From where I sit, the Duchess of Cambridge’s Five Big Questions survey was not particularly well-received. I’m talking about the actual struggle survey of five basic questions, where the goal was “to start a conversation” and “the show the culmination of EIGHT YEARS of work by Kate.” Oh, another goal of the survey was to help Kate decide her next steps with Early Years, I guess. Anyway, while Kate received good press for “working” and for doing a podcast, the actual substance and reality of the struggle survey was glossed over in favor of the new Credible Kate narrative. Kate is CREDIBLE, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Anyway, I guess I’d just like to remind everyone that Kate and her family are still promoting the survey for some reason, even though royal reporters are trying desperately to gloss over it. Kate posted a message on social media, asking more people to take the survey:
Have you completed The Duchess of Cambridge's #5BigQuestions survey?
It's not too late to have your say, and help bring about positive, lasting change for generations to come 👇https://t.co/MaMnlxy2sJ pic.twitter.com/Vx7ATxR5ES
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) February 18, 2020
And her her brother James Middleton posted this on his Instagram too:
What’s up with this? My take is that Kate in particular knows that everyone is just going to infantilize her endlessly no matter what, so even if the Struggle Survey goes nowhere (and how could it even go somewhere?), she’ll still be golden. She’ll still be “the good duchess” no matter what.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid and WENN.
Kate has golden headlines now but come the fall I wonder what kind of headlines she will get.
Yikessss! If even the family got involved to ask everyone and anyone to take the survey…. I predict with my eyes closed the things aren’t smoking!!
Besides, is there a chance for her to hire someone with degree in statistics? And other with a degree in didatic sciences? Always help if she means a serious work, not just a window shop.
I found James post about it to be kind of odd. Like, who is he reaching that doesn’t already know about the survey? His friends? I would think people that follow him because of his family (that includes me, lol) would already know about the survey. So while I’m sure his post may have encouraged a few others to take it, it seems unnecessary to me.
Someone on here pointed out yesterday that 200k responses is actually not that great, but I have no clue what would be considered a good response rate or not. It does seem that 200k is low considering anyone in the world can take the survey and can take it multiple times.
There is also the obvious elephant in the room of his mental health issues and Kate spouting that if you have parents who are involved and bring their kids outside then you won’t have mental health issues. Perhaps had she not said so many dumb things about mental health in child development, this wouldn’t look so foolish.
The other elephant in the room is that she has completely ignored children/young adults who suffer from mental health issues due to conditions such as autism, ADHD etc.. Instances where the nature v’s nuture discussion is thrown out the window.
Amen to that, Digital. Drops of sunshine as the all-purpose prescription.
@digital – yup. Kate’s discussion of the mental health of children completely overlooks conditions like autism, etc. And honestly, I cant figure out if this “Early Years Initiative” is about mental health in particular or just about “outcomes” in general for children? I thought it was about how the EY can have an impact on mental health as children get older? I honestly don’t know at this point, lol.
But that’s always been true for her and William – mental health seems to be about depression and maybe anxiety, and that’s it.
When they spoke about their own ‘mental health issues’ it was generic every day life stress. They conflate ‘mental health issues’ with their daily stresses. Shallow and intellectual as puddles.
@becks1, the response rate required for the survey to be considered reliable would have been established while determining methodology and survey validity. I assume they did not test the survey for validity (because it would have failed, miserably), which already goes against standard research protocols. Generally, in order for findings to be valid and generalizable, you need a certain % of the target population to participate. Without that percentage, the data, while interesting, perhaps, is not usable. That said, the whole process and survey don’t meet the standard for research, so it probably doesn’t really matter.
None of this would have been done. This wasn’t done by an academic who knows how to do research. It is a blatant PR exercise does by a hired PR agency.
I recall that one of the first things my stats prof told me was about the book called “how to lie using statistics”. The media uses polls in the most deceptive way to craft a narrative and the general public rarely has any idea if the poll used is meaningless or not. This survey is more of the same.
Also, they used no filters on the survey: It can be taken multiple times by the same person, it can be taken by anyone in the world, etc. So, once they scrub the redundancy from it and the non-British, how many truly took the survey. I doubt if she ever truly releases the number of valid responders or the actual number of responses she received as the number will turn out to statistically irrelevant. There is nothing worthy about any of this and the professionals who are assisting her in this mockery should be ashamed of themselves.
