Omid Scobie is one of the few royal commentators/reporters to consistently drive home several points about the dysfunctional nature of the British royal family. Scobie has actually come very close to laying all of the dysfunction at the feet of the Queen, which I completely understand. Even if you believe that the Queen is largely a figurehead in the management of her own family, THAT is a huge problem too, the idea that the Queen allows these nasty courtiers to smear and malign her family in her name. Scobie’s larger point is that the Queen has allowed this dysfunction to rot away at the core of the institution, to the point where any free-thinking, independently-minded woman simply gets battered and abused and crushed whenever she marries in. Scobie reiterated that point and more in his latest podcast:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are ‘operating’ in a way they have been ‘desperate to for some time’ after being ‘held back by tradition and hierarchy’ in the royal family, their biographer has claimed. Speaking on his podcast Heirpod, Omid Scobie said that since stepping back as working members of the royal family in March, the couple had been ‘thriving’ and had ‘taken their careers as philanthropists to a whole other level’, adding: ‘It shows how much they were held back by tradition, hierarchy and stubbornness within the institution.’
He added that the Duke and Duchess are ‘absolutely happy’ now, saying: ‘This is the couple operating in a way they were desperate to for some time but couldn’t for a number of reasons, many of which tie into what is considered too politically sensitive or not.’
Speaking on the podcast, the Finding Freedom author was asked: ‘If The Firm is so experienced of working with powerful world leaders, why couldn’t they handle working with Meghan?’
He responded: ‘There is no more pragmatic a family than the royal family and I think they are capable of having positive and healthy relationships with anyone. As we’ve seen, this wasn’t necessarily about the relationships between the royal family members and Meghan, it was about the institution of monarchy and how they supported Meghan. Had Meghan… come in and done everything by the book, rather than ever come up with her own ideas, or challenge a way of working, or bring in her own ideals, then it may have been very different. But that is not what we can realistically expect from a human being. Harry loved her dynamism, it’s what made her so exciting to be a team mate with.’
‘It was that, and the things that we often celebrate about Meghan internally just didn’t fit in with the way things were done in the institution. Rather than anyone trying to accommodate those differences, it was quickly seen as something very problematic and something many tried to extinguish through leaking stories to the press and making the couple’s lives difficult internally. It’s why now we see them thrive now in a way we haven’t seen in a long time. I mean how much have they achieved in a short period of time since leaving the royal family?
The biographer said the couple are happy with their new lives in America, adding: ‘You only need to look at the work they are doing and how vocal they’ve been about things that are so important to them.’
“Rather than anyone trying to accommodate those differences, it was quickly seen as something very problematic and something many tried to extinguish through leaking stories to the press and making the couple’s lives difficult internally…” This is a big point. Instead of looking at Meghan and saying “wow, someone new and different who can shake off the cobwebs of this musty institution,” they just began to smear the f–k out of her. And I really can’t emphasize this enough: so much of it *was* jealousy. Jealousy that Meghan and Harry were so dynamic right out of the gate, jealousy that they had new ideas about how to do things, jealousy that Meghan might actually be more liked and respected for her ideas and work ethic, etc. And Scobie doesn’t even have to mention Kate’s name for us to think about the comparison – Kate “fits in” to this musty institution because she ceded her personality and became this (lazy) empty vessel. With buttons.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red and WENN.
I’m glad that there is at least one prominent reporter who is happy to own it and reiterate it. It’s obvious to anyone, so the stubborn reluctance of others just shows how deep their to ties to the institution is.
Is it just me? Or does Kate look like she swallowed lemons whole???? (There’s that damned Meghan, showing me up YET AGAIN)
Harry looks like he’s ready to start smacking the absolute sh!t out of everyone and really going to enjoy it.
As I have said before, that green dress on Meghan is EVERYTHING
I got nada for wills. just taking up space is all
I so agree with all you said. In my humble opinion, I believe that Kate took one look at Meghan and saw how beautiful she is. Kate can not stand any type of competition. She knows that Meghan can run circles around her, beauty and work ethics. Meghan is a ‘go getter’. Kate is lazy and does not want to do anything but buy clothes, (buttons) and kiss William’s butt. Only one word can summon up Kate and that is she is filled with jealousy, so much, that it is eating her up. I only wish the best for Harry, Meghan and that handsome son, Archie!!!
I think Kate kisses William’s butt SO she can be lazy and buy all the clothes with buttons she wants.
