"I'll celebrate her birth when..."

No doubt there are drawbacks to the royal lifestyle but I believe many people experience far more challenging lives. Also, the royal family needs, and courts, publicity in order to maintain their popularity. But they call the shots as to when, where, how often and by whom they are photographed and filmed.

I expect an orphaned child living under a bridge somewhere in South America who exists by his/her own wits and is treated as vermin by the police, or a child who spends each day picking through the detritis of a rubbish tip in India might find the idea that children born into a royal family experience suffering equal to their own very confusing.

If the demands of being a member of the royal family are so onerous, it is surprising that they all seem so very contented - and none of them has declined the position.

Given the writer's original rather caustic remarks, perhaps she had to write the article in this way. Journalists, presenters and commentators tend to be quite careful in what they say about the royal family if they wish their careers to flourish.

Oooh spot the Freudian slip in my last post

I agree about OTT, merlot, (that's the whole idea, I think) but I still think it's good that someone is brave enough to say these things out loud. some stirring is good.

I think it was on the BBC website I read that George's first public appearance in Britain was when his dad took him to the hospital to meet his wee sister. If that's true, well done those parents.

The article is completely OTT.

I see no reason why she won't be able to dye her hair blue then chop it off if she wants to. Remember Zara's tongue stud??

Yes, I did get the irony but written so soon after her birth it smacks of bitterness.

The positives will outweigh the negatives and some!

"Things will be different". I hope so, gaga. Good luck to William and Kate as well as to Charlotte. I wouldn't want a child of mine to have to live in a "human zoo".

Let me think would a newborn child of a poor, subsistence farmer choose a life of luxury, no money worries, exotic holidays, flunkies at my beck and call

or

hunger, thirst, poverty, dirt, sickness and back breaking work

I once read an article that said the Queen thinks all WCs and cloakrooms smell of new paint because everywhere she goes they have always been decorated in case she needs to use the facilities!.

She is always the last to arrive and the first to leave an event and the roads are cleared to ensure easy passage for her. Her life is completely unlike ours.

Will it be the same for Princess Charlotte? Probably not. Her parents seem anxious to loosen the gilded cage doors for themselves and their children. In another 20 years we shall have a different monarch - maybe even William by then. Things will be different.

Eugenie and thingie seem to have a pleasant life.

There is a lot of truth in that article, but if I was clever enough I would like to counter it with an article about all the positives which there will undoubtedly be in her life.
None of us can choose the circumstances into which we are born, but hopefully she will just get on with the cards she has been dealt and make the best of it, if she has any sense, just like all of us have to do.
I wish Princess Charlotte a long and happy life.

If it's all so awful, funny how they don't seem to use the 'opt out' option.

thatbags 'read with the understanding poetic licence gives to such writing'

Eh!

Actually I think the comments in the article were slightly exaggerated but still meant to be taken literally.

jings were you being ironic when you made the comment about brain cells and the Telegraph?

Perhaps we should read it as being ironical? Then it would make more sense.
jing my Mum has read the Mirror all her life she also reads the Guardian and does all the crosswords. She is left wing and supports the left wing press. She possesses a great many brain cells even at 97.

Totally negative article.

God! I wonder how long it took the writer to come up with all that misery! And how long he/she spent polishing her crystal ball!

Is the article meant to comfort the rest of us, when we realise just how deprived we are as a nation? (yeah right)

Now Fleet (!!! - named him/herself after a street? ), have another little think and list all the good things about being born a princess. And don't forget to include the two most important assets - a father and mother who really care about her.

Perhaps you'd better publish that article in the Telegraph, so it is read by possessors of brain cells.

Sour, full of bile and ridiculous!

Thanks for posting it though

Read it with a dose of the understanding poetic licence gives to such writing and then you'll get it. It's not meant to be taken literally! That would be silly.

Ask any child born into poverty and poor education etc if they would swap - I wonder what the answer would be. The article is ridiculous

Accurate apart from

She is no better off than the child of an uneducated subsistence farmer in the developing world, terrified of vaccines and equality and tractors.

Lets be honest that's not really a true comparison, is it?

Well yes I see their point but how negative that all is if I culd be ar***d I'd write down all the positives but I cant.

Excellent article - thank you, bags!

soutra, one of the things I find useful about Twitter — links to good articles in papers I normally wouldn't think of opening. You have to choose who to follow to make the most of it (@fleetstreetfox).

That's an excellent article, very thought-provoking.

All true though! Thanks for sharing that bags.