But why would any of that matter? Response rates, whether it’s viable, etc? It’s not a real survey that will provide real answers about anything. It can’t possibly even drive where she goes next, because most of the questions aren’t even about that. The questions that she’s asked, even if answered by every single person in the U.K., won’t provide usable data or provide new answers to new questions. It’s just so meaningless and purposeless. And it’s not even marketing anything. The survey isn’t being used as the thing that gets people to visit a website where they learn more or donate. The survey is all there is, so why is she trying to get so many people to go to that website and take it? Are they just trying to prove to someone (themselves?) that Kate can motivate people to do a thing? That people listen to Kate? Why?
200k people taking the survey means around 0.3% of the population of the UK took it.
And that is the highest percentage in theory if you assume all those people were Brits and took the survey once
The actual percentage is probably going to end up lower once all the non UK and multiple responses are filtered out. That is if Keensington Palace (misspelling intentional) release the actual number
The only way they will release the facts about the deeply flawed data is if they are forced to.
Even if the total number is high (which it won’t be, but let’s just play like it is), the question is whether the total participants are representative of the population anyways. We have to assume that people who took the survey
1. Are in the UK;
2. Have access to technology;
3. Care enough about the Royals and Kate’s passion-project to participate; and
4. Represent the whole of the UK, in terms of ethnicity, wealth/poverty, gender, age, etc.
My hunch tells me that the most of the 200k who took the survey satisfy 1-3, but in order for the results to be generalizable, #4 would have to be fulfilled. If the UK is 10% black parents of young children (I just made that up), 10% of the survey respondents SHOULD be black parents of young children. We all know that’s not going to happen, and that’s problematic in terms of methodology. The results will be skewed, no way around it.
This COULD have been an interesting study. If “Kate” had designed the survey to look at differences in the “Big 5 for Under 5” based on ethnicity or socioeconomic status or LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE, it might have been worth the time and effort. As it is, it’s a vanity project.
@noodle – thanks, your comments here are interesting and informative. I agree that a study that presented even these exact same questions but accounted for ethnicity, income, education level, etc would have been more interesting in terms of the results.
Sofia —. Love the ‘Keensington Palace’ reference. 👏🏼👏🏼
Oh, I pointed the number out (and I posted it again before seeing your post, oops). I don’t think it’s a good number considering Kate’s one of the most recognizable British royals and the length of time the survey has been out. I would’ve at least expected a number closer to 1 million but these responses aren’t even a quarter of a million.
Okay, so based on your comments and the ones above yours….yikes. So there’s definitely a reason James is posting about it.
I agree that there should have been a higher response rate and is why there has been a big push the past week or so to get it out there – they are desperate to get the numbers up. Considering the clout of the PR/market research firm behind this, the media campaign to promote it should have been bigger. In fact I don’t recall seeing ANY media campaign over it, guess they must have thought having Katie Keen’s name attached to it was all it need. LOLz
Interesting that the Middletons are circling the wagons in support of Keen Katie’s sad little survey. Are they feeling a bit nervous as the date of Harry and Meghan’s return comes closer? Is Ma Middleton afraid that Harry might have some tea to spill?
I do wonder if Kate shouldn’t have chosen another area to focus on? Early years development is important, so important that any meaningful discussion has to include questions like ‘why doesn’t the government do…’ or ‘the government shouldn’t be doing…’.
In other words there’s no way for her to have any real impact without criticizing and/or recommending Government policy which she shouldn’t be doing because the Royal Family are not allowed to interfere in an elected government’s agenda (some of them, like Prince Charles, try but that doesn’t make it right).
Maybe she should focus on photography or flower arranging. This is an area for political parties, academics, teachers and relevant non-profit organizations to take the lead on.
It’s the only “talent” she has, kids. The art history degree isn’t relevant to her work and really, she’s not much more than a royal brood mare. Meghan’s degrees in international relations and theatre were more useful to her role. She is at ease with addressing crowds and making speeches. Poor Kate care barely look at an audience. And the RRs are lying through their teeth when they say this has been in the works for 8 years. Complete BS.
I’m not quite sure what part their undergraduate college degrees would play in their ability to do the job. They were earned 15+ years ago and have little relevance to the job of being a duchess. Meaghan’s ease at giving speeches and connecting to an audience certainly has more to do with her years as a working actress than on a degree earned more than a decade ago.