@ BayTampaBay I doubt she even needs to suck up to him tbh. I don’t mean this in a mean way, but husbands and men like William don’t really give a fuck about what their wives doing as long as they’re not interfering in their own lives (e.g letting the, cheat, asking persistent questions, actually trying to have a relationship). They are VERY happy for them to sit at home or go to lunch with their friends (well, tbh, not that she has any) and be seen, but not heard.
William like his father would very much struggle to be with a woman that IS her own individual and dynamic because of how jealous he is, along with his controlling nature and inferiority complex. He is your high school jock.
I mean part of the reason he got back with Kate was because he didn’t like her being in the arms of other men ESPECIALLY SLEEPING with other men (oh yes William is VERY much the guy that will want his girlfriend to be a virgin but will sleep with 120 women every day, and will want his wife, but will sleep with every friend, foe and neighbour) and Kate knows this which is why she plays the game keeping quiet and subtly, as we saw in 2007 with the week long trance with boys in all his favourite bars, igniting his jealousy.
It’s not about love its about power and control Kate may let William think he is in control but really it’s her, and above her Carole. She is the ‘cool girl’ (Gone Girl reference).
Kate didn’t give a ride to Meghan for a simple shopping trip because she was jealous of her from the beginning. A decent person would have done it. Kate isn’t decent. She’s petty, insecure and jealous, and the lemon face we see up above is the result of years of seething bitterness. She’s not a happy person and most of it is her own doing.
And PWT knows Harry will start with him! You just know he wants to pop Cannot in the mouth.
@DI
and PWT knows it too!!!!
I think tho, that Harry has had and is having the best revenge on all of them, especially complainbridge & co.
I really wish he did. I would have paid pay per view money to watch Harry beat the snot out of Will.
What does the “T” mean in Prince William’s initials?
@809Matriarch it’s not his initials, it’s one of his nicknames “P*nis With Teeth”, PWT.
That first picture captures it all. I always think of Harry’s expression as his ‘dueling face.’
This happened with Margaret and Diana any royal with charisma come under unsustainable and relentless pressure to fall in line to allow the heir to shine all under the direction of the men in grey with the rest of the royals hiding in jealousy behind aides and RR.
Amen, Rita. I agree with this. And then add in the fact that it’s an American woman of color who is shining so brightly and the men in grey (and Will and Kate) just had a collective freakout!
Amen, Rita. I agree with this. And then add in the fact that it’s an American woman of color who is shining so brightly and the men in grey (and Will and Kate) just had a collective freakout!
The only reason the Queen Mother was allowed to shine as she did is because her husband, the sovereign, and the heir, QEII, had absolutely NO desire to be in the spotlight let alone shine.
He was so lucky to have married her…that woman had cojones the size of bowling balls.
That’s very true that household was very much a matriarchy, despite the era and him being King, just like the Middleton’s, where the father takes the background.
The problem with the Queen Mother is that her ego fucked up future generations including Charles and William with her disturbed notions of hierarchy. She was fine during WWII but should have stepped back when her daughter became queen and she never did. The Windsors remain a mess because of her.
And where might Kate be? August was over a week ago, what’s she been up to? They haven’t even sent out any propaganda for weeks.
Hmmm….good question!
Twitter tea from a Norfolk resident: ‘AFAIK the whole family are still holed up on their estate in Norfolk with no inclination to return to London where the kids’ school is.
In other news,Kate Middleton’s protection goon made all the other customers in Dersingham Co-op stand outside while KM did a bit of shopping.’
Are the kiddies being home schooled this term? Did they bring on tutors or are they overseeing the lessons?
The multiple nannies are overseeing lessons.
Apparently she is not missed.
Getting ready for the biannual Keenfest?
The 2020 design for the “cloud-gazing rock” are due soon, no? I hear there will be many updates on the new model.
I submit that Kate is getting the face that she deserves.
OMG – so true! This is my vote for comment of the week!
Seconded.
She is, that shit is really crumbling, right especially these last few months, and it pleases me greatly.
It must take a toll on oneself to have your identity stripped from you, a new one imposed on you and you have to be a marionette for every fool in the kingdom. That relaxed look she had in 2018 was the knowledge that she would no longer be the target of derision anymore. Her 2020 look is the realisation of the void she now has to fill upon the departure of the stars of the family.
I hope they’re future involves award shows because Meghan is stunning when she gets glam.
