Keeping Royal Secrets

Alegrias1

HE WROTE THEM.

If he didn't want us to think that's what he thought, he shouldn't have written it down.

I don't think people write diaries of historical importance so that they don't forget their dentist appointment. They write them so that generations to come can understand how they were thinking at the time.

The person I know who has kept diaries for years does it because he likes to reflect on how things have changed, to check if his view now actually matches up with how he felt at the time. He has no intent for anyone to read them, he has asked someone he trusts not to read them to burn them

Because of his position in his field other people might be very interested but that doesn't mean he has to share them. Mountbatten was fit and well when he died, if he had lived longer he might have made a decision to destroy them. We will never know.

I really don't think it matters GSM.

The person in question was the last viceroy and had a huge impact on the history of the UK from the middle of the 20th Century right up until now. If we start censoring historical papers based on whether we think the person wanted us to know or not, where does that stop? Its fair to say that people deserve privacy but when it comes to historical research, people's writings are important.

I don't think this is about salacious gossip in the red tops, although many are trying to portray it that way. This is a historical record and I think its important that we know how things were being played out.

And yet his family sold them and therefore put them into the public domain. The family is in a position to know whether Mountbatten wanted his diaries to be destroyed or not but perhaps they just needed the money.

Mountbatten might have made the decision to destroy his diaries, we’ll never know, but his family made the decision to sell them. That we do know. We don’t know why, we just know that they did make that decision.

Many years ago I knew an elderly lady who seemed very nice but was known to keep a little black book recording what the village people did over many years. After she died her nephew was horrified by what she had written about her neighbours and burned it. You would never have dreamed that such a kindly lady would write about her ‘friends’ in the way she did.

But GSM if that lady had been an important person in the politics of the village, who had influence over decisions that were made about the people she wrote about, wouldn't it have been important to understand what she thought about her neighbours?

Certainly not,

?

No.
She was dead and it was gossip.

It wasn't gossip, she wrote down what she thought of people.

And if she'd denied Mrs X a service because she didn't like her, Mrs X is entitled to compensation.

If she gave Mrs Z a job because she thought she was a good egg, but denied it to Mrs Y just because she wrongly thought she was a bad'un, Mrs Y deserves compensation.

Who'd have thought a person living in a village writing down what she thought about her neighbours in her little black book would have had so much power and influence?

Jobs? Services?
Ifs, buts and maybes.

Germanshepherdsmum

Many years ago I knew an elderly lady who seemed very nice but was known to keep a little black book recording what the village people did over many years. After she died her nephew was horrified by what she had written about her neighbours and burned it. You would never have dreamed that such a kindly lady would write about her ‘friends’ in the way she did.

At least she just wrote it down and didn't spread malicious gossip around the village!

Villages, eh! Such goings-on. Rather like The Casual Vacancy

It was pretty malicious stuff apparently, hidden behind a kindly facade. Her nephew, who also lived in the village, was pretty shocked It would have done no-one any good to have known what she wrote about them. I prefer to remember the pleasant side and let the dead rest in peace. We can’t possibly know if Mountbatten intended his diaries to be read by others. What he wrote could have been influenced by an intention that it was for his eyes only.

This analogy strategy of mine isn't really working, is it?

I wonder if, given he was such a prominent figure, he had in mind to publish his diaries as a book has he lived ? Pure speculation obviously

Alegrias1

This analogy strategy of mine isn't really working, is it?

Nope. It was good though !!

They may be Royal, but they are human beings too - and everyone has a human right to some privacy

The royals are openly bullying the
@BBCNews
in an attempt to make them more compliant. This is disgraceful behaviour that needs to be challenged.

Wills &Kate Bin BBC

amol rajan the nasty little man who lead the bbc in The Princes and the Press .Meghan's mouthpiece! Her friends and lawyer having their say but the Royals denied any part of it by the Bbc. Amol Rajan an out and out republican of course!

I don’t agree that they are bullying the BBC. They are asking for equal and fair treatment. They didn’t get it on that programme.

Forsythia

I don’t agree that they are bullying the BBC. They are asking for equal and fair treatment. They didn’t get it on that programme.

Agreed.

lemsip

amol rajan the nasty little man who lead the bbc in The Princes and the Press .Meghan's mouthpiece! Her friends and lawyer having their say but the Royals denied any part of it by the Bbc. Amol Rajan an out and out republican of course!

Sorry, I copied the wrong link before. Meant to say agreed here!

He wrote this in 2012

But in a 2012 column, he criticised the way the media portrayed the royals and voiced his dislike for the 'absurd' monarchy.

He wrote: 'When it comes to our absurd monarchy, journalists are so bamboozled by aristocratic wealth that they can only portray a confected picture to their audience.

'"Mrs Wales – spare us from the 'Duchess of Cambridge" – is a beautiful lady, and does noble work. But like the rest of us she is prone to bad moods and bad breath, and doesn't look her best on a hangover.

'You wouldn't know that from media coverage of her. What you get is an idol, not a person.

Grany

The royals are openly bullying the
@BBCNews
in an attempt to make them more compliant. This is disgraceful behaviour that needs to be challenged.

Wills &Kate Bin BBC

They have chosen ITV to broadcast their carol service charity event. If they have to choose one why shouldn't it be ITV? The BBC doesn't have some automatic right to it. Do we acuse sports organisations of bullying the BBC if their sport is shown on ITV, or channel 4 or Sky.

Lucca

I wonder if, given he was such a prominent figure, he had in mind to publish his diaries as a book has he lived ? Pure speculation obviously

But everybody kept diaries in the days when Mountbatten was keeping his. Diaries of significant, and insignificant, people have been published (suitably edited sometimes) for decades. And hugely valued by historians as a primary source.

You rightly say, it's speculation, Lucca, but I wouldn't think that he would have spent much time thinking that something he did as a matter of course might be published. If he did think about future publication, I would also think that he would have tried to keep any potentially damaging revelations out of it. He was deeply involved with the RF, after all. Why would he want to tarnish them?