The difference is actually caring about something other than yourself. Meghan has it in spades and has done volunteer work since she was a teen. Kate never did any even though she didn’t ever have to work to support herself. The KP staff scramble to find things for Kate to care about but even when it’s directly linked to young kids, she still only half asses it.
Diana didn’t have any university degree and she took the time to learn about things outside of her life experience, like HIV and land mines. She made the effort to become better at speeches. That’s the difference here.
@Flamingo: not really. There are many actors and actresses who are horrible at giving speeches no matter how long they’ve been acting. Being able to give a great speech is more complex than that.
@Flamingo, theatre arts has a lot to do with making you feel at ease with crowds and giving speeches, comes with the chosen field. You get used to doing that while you’re studying and training for it. This is what she wanted from a young age; she is used to it. I’m talking as opposed to a degree in art history. Also, international relations, having given a speech in front of the UN she would certainly be able to handle anything similar while working as a royal, and she certainly did. I was embarrassed for Kate in Pakistan. Apart from speaking a little Urdu, there was zero impact, was there?
Kate’s art history degree COULD have come in handy when she toured the royal collection with the Queen, IF Kate had any once of work ethic in her body. Art history can be used to discover what is actually in the collection and how to discuss those items intelligently . . . but instead what we got was Kate asking the Queen whether Russia still made imperial Faberge eggs. Kate is either dumb as a box of rocks, or incapable of putting even 5 minutes of effort into anything, or possibly a combination both.
Kate never used the art history degree though she is trying to pass herself off as a “great” photographer” based on (often photoshopped) pics of her children. She could have gotten a gallery job or curated a collection. She was not going to get any full time job with responsibilities lest she would not be able to be there to answer the phone when william called.
I think this has been the struggle she’s faced over the last 8 years, and part of the reason why she’s dilly-dallied for so long in bringing this out. It’s also likely that this is the reason why she’s probably not had much guidance on this initiative. Someone in her position would have oodles and oodles of connections with which to bring people on board, but I would not be surprised if anything she wanted to do that was meaningful in some way was something that would veer too close to the territory of “political” for her own comfort.
This theme was cobbled together for her by Catherine Quinn, it isn’t a Kate passion project. Released in a rushed exclusive to the Fail three days before Meghan’s complete cookbook hit the shelves.
A last ditch, last minute effort on Quinn’s part to make anything of Kate and her position. Gave up after two years, left in such a rush there was no one in place to pick up the reins and steer the sinking ship.
I think when Meghan showed up Catherine Quinn knew she needed to get out of there. Any hopes of getting Katy to keen were a lost cause because it was obvious Meghan was going to run circles around her…which she did.
Quinn had only been there a few months when Harry and Meghan announced their engagement. Quinn was announced (leaked by B English) July 31. We all laughed Kate would fall pregnant immediately to get out of work – and she did. Quinn might have seen early on that Meghan was a force and her client, Kate, was an even more hopeless case than she originally thought.
Quinn flubbed it big time if she was the one who leaked this Broken Britain idea to the Fail three days before Meghan’s cookbook. My money is on Carole having a panic attack about Meghan, Quinn having one too. Both seeing a need to find a quick ‘theme’ for Kate, and this mess of BB being the bad answer.
I think it’s safe to say that there was never any intention for Kate (or William) ever having to rise to the occasion of their position. If this family was truly interested in being impactful these two would’ve been seriously training to do so. They have connections to the best in every field by the nature of their statues. Schools would fling all doors open for then.
But that never happened.
In contrast look at Harry & Meghan. Harry, 2 tours in Afghanistan, serviceman for a decade and had hoped to go longer. Started an impactful charity in his teens that’s still running today, traveled to Antacrtica with vets, started Invictus Games etc. Meghan’s career and service achievements are even longer! They’re trained for these role and have set a new standard that noone in this family can match. Their Midas Touch is based in experience and confidence & it shows.
If the BRF were humble enough to accept that fact & not so competitive, Will & Kate could have given the spotlight to H&M while they did more modest engagements. But now they look absolutely foolish, they’ve exposed how their jealousy has put them in a even worse position. Now everyone can see how unprepared & unqualified they are to “rule”
They’re literally useless ornaments of a dead empire that the public is paying for. They give nothing back.