From your lips to god’s ears, Lizzie. That farewell tour fashion was something to behold!
Did she really have an identity to strip? I thought her parents raised her and her sister to be blank slates who just mirrored the rich guys they were after interests.
Kate chose to target William from the Marlborough/Downe era. The royals didn’t want Kate or the Middletons, they were William’s choice. Kate plays the fool to get what she wanted – title, access, wealth. She wasn’t a blank slate, the royals didn’t make her over. She chose to be a cardboard cutout, agree to the cheating terms, because she wants to be Princess of Wales.
Kate was a bitch to Meghan far sooner than 2018 and so being a miserable person shows up on your face eventually.
@Lizzie I think about that black one shouldered velvet Givency dress she wore to the BFA (British fashion Awards) every day, Those chunky yellow gold bangle and earrings really set off the look! That outfit was divine!
@ fluffy_bunny Yeah that something are you disagree on to Kate. has never had an identity no independent desire of being. Her personality has always been that to which she moulds herself around the guys she wants all the people she wants to be with (class wise). As I said in another post she’s a ‘The ‘cool’ girl’ The one who doesn’t have a personality so that men can project their wants onto them.
This picture always thrills me. The royals all look so unhappy. Bishop can’t wait for it to be over, Q seems tired, Charles is thinking about better times, Cami is looking forward to her whiskey, Wills looks as though he’s been check-mated, Katie Keen looks bitter. Harry looks pissed and ready For fisticuffs. But there Meghan is, smiling. She has that serene smile of someone who is happy and feels really sorry for them all.
Ditto! It perfectly captures what’s to come, and the one sidedness of their jealousy! Meghan looks radiant!
Something I never considered but with the comment about her dynamism combined with these pictures – what if the church snub was NOT planned and happened when Kate saw Meghan in her amazing green cape dress??? Kind of funny to consider…
The church snub was planned because they cut them from the procession after the programs had been printed.
It really wouldn’t have mattered if H&M arrived and were seated separately while the others arrived in the procession.
The other royals aren’t the money shot. Even everyone together won’t pull the same interest as just having H&M alone.
Try as they might, they just don’t have “it.” They should be happy having what they do have and just being civil, pleasant human beings. The worst that has been done to them has probably been done by each other, no outside parties.
I think the church snub WAS planned, they didn’t expect a plan to me they would have to sit WITH Sussex‘s and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was so months in advance.
But I agree, I think a combination of a week of stunning ‘look at what you are missing’ outfits, the iconic water in the rain pic and THEN the green cape dress set Kate off a bit lmao.
Cause don’t forget that literally the day after iconic blue rain pic Kate was ‘magically‘ ‘caught‘ by the paparazzi (for the first time in 4/5 ‘shopping’ in an all blue Meghan styled outfit.
I’m so pleased he’s still speaking and thank you for your commentary too Kaiser. He’s right on the money and this conversation needs to happen, it’s what actually happened regardless of what the BRF and press want to gaslight us with.
What I love is the fact that they managed to buy a $14M mansion and sign a megadeal with Netflix and not a single leak, lol. I also love that Harry is literally shoving it right back in their faces after they shit all over him and yanked all his military titles and appointments.
I’m sure Wills and Camp Cambridge were shocked and pea green when they had to find out like everyone else. But the shitty part is that Kensington Palace will now double down and just keep leaking stories just to be a pain in the ass.
But no worries. The Sussexes have bolted out the gates, they paid off their debt and are now set to become one of the wealthiest non-royal royals ever.
Take that, Yorks, Wessexes and Princess Anne’s-unbearably-snobby-offspring-who-are-not-royal.
When the rest of them have bled out of the royal line and gone on to some other oblivion (that means you, too, Charlotte and Louis), Prince Harry is going to have the last laugh. Alllllll the waaaaay to the B.A.N.K.
And they had been living there for WEEKS before the news came out. It really shows that they are telling nothing to the family.
All that AND they’re not taking money and/or security detail from The Firm.
Seriously, I had to smile when I saw the Frogmore story. Go Harry.
Ha ha ha ‘pea green’ I love it!
Let’s keep it real, Meghan and Harry were a threat to Will and Kate. They were committed to maintaining the status quo and doing the bare minimum. They didn’t want the Sussex’s outshining them.
I firmly believe that if Charles wasn’t so worried about rocking the boat and upsetting William the heir, he would have leaned in wholeheartedly with Harry and Meghan’s dynamism and probably joined in on a few of their endeavors.
