King Charles III has been showing off his intemperate side. During his Proclamation Ceremony on Saturday, the set dressing was awkward and someone had placed an inkwell at the bottom of the table instead of the top. An aide had also placed a tray of pens at the bottom of the table, and the new king motioned to an aide to remove them. It did look like Charles “growled” a little, although I have to admit: that was really awful staff work, from the set up with the table to where the pens and the inkwell were placed, it was just poorly thought out. Speaking of bad staff work, King Charles III had to sign something else in Northern Ireland on Tuesday and the whole thing turned into a big, fussy, inky mess:
What’s going on with your British pens? Was the pen provided by the IRA? And here’s another question: surely Charles carries a pen, right? That’s Charles’s generation, a generation of men who always have a pen tucked away in their breast pocket or suit coat pocket. Why is King Charles III out in the world, without a handy pen, dependent on the aides to provide him a shoddy, leaky peasant pen? I know people are like “see, Charles is the worst” about this. While Charles is absolutely a bad person, I keep coming back to the shoddy staff work. Why are you giving any official a leaky pen? Why aren’t staffers prepared to dress their sets for convenience, so the new king won’t look like an ink-stained a–hole? Speaking of, the new king is going to fire a bunch of people.
Employees from King Charles III’s Clarence House staff have been alerted of potential termination as his and Queen Camilla’s office operations move to Buckingham Palace following Queen Elizabeth’s death, The Guardian reports.
On Monday, dozens of employees including the private secretaries, the communications team, household staff and the finance office from Clarence House were given redundancy notice during a service for the late monarch at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland, according to the report. Staff was informed that they could possibly lose their jobs by way of a letter from the King’s top aide, Sir Clive Alderton.
“The change in role for our principals will also mean change for our household … The portfolio of work previously undertaken in this household supporting the former Prince of Wales’s personal interests, former activities and household operations will no longer be carried out, and the household … at Clarence House will be closed down. It is therefore expected that the need for the posts principally based at Clarence House, whose work supports these areas will no longer be needed,” read Alderton’s letter, seen by The Guardian. Alderton added, “I appreciate that this is unsettling news and I wanted to let you know of the support that is available at this point.”
The letter also stated that employees who gave “direct, close, personal support and advice” would remain in their roles. Those who are being let go are expected to be given an increased redundancy payment as well as assistance in finding new jobs.
“Following last week’s accession, the operations of the household of the former Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have ceased and, as required by law, a consultation process has begun,” a Clarence House spokesman told The Guardian. “Our staff have given long and loyal service and, while some redundancies will be unavoidable, we are working urgently to identify alternative roles for the greatest number of staff.”
If King Charles’s old Clarence House people were in charge of his first travels and Proclamation Day events, then yes, they’re terrible at their jobs and should be fired. If QEII’s people were in charge, then Charles should fire them and bring in his Clarence House staff to take over. I feel like that’s probably why Charles’s first week has been a bit shambolic, honestly – it’s QEII’s staff in an internal power struggle with the Clarence House staff. I’ve already seen people complaining about the layoffs, but honestly… Charles was already overstaffed, and so was QEII. There *should* be a culling of staff from both BP and CH. What I find hard to believe is that Charles hasn’t already announced widespread layoffs to his mother’s staff, many of whom he dislikes intensely (and many of whom are incompetent).
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- King Charles III And Camilla Queen Consort visit Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, following the death Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday as the King continues his tour of the four home nations in Northern Ireland. Featuring: King Charles III, Camilla Queen Consort view floral tributes Where: County Down, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom When: 13 Sep 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- King Charles III And Camilla Queen Consort visit Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, following the death Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. Featuring: King Charles III Where: County Down, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom When: 13 Sep 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- King Charles III Attends Service Of Reflection For Queen Elizabeth II At St Anne’s Cathedral In Belfast Featuring: King Charles III Where: Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom When: 13 Sep 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- King Charles III Attends Service Of Reflection For Queen Elizabeth II At St Anne’s Cathedral In Belfast Featuring: King Charles III Where: Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom When: 13 Sep 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
King Charles needs a nap.
Or a Snickers bar.
The new monarchy, being brought down by Pengate. If he can’t keep his cool over pens…….
@ MsIam or both! Just give him a pencil, I’m sure he can manage that! 😏
@ VegasSchmegas The pen is indeed mightier than the sword #PenGate #TeamPen
Or maybe if they joined the modern world and used actual, good pens? Tradition is stupid if it means you have to use inferior products just to look “regal.” It’s as if the outdated pen summed up the utter uselessness of the outdated monarchy.
…a dirt nap, perhaps.
This!