As I said yesterday, 200,000 responses is not much (putting it lightly), considering that a) the survey is being pushed by a high-profile royal (and ~future Queen~ as her fans love to remind everyone) and b) it was released a month ago. That’s why Kate and co. are releasing videos and making posts to remind people that the survey exists.
That should also tell everyone that the majority of the Kate stans don’t actually give a fig about what she does. They can’t even be bothered to fill out her amazing, life changing survey. They just like to spout off on twitter about how “regal” she is and how she is going to single-handedly save the monarchy (yes, I have seen people say that). They care more about hating Meghan than actually liking Kate.
@L84Tea This is just like Michelle Obama and Melanie Trump. Those right wingers literally don’t give a crap about Melania, they’re just obsessed with hating Michelle and are pissed that Melanie doesn’t garner the same kind of respect and have the same kind of talents and influence. Kate’s “fans” don’t support anything she does because they know she’s inadequate, lazy, and boring. They’d all give their right arms to be able to transfer all of Meghan’s abilities and charisma onto Kate. That’s basically what Phil Dampier was attempting to do when he tried to give Kate credit and kudos for Meghan’s mega successful SmartWorks project. One of the best things about them breaking off from the royal leeches is that now those people will have no association whatsoever with what they do.
Didn’t Meghan’s September Vogue issue sell out in ten days? Isn’t that about 200,000 copies? *kermit sipping tea meme*
My point, which I made badly bc I was in a hurry (kids-amiright?), was to look at the data. Meghan’s Vogue, which was NOT free, sold out quickly and who knows how many digital issues they sold. Compare that to Kate’s struggle-bus survey and one can see a real difference. I’m sure that BP would say that it’s not a popularity contest, but it is and they’ve just lost someone who could have done so much good. People can tell when someone really cares and I think people really felt that with Meghan. Not that Kate doesn’t, but her caring seems to be part-time, for lack of a better term. I look forward to seeing what Meghan and Harry do in the future.
Ha! I got it & thought it was brilliant. You make an interesting point.
Is that 200K number just for domestic UK sales or internationally as well? I originally bought it digitally, and got a hard copy a few weeks later, when it was available in the States at bookstores. I’m neutral about the whole survey thing, except for the fact that it doesn’t seem to have anything solid behind it in terms of professional input, which does it a disservice, especially for those it’s supposed to help. Just don’t get the motivation, if any.
This survey ends tomorrow and it had only 200.000 responses. Sorry but it isn’t a very good result ( I would say that it’s bad) if you think of her huge platform and the amount of publicity that this had. This is what I call a flop.
Maybe the lack of a response is a response. Perhaps many people who might have taken it aren’t happy with what has been going on with the royal family and their lack of support for the Sussexes. Perhaps people think just think the survey questions are stupid. Perhaps the average person just can’t be bothered to make her feel better about herself. Perhaps I’m dreaming?
Oh the phony and forced enthusiasm is nauseating me. So, so overdone. Trying to be Meghan, sadly. The firm drove her away, remember? She was outshining you. There, there, she’s gone now.
Kate has been doing her big, over the top, neurotic smiling since way before Meghan was in the picture. I think she is a very shy person who really goes over the top in an attempt to mask it.
I don’t recall seeing her ever look this over the top, ever. It’s painful, lol.
Personally I’ve never seen Kate as a shy person. She had a very different demeanor throughout her dating years and even in her first couple of years as a duchess. I think it’s a lack of confidence and simply not being up to the ‘job’ of engaging with the public on a regular and consistent basis.
I never got the impression Kate is shy.
I think people use shy to excuse her lack of interest and generally laziness in parts of her role.
Beach Dreams/Lowrider – agreed. In any case, shy is often a sign of self-absorption on a more extreme level and this I think she is.
Kate makes those exaggerated expressions to those children. Way too over the top.
Kate makes those exaggerated expressions to those children. Way too over the top.
I think that this was a survey from Meghan there will be 200.000 responses only in a day. Sorry to Kate stans.
Even if she hadn’t ripped off the questions from an undergraduate developmental psychology text, and her proposal had legs – what can she do? What can she actually do? She can’t get political, form public policy, advocate on behalf of organisations. Let’s be realistic
I think she could do something meaningful in a very oblique, carefully balanced way, but to do that would take some serious effort on top of dedication, as well as a bit of creativity in managing competing expectations and interests. And while I think Kate cares deeply about this issue, I don’t think she finds it engaging enough for her to really put too much effort into it like it requires.