I agree that Charles wants to keep the peace with William but he also wants to keep to the media on his side. Publicly supporting Harry and Meghan in any way was a no go for him. Clarence House has leaked to the press that Charles doesn’t support Harry and Meghan’s stance against the media and they made sure to put out the lie that he was paying for Harry and Meghan’s upkeep since they left at the end of March. All he has done was use Meghan and Doria at the wedding to make himself look good. Harry had to good sense to not allow Charles to use Archie for good PR too.
Spot on we mustn’t gloat the men in grey are seasoned in the art of keeping the monarchy in the forefront of established monarchy’s they will not allow two upstarts supersede what has operated for centuries they will be working overtime and behind the scenes with even more vigor to undermine the Sussex’s so they don’t succeed the monarchy must win at all cost. The Sussex’s have an uphill battle they need to be vigilant.
I can imagine the right wing colonial aristocrat conservatives courtiers drinking gin and tonic in the BP drawing rooms plotting the downfall of the Sussex’s despite everything they’ve tried today not really working they’ll plough on it’s there divine duty to preserve the monarchy as it is, progressive thinking thoughts and ideas is an anathema to them.
Charles pandering to William’s jealousy plus his own feelings of being overshadowed played a role as why they are all in this position if only wiser heads had prevailed things would have been different.
It sounds like a sick cult @Rita. Truly a gilded cage. But the genie is out of the bottle now so I’m not sure what they can do. Given everything going on in the world, I’m not sure how long they can keep badgering Harry and Meghan at the front of people’s minds.
Charles is a coward. It doesn’t matter what he would have done, if. Fact is that he did nothing but take the good publicity walking Meghan down the isle garner him and then sat back quietly while the press battered his daughter in law and son. He’s a coward who once upon a time couldn’t even be discreet about his wandering ways and support his young bride instead of throwing her to the wolves out of jealousy. I’ve tried to like him because I do believe he’s a coward who does love his sons as much as he is capable of loving someone other than himself. But I just can’t like someone this cowardly and who is still constantly ruled by his own jealousy about being outshine by the younger set.
Charles is a freaking spineless coward but he’s stuck with William, Carole and the press so he got what he deserved at the end of the day.
I tend to agree with you, Snuffles.
Exactly, its all fun and games when your ARE the standard have convinced people that you doing the bare minimum for nine years was justified because because, because.
But that ALL shatters and the illusion starts to break when someone comes in, and right out the gate (no four-year waiting period) has 100 times more ideas, work ethic and drive than you while being at a lower post than you WITHOUT a blunder. It makes people start to question what you are doing there? Why you deserve your position? And What were you doing in the first place?
Without smearing the Sussex is, they could never come back from that, which is why they always frame their projects as ‘secrets‘ and as being ‘behind-the-scenes‘ to give the idea that they are ‘doing stuff’ just without all the ‘fluff’ lolll!
Not sure that Kate had any personality to cede….
A quibble with the DM calling philanthropy a “career.” It shouldn’t be if done correctly.
Someone above cited Princess Margaret as an example of someone with “charisma.” Not so sure she had “charisma” so much as a strong personality, which was, by all accounts, rather abrasive and somewhat racist in her later years.
Margaret is a cautionary tale of what could have happened to Harry if he walked away from Meghan to stay a senior royal. She was reportedly bitter her whole life. Of course she divorced the man she married after she dropped the love of her life in order to stay a royal.
I guess the queen wouldn’t care if she makes her favorite grandson just as miserable as she made her sister.
Exactly. Margaret loved being royal too much to leave it for her purported “love of her life.” She too was offered all in or all out. She stayed.
Maybe she was a product of her time and couldn’t conceive of her life outside the bubble. Would she have been happy just being a wife and mother? 🤷🏽♀️
People bring up Margaret often and how she was put in such a horrible position by her OWN sister. After watching that season of The Crown I couldn’t continue with the “admiration” for the Queen. She was emotionless, selfish and was praised for it.
Harry was not forced to pick between staying with Meghan or staying a senior royal.
Margaret used to speak in the Royal We so there is no way she was giving up her HRH
The so called ‘love of Margaret’s life’ knew her from the age of 14 and married a woman he started seeing when he was 44 and she was 19 after he and Margaret broke up. The whole relationship was a living example of not criticising your teenage daughter’s unsuitable boyfriend because it will just make her more determined.
