bloody whinging royals

Then after the Panama Papers there were the Paradise Papers second only to the Panama Papers as the biggest data leak in history exposing the offshore investments of, amongst many others, our lovely royal family. The giveaway is in the name. The French term for tax haven is paradis fiscal! They all get away with it.

Thank you notanan

Phone numbers Anniebach.

what a shower
What - all of them?
Really?

I would beg to differ.
As I said, all families have a bad egg or two and they are no exception.

I suppose H and M had to " get on with it" if they wanted children.

I think the Queen is a fine woman but like Eloethan, the rest well....what a shower.

The true strength of a royal patron ( and I work for a charity that has one) is the ability to empower and encourage those who are better placed to bring about change, often behind the scenes.
Yes, indeed, PernillaVanilla

I think those who snipe at the RF's patronage of charities do not understand what their involvement can bring in ways which few realise.

It is a pity, too, that our Royal Family is valued more by many people overseas than some in this country, far more than any President could ever hope to achieve.

Every family will have its 'bad eggs'.

Andrew is ALL OVER the media and forums and people are talking about it.

People sticking on topic on a threat about H&M does NOT = other Royals not getting noticed/talked about/criticised!

Just a few random observations.
Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas both ended relationships with Harry, it is said that on seeing what life as a royal would be like they didn't want that. Surely if harry had taken the relationship with Meghan more slowly she could have made a more objective decision and been better prepared?
yes the press were a factor of course but giving up royal security provision, and most importantly not wearing a seat belt were the immediate causes of Diana's death.

Meghan seems to have a propensity to drop anyone close to her if they disagree with her - more comments yesterday from a friend who was ditched the minute she raised concerns.

They could both benefit from looking at how Princess Anne has organised her life and take some lessons from it, and indeed some of the other young royals who are unlikely to ever inherit the crown.

They seem to be self obsessed and to think they can make changes themselves to climate change, Women's rights etc.
The true strength of a royal patron ( and I work for a charity that has one) is the ability to empower and encourage those who are better placed to bring about change, often behind the scenes.

13 numbers of what ?

Well Said Eloethan about the whole family.

PA had 13 numbers to be contacted on from Epstein
You don't hear anything . Just other Royal news

Eloethan you do get confused . I am as I have always been ,
left of centre .

I have spoken about the cost of security but Charles is cutting this back.

I have never supported a republic but if I had in the past, this
far left Corbyn Party would have caused me to change my mind.

As for the rest of your ‘despicable’ comments, same old, same old.

However, I agree with the third paragraph of your post.
It seems to be very fashionable just lately for people to make cod-psychiatric diagnoses on the mental health of others.

rather despicable ( to use your own word)

Goodness, Eloethan I would not attribute any of your ather despicable description to the Queen!

I expect that she would far rather have spent her life living in the country, bringing up her family and perhaps breeding horses. In stead she has performed her duties impeccably and still continues to do so in her 90s.

Some of the judgmental comments on here show a degree of bitterness which can't be doing the writers much good.

anniebach Back in the days when you were not on the right of the political spectrum, you made several critical comments about the queen's vast wealth and were not particularly complimentary about any of the monarchy, save, of course, Charles.

More recently, you seem to have become an ardent supporter of the royal family, with the exception of Harry and Meghan and, of course Diana.

Now it appears that in the media, including social forums such as Gransnet, it is felt acceptable for all and sundry to make claims as to Meghan's and Harry's mental instability. I think it's despicable.

The whole family, currently and historically, is over-privileged, out of touch, selfish, dysfunctional and ruthless. To pick out a few scapegoats so that the rest can be left in peace to pretend that they are actually doing a useful job (how exhausting it must be for them to run all those charities single-handed) is a well used strategy that has proved successful in a number of different scenarios.

I am not interested in the RF. But, like Harry, I lost somebody close suddenly and unexpectedly. I was not there and had no chance to tell her how much I cared for her. This has affected me for 40 years. Not a day goes by when I don't think about what happened. When I am sad about something else, it all comes back to me. For a long time afterwards I could not let anyone close to me to be far from me as I was afraid I would lose them too. A psychologist told me this is normal after a sudden and unexpected death of someone close. This grief, I now know, will never leave me. There have been times when I have felt like dying. But I can keep it to myself because I am not in the public eye. It is hard for Harry as he has to face the world. Yes he has every material possession he could possibly want but I bet he would give it all up to have his mother back.

Very well put Monica.

I have just read up the the thread and I find the comments on Meghan's relationship with her family very odd.

She does not come from a tight nuclear family that always hung together. Her father had been married twice and both marriages had broken down. As I understood it, while Meghan knew her half siblings, the family was not very close and some were very jealous of her acting success and that coming from what effectively was a disfunctional family, she asked only her parents to her wedding. Her father rather blew it with unfortunate staged interviews and washing his dirty linen in public and only her mother, to whom she is clearly very close and who has behaved in a way much like Kate Middleton's parents, came to the wedding.

This sort of situation is not uncommon in this day and age when so many marriages collapse and so many people have children by several partners.

Money and privilege do not make you immune to mental health problems, nor does it make them more bearable.

Prince Harry lost his mother when he was only 12, his brother was 3 years older and that is a key difference. From my experience of other families suffering the same tragedy the children who seem to suffer most when they lose a parent, especially a mother, are those aged between about 11 and 14 and Prince Harry was in that critical age group.

I think the family dynamic of assuming a stiff upper lip and bearing it like a man cannot have helped him cope. His wife, also, may have been a successful actor but the amount of attention and scrutiny she was under in her acting career is like nothing to what she is now receiving as a member of the royal family. Kate Middleton had a much more gradual introduction to th harsh glare of the royal spotlight. She had a long courtship with Prince William and grew used to it gradually. She also is British and British culture is her culture. Meghan Markle is from another country and is used to many aspects of life being very different to how we see and do things in the UK.

My entirely human sympathies are with both of them, regardless of wealth or possessions. I feel for them as I would feel for any other couple struggling to cope with mental health problems.

It is clear that currently both are suffering from mental health problems and I do think that they should be given a break of several months to seek all the help they need.

As i said mental health problems are no respecter of persons and rich and poor we all suffer equally.

Callistemon, yes I understand that you and Paddyann have different views on whether or not there should be a monarchy. I’m with you, I believe a monarchy is preferable to a republic, for the reasons you mention. There are certainly faults with a monarchy, but on balance, I think it’s best.

Prince Charles has done some marvellous work with young people that is not often mentioned. Prince Phillip started The Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, which has benefited so many young people. As Bridgeit says, the royal family support thousands of charities. Princess Anne is one of the most hard working members of the family. Sophie is another hard worker. So much good from these people, who are none the less, very well rewarded for their work.

We never hear anything about the families of the people who marry into the royal family, except perhaps Catherine’s family. Sophie’s family, Tim Laurence’s family, Eugenie’s husband’s family, and so on. Presumably that’s because these people didn’t throw their families away when they married into the royal family. Meghan is different, she’s thrown her family away without a backward glance. This behaviour doesn’t deserve respect.

and if the press can’t write anything pleasant about them, they shouldn’t write anything,

this is not what the press is for....writing only nice things.......

Thanks Merlotgran , should be interesting to watch.

Exactly , that’s the point isn’t it.
Other peoples family dynamics can seem odd to you or me but not to them. So unless we are close friends & actually know these people ,we don’t have the full picture & in this case nor should we, but that’s just my opinion .

Programme about Prince Charles and the Duchy of Cornwall this Thursday night on ITV