It’s sad because you’d think that early years development would be a relatively non-political issue. But given the current government and austerity, if she were any more vocal about it than this, she’d probably get meaningfully criticized in the press, and no one wants that.
They already chose to be political by couching it in terms of ‘Broken Britain’, a Conservative and Sun tabloid hallmark phrase for over a decade.
Only 200k?!!How embarrassing for someone who’s said to be one of the most recognizable royals!!🤦♀️
I agree with another poster, had this been Meghan it wouldve gotten 200,000 responses in 24hrs. Her brother’s post makes it even more pathetic and implies they are desperate and had low feedback
He even capitalized sister!! 😀
Kate had a great childhood. I’m happy for her that she was able to experience that, but I think she upholds it as the best and only childhood one should have. Kids in the city can’t just go outside and play in the fields. Kids can still have great childhoods even if parents are divorced or if they only have one parent or caretaker. Helping kids should mean finding ways to help them where they are. Not turn their lives into yours.
What’s William up to? No? No commentary? No coverage? He is the future king.
Not working obviously. Same as Kate this week. They were exhausted by their three appearances last week. So hard working!!
This survey actually has a Twitter handle and was a promoted tweet. That’s how bad the response is to this survey. They desperately need people to take it.
Oh, it gets worse, LOL
The responses to the Twitter account on this shambolic survey were so acidic, KP had one of the minions DELETE ALL OF THE RESPONSES. But: people made screenshots of the receipts!
Example of one of the responses:
“The RF in my opinion threw away the two most interesting people since Princess Diana. Won’t be getting my vote when people decide to abolish the Monarchy.”
I mean, DAAAAYUMMM.
Best comment I saw regarding this:
“Just imagine, for one second, that Meghan Markle had spent the past month advertising a survey, traveling to towns near and far to spread the news and then… just deleted all the tweets about the initiative. The RRs would lose their tiny minds.” -AllRoyaltweetsallthetime
I mean, they’re not wrong. We’ve seen just this past week concurrent headlines lambasting Meghan for “upstaging” Bea if she shows to wedding, and for “snubbing” Bea if she doesn’t. The Rota have decided Meghan is the villain no matter what.
They need to keep her name out of their mouths.
I have to wonder how long Kate will continue with this once her children are no longer small children?
Well said, I’ve wondered the same thing. Right now it makes her relevant but what else does she have going for her in later years?
If the Middletons are adding for the promotion of this survey it is definitely going over like a lead balloon. People not in the profession see it as a joke.
I’m sure people in these professions see it as a joke too.
I notice Sussex Royal isn’t selling it.
I don’t get what Kate is going to do with the survey results. If the answers are the same as what her many experts have been telling her, then so what? And if the answers differ from the experts . . . then what?
Well, if they thought that Kate’s little survey would PROVE just how much more popular, how much more loved the white duchess is then, Whomp whomp! Because if they couldn’t even scare up 200K UK votes, then that is really sad.
If, as it’s been said here, most Katie Keen stans are in the US, and only UK votes matter (as it should), then this is even WORSE. Again, as a poster mentioned above, that Vogue issue sold out and people paid MONEY for it. The fact that people couldn’t bother to even take a free little 5 question survey? Whomp whomp!!!
They’re really desperate to make something out of this, aren’t they? It flopped, period.
I really appreciate your opinion pieces on Kate. When the rest of media seems to be falling over its feet to glorify the smallest word she utters, here at least you rightly challenge her contributions. She is just so lack-lustre in anything she says or does. Her little promotional speech was at least fluent but she always sounds contrived and it would hardly get me excited to jump up and start taking the survey. I’ve really got better things to be doing (including commenting on here obviously!). As for the brother posting the pic- just seems like more promotion of the Middletons and that is never anything to get excited about.
Definitely more fair & balanced reporting and commentary here, that’s for sure. The Fail has practically canonized her ffs – it’s like she’s discovered a cure for cancer.
What is the actual point of the survey other than to make kate look good? What action will be taken from the results? I’m assuming there’s a second stage to this ‘research’.
That’s the first time I’ve ever heard her speak 🙂 She def has a nice speaking voice.
I suspect the fawning over Kate is payment. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kate (or more probably her family) is leaking info to the tabloids, and the payment in return are the ridiculous sycophantic stories.