Having said that, Margaret had great charm and should have been given some sort of official role. It might have distracted her from the various unsuitable men. If Harry saw her as an awful warning of how he would be treated once William became King, who can blame him.
Margaret didn’t have to choose between being royal and Pete Townsend. A deal had been made whereby she’d still have her royal title and public money but their children would be out of the line of succession. She simply changed her mind during their long absence (there’s documentation on this!). The Crown is fiction!
Thank you, ArtHistorian. People forget that letter from the official archives that proves the Queen arranged a deal where Margaret could stay a working royal, keep her stipend, stay in Apartment 1A, AND marry Townsend. Margaret chose otherwise.
I would be too if my nasty older sister stopped me from marrying the man I wanted to marry and ripped every non toxic happy thing away from me out of jealousy, for her own PR.
I’m quite sure her mum took that out of her at an early age, I think her only personality trait is jealousy, bitterness and envy, she certainly doesn’t have any ‘talents’ or ‘ambitions’ (despite to bag-a-Prince ) we can speak of.
That’s true and I’m quite sure Williams sneered at him then for doing that and working with charities and helping people just for fun, but now Will needs his own PR and he has nothing to show for himself, but air.
Loll I replied to myself by mistake, this was for @mumbles
Meghan hasn’t done anything that others in the family haven’t before- things like the cookbook, editing a magazine etc weren’t revolutionary. Anne and Charles are lauded for being hard workers. Anne & Harry (until recently) were loved for being ‘ royal rebels’ and speaking frankly. In terms of being ‘progressive’ William was praised over ensuring his kids understand gender equality and when he was on cover of Attitude. Harry was praised for talking about being a feminist from 2013. Sophie has talked about championing women’s empowerment & the importance of their political participation without raising an eyebrow.
When Anne was in that circle with Boris, Justin Trudeau etc where it seemed they were laughing at Trump or when they thought she had refused to greet him in a line people were loving it. The Queen encouraged people to vote in 2003 with no issue and of course she told people to think carefully over Scottish referendum. Anne was heralded recently for pushing back on protocol when she was younger & people have been saying the Queen is the ultimate girl boss.
Yet Meghan saying she was a feminist, not always wearing tights or encouraging people to vote is a problem. The same people who loved idea of Anne laughing at Trump were furious that Meghan, who had a baby few weeks prior, wasn’t at Trump’s state visit.
INGRID Seward said palace staff didn’t like Meghan doing secret charity visits but some claim that royals from Diana to Kate would do low key visits to their patronages or others. Harry was doing work experience. So I don’t really buy that there was such a difference in how Meghan was working.
The problem for the palace with Meghan was the PERSON doing these things and maybe how it made others look.
Exactly. One of these things is not like the others. Guess which one? I’m not sure what the expectation was for Meghan, marry Harry then immediately go into hiding? And I’m sure that would have started the cries of “the lazy American living off the taxpayers”. This whole scenario is so awful, especially since we are supposed to be living in the modern age. I’m glad the Sussexes got out when they did, and I hope they never go back.
Kate doesn’t visit her patronages when the visit is publicized. I doubt she’s secretly visiting patronages and not publicizing it.
Kate 100% is not doing any ‘secret’ visits that’s been a lie they’ve tried to push Ever since Megan started coming out with all these things to pretend that Kate does the ‘same’ amount of work just without the Sussex’s ‘attention whoring publicity’ lololol. Ignoring the fact that she wouldn’t get any publicity anyways, (especially from non payrolled and international media). We’ve HEARD with our own ears she didn’t bother to visit one of her then 9 patronages in EIGHT years lmao!
the problem was and IS that she is not blood and that is where some people get their knickers in a knot. Both the viper courtiers and the family. They can’t handle the truth.
Are they supposed to breed with each other? Of course there would be new blood mixing in. The problem was it was mixed american blood.
This stupid excuse falls apart when you realise that none of the wives are blood and have been treated astoundingly well, especially by staff, despite pimping out the royal for money (Sophie & Kate – via uncle gary and the Middleton’s), racking up huge debts (Sarah) and compare to Meghan. The only person you could almost compare it to is Diana have a diner definitely didn’t suffer racial abuse and attacks which makes has 100 times better.
