so because they wanted access to the POW, and she won’t be available for at least a few months. Maybe more – as more time passes and we don’t see her, the more likely I think it is that she never returns to royal life. So, if I were the CEO of Ikea or NatWest or whatever, I might just let the taskforce peter out.
Where is Kate? What is going on with her? That is what the RR should be asking daily.
Goo lord. Where to even start? He is a mess. All he does is react, never prepare. Daily Fail diplomacy. Watch another crazy hater article about how much he hates Harry come out tomorrow.
Aaaaand this is why Charles told him to not work, stay home with his family. Of course, Will had to then do the opposite.
My favourite bit from the Fail:
“‘He told one group: Lunch! Bit of Pret, [more Pret] … someone needs to have a burger. This all looks very healthy. I want to thank you guys for all your hard work. You are making a massive difference. You are dealing with very serious, very traumatic, very hostile situation and you keep going every day. Extraordinary. Keep positive. It just feels like that we go from one crisis to another.'”
He’s the next flipping Churchill. Or Sunak.
As someone here brilliantly said yesterday, he has the depth of a tissue.
Wow. Now see, that’s William, not those well-constructed sentences we got on official (centered) KP stationery.
I do hate to give this useless jerk free advice, but he only needs 8 words anywhere he shows up:
– What do you need?
– How can I help?
Exactly, Gabby.
He has a press secretary, I cannot be botherered to learn his name as they are all griters and awful human beings. He looks like a James Bond villain with glasses and a pompadour hairstyle who Bond will destroy at then of a movie.🤣🤣
*Corrections- grifters- end of a movie
He has his pointy finger out again! I wish someone would bite it off! LMAO
William’s great-grandmother was a volunteer nurse in field hospitals during the Balkan Wars. William just showed up to watch people back boxes.
And to smile and wave, don’t forget that bit of contribution.
Brain damaged from alcohol? He never reads or practices what he has to say. He’s Royal and nothing like ordinary people. Today’s audience have given over fawning. Meghan upset him because she was American and to her the whole set up was weird. It’s the Emperors New Clothes again.