Meghan’s dynamism threatened the Cambridges. Periodt! She showed that you didn’t have to be white and English in order to do the job and do it well. Instead, she showed that being earnest and compassionate, methodical and detail-oriented resulted in stuff getting done to the benefit of her charities. If William & Kate hadn’t been so jealous and petty, they could have used some of that Sussex magic to their advantage. Instead, they decided to smear and abuse and use the resulting fervor/vitriol to pump themselves up and run M&H out of the country.
This is exactly the problem. The Queen, like kings and queens before her, sees her position as God-given and herself as exceptional. Meghan was undermining that idea. She showed them that a non-blood-royal can do the job, and do it better than blood princes and princesses. This was a threat to an institution that prides itself for having survived into the 21st century. They don’t want to modernize. They adjust just enough to be able to survive.
I think the courtiers did not want to deal with the Sussexes so the courtiers manipulated Kant and PWT Keen, who do not have an original thought between them, into being jealous of the Sussexes. This manipulated jealousy allowed the courtiers to proceed with their smear campaign, have Kant and PWT Keen join in wholeheartedly and be the courtiers buffer from the opinions of the future Charles III.
You’re giving the courtiers too much credit, YES they started off themselves by treating The Sussex is and particularly Megan badly and likely did not want to deal with someone they considered ‘lower’, but they could have been called off had the TQ or Kannot wanted them to be. They were emboldened by the Cambridge’s hate campaign, where there were no concequences or boundaries for gossip, lies and egregious racism. Which would likely get them fired and maybe even charged with any other member of the family and has been. Instead they were told that not only were they not gonna be punished but instead the SUSSEXS would be punished and derided for wanting to fight back.
Sounds likely, I’ll buy in. But now what of the media’s role in all of this, and the apparent revolving door between the Tories, the courtiers, and them? That seething morass seems like it could easily become the biggest threat to the institution, newlyweds and infants aside.
Harry and Meghan’s dynamism. Let’s not forget how hard Harry has worked to create projects outside of royal control. Sentebale and InvictusGames, things he did not allow William to be part of or claim credit for. They managed to hold Harry back for years because he makes William look bad. Then he married a woman as interesting and committed as he was, which panicked William, Kate, Carole, and the courtiers.
Even if Meghan had ceded her personality like Kate, she would have still be seen as problematic just because she is a black woman and American.
Pretty much. Meghan could turn into a Kate clone and they still wouldn’t like her
I would still love to know who the courtiers wanted Harry to marry. You know they had to have someone in mind and I do not really think it was Chelsey or Cressida.
@Bay: I don’t think they had anybody in mind. As long as she was white, British and gave up her personality, they would be happy – Chelsy and Cressida included
They needed Harry’s wife first to be from the right stock most importantly to be compliant and pliable with little or no voice better still a blank canvas that’s how successful royal wife’s have lasted any with charisma,personality and articulated thoughts don’t fare well e,g Diana, fergie and meghan
@sofia: Interestingly (maybe), I recall an article that was written before Harry met Meghan – the thrust of it was that the courtiers absolutely smeared Chelsy in the press – much the same way they did to Meghan – because she was too smart, too opinionated, and too much her own person. It was interesting mostly because it laid out the template they used to try to destroy Meghan publicly. It’s the courtiers go-to plan when faced with a woman who has a brain and insists on using it.
Its all about jealousy. Meghan had the charm and brains which others lacked. Together with Harry they would’ve been a great asset if they were embraced by the firm. Omid is absolutely right.
This does not make me optimistic that the Cambridge offspring won’t grow up with their parents’ worst traits. One can only hope they break the molds.
“lazy empty vessel with buttons”…perfect description.
hahahq…lazy empty vessel with buttons…🤣😆😝
“Tradition, hierarchy, and stubbornness.” Indulge me a moment to vent, because this phrase nails Britain to the wall. British institutions–the monarchy, Parliament, universities, the press, etc.–ALL FUNCTION LIKE THIS. They are bound by tradition, strangled by their miserable class hierarchy in one way or another, and they adamantly refuse to change. They do not adapt. You change. They won’t. Have a problem within some institutional framework? Expect your problem to actually be addressed? Ha! They’ll pick at you. They’ll needle you. They’ll gaslight you. They’re *prestigious British institution*! You’re at the bottom of the hierarchy! How could anything you say possibly carry more weight than anything they say? How could you possibly matter more than them? The viciousness of their treatment of Megan Markle is simply the latest example of their intransigence.
Want more? Consider the State of the Union address vs. the Speech from the Throne. I invite you to watch the grotesque spectacle that is the Speech from the Throne. You will quickly understand that the institution–the monarchy–does not exist in the modern era. Government is operating with one foot solidly planted several centuries in the past. Contrast that ridiculous display of pomp and circumstance to the State of the Union, which is a modest and pragmatic affair…and you will see why Britain ceded power to the United States.
For a more mundane example, consider what a plug looks like in the UK. I mean a three-pronged plug that you stick into an electrical socket. It’s about the size of your palm. It’s unwieldy. It’s heavy. Imagine you have a MacBook Air–a product engineered with American efficiency for maximum capacity with minimum mass. You then have to secure your nearly weightless, streamlined laptop to the wall with a plug that’s about 1.5″ in diameter, thereby challenging the entire function of the product design itself. I have spent many an hour staring at a god-awful British plug attached to my MacBook Air feeling that this is a perfect metaphor for Britain today–weighed down by an obsolete past that it can’t seem to move beyond even as the surrounding world has been transformed.
There’s so much more I could write, but what’s the point? These institutions, these people, are actively showing us what they are.
Brilliant analysis @GrnieWine….I live in a Commonwealth Caribbean nation that was formerly ruled by Britain but since Independence we are more aligned with US products and exports. Our government, parliamentary and school systems are still structured on the British way and you can really tell how slow and backward it is when compared to private sector services that are more modernized following US models. We have US plugs BTW but I remember visiting London and being confused by their voltage. While their pomp and pageantry is fascinating to look at, it certainly is a relic from a bygone era – the coats, beaver hats, judicial wigs, horse & carriages, etc. A modern woman like Meghan was never going to fare well in an archaic, class structured system like Britain. The smear campaign just hastened everything.
I genuinely believe the legacy of British institutions is such a detrimental weight to carry, as a nation.
Totally agree. I’m American and live in the UK and work at an elite university. The problem is not that the monarchy cannot handle MM’s dynamism, the problem is that UK institutions cannot handle dynamism. If MM had simply kept her mouth shut and towed the party line, she probably would have been fine. But doing things differently in the UK is never appreciated. If you suggest a new way of doing things, the typical response is “that’s the way it’s always been done” before they reject the idea without even thinking about change…
Yes, I’m also American and I worked at an elite university in a former British colony (the university itself had functioned as a British institution for 90% of its existence). They can’t handle innovation. They can study it. They can admire it. But the culture cannot tolerate it. I feel like if you are American trained in any capacity, this will drive. you. up. a. wall. I FULLY understand what Megan Markle must have imagined her role as a royal would be, and how profoundly disappointed she must have been with the reality.
And what an insult! To put someone like her, with her career experiences and symbolic value, into nude hose and parade her about like an inanimate object to decorate with. The underlying misogyny lights me up!
@gem Meghan talked about herself personally ONCE personally in her whole time as the Royal after giving birth and seemingly going through postpartum depression and general depression from stress. for the first almost 2 years until the South Africa tour if you think that her ‘shutting’ and up as you say would have made ‘like her’, or would’ve made her life ‘better’, you’re delusional. They prayed on the very fact that she couldn’t speak for herself and went out of their way to make sure she didn’t. It was the silence that allowed them to craft a personality her because no one knew what her person she was like otherwise. Just being black or part black in such a top white space would’ve and did make her target no matter what she’s did.
In her roles actions and engagements she didn’t do anything that any of the royals haven’t done or attempted to do. People politicise POC black lives so much to the point that you can’t even look at a black person without thinking they ‘stand for something’, Or let us have our hair down without thinking it’s a ‘statement’ we have to ‘earn’ our safety human dignity and the bare minimum amount of respect in the way white people don’t. You’ll never see respectability politics being played out when talking about a white person Caroline Flack or a who has committed suicide or come out saying they’re depressed no matter their political side nor ‘station’ as you do with Meghan.
The 3 pronged plug (The British plug) is safer because it contains an ‘grounding‘ wire. This means thar if there ever were to be a fault with the device or if an ‘active’ wire were to touch the conductive casing. The third prong, the ‘grounding wire’ would take on this charge before it reaches you by delivering it back to the socket and/or plug triggering the fuse/breaker box to snap, and cut off the circuit. Saving you from a potentially deadly electric shock something a two pronged plug wouldn’t. It’s much bulkier but it‘s safer. But I still like your allegory 😉
Soooooooo many buttons
…and Meghan pushed them all 😂