TBH, King Charles seems to be enjoying himself immensely. And that’s the wickedness of this their role, where you rejoice upon your parent’s death, SMH. I’m sure William, now the prince of Whales, is in the same spot his father was in 2 weeks ago. I mean if you want to become king, you constantly pray and wish your parent to die asap. They don’t die, you don’t become king, yikes…
Prefacing this comment that I oppose ageism and that as we continue to remain healthy and active much later in life we need to make much more room for people in their 70s to contribute their lifetimes of wisdom and experience to society (especially in the U.S. where many still need to work after 70). ** breathe ** That said, I’m so over a society dominated by geriatric white men.
In several other monarchies, the monarch abdicates when they get older, so that a younger person can take over.
They usually do that when the younger person is at least 40, so that they had some time starting a family without the crown being on their head yet.
I think that’s better, for you don’t get people who are already past retirement age, who still need to take the crown and responsibilities.
We used to have compulsory retirement ages across a number of industries for that same reason, but that was aligned with pensions, which are increasingly rare. I don’t know what’s worse: people being forced to work into old ages or being denied a role in society. Why can’t we have a happy medium with guaranteed income/benefits after 65 and increased respect for industry mentors? I know I’m getting away from the RF discussion here, but that’s exactly what we’re seeing right? Charles probably has a lot to offer regarding his knowledge of agriculture, but we need to take a huge step back from this concept that old white dudes are what wisdom and authority look like.
This is one time I advocate for a person to keep their job until the day they die. Let Mr. Peg sit and gather dust, turning into an ugly ghoul while he waits for his turn on the throne.
@Nina – Yep.it’s not like there’s a better option waiting in the wings, but that’s the problem overall with hereditary titles, right? QEII reigned for 70 years so it’s easy to forget the system is designed to privilege the dudes.
LOL! So true!!!
I laughed so hard when i saw this, but he must be terribly sad,grumpy, running on empty, its been a non stop week.
Check out the woman in the background trying not to laugh. I can’t decide if she’s the culprit or just knows how ridiculous all of this is.
Anyway, Chuck is an old, cranky man. No one should be surprised.
…and he isn’t going to “grow” into the job. He is a known quantity and his worst traits are now only going to become magnified!
He’s always been like this thou normally he hides it better in public – the fact that he’s showing it in public just shows how under pressure he is at the moment. This is who Cain gets the bad behaviour from.
There will be redundancies at both households – this is something that was ALWAYS on the table when Monarch’s change so staff will be expecting it. Plus given how many people in TQs household are beyond retirement age they will be quickly retired off as well.
The complaints I think are coming from people who were hoping to move over with him to the ‘big house’ but I think that’s not the case for some of these people. I think when all is done that his household will be smaller and a mix of his former staff and TQs staff.
Someone on twitter said that they had to announce the redundancies now bc there are notice requirements and the like in the UK. So if they want to lay people off in a month they have to tell them now? But no clue how accurate that is.
Yeah thats true – there are always consultation periods esp with long serving staff but officially announce it? This is a leak as the letters and the contents are confidential – my HR friends would be having a fit over any official announcement about it.
@DU, and that’s the problem these palaces created that has now gotten out of control and they can’t seem to put the kabosh on. In the beginning, leaking against each other worked for the individual palaces, so the staff got used to leaking with nom consequences. Now the leaks are coming from the palaces leaking about themselves, putting confidential information that shouldn’t be in the public domain out there. It/s a beast that these people created that’s gonna devour every one of them alive because, now that the tabloids are used to getting information leaked to them, there’ll be no way of stopping this habit.
@becks1 the notice requirements in the UK are much longer than in Canada and the US. We have offices in the Uk and they actually expect people to provide six weeks notice before they leave a position. In Canada the standard is two weeks unless a contract says otherwise. They could have waited till the day after the service though.
I thought it was hilarious as well.
Beneath the comedic aspect, it seems to me that there is another symbolical layer to this incident: BOTH CHARLES AND CAMILLA HAVE INK ON THEIR HANDS.
Rest in peace, beloved Diana.
Charles says “I can’t bear this BLOODY thing.” Neither can we, sir. Destiny has a sutle way of pointing at the ones.
SugarHere, You’re a better person than I. I want Diana to take a break from resting in peace and haunt the f-k out of Charles and Camilla. Let all the pens explode! Got any glasses of red wine to spill?
@Truthiness: Amen to that. It’s time to jinx and voodoo the man into having liquids splashing at him. It’s called karma. And to the employee who subconsciously sabotages him, 😹.
@Truthiness, I think Diana has better things to do in the afterlife than haunt C&C. Bogart, Beethoven, Sinatra and Swayze all come to mind.
But I do believe she sat with Prince Philip the other day, laughing their asses off at the pen tantrums.
I howled when I saw this. he was so grumpy. I can understand it to a certain extent, forgetting the date is obviously normal with everything going on, and getting frustrated over a leaky pen is also normal, but he got SO frustrated. Its the line about how he hates those stinking things or whatever that gets me. Like he has an ongoing war with fountain pens or something.
I said on twitter – why don’t they just use a good pen? Like one of those 500 dollar Mont Blanc pens? Those write SUPER nice (my husband has one for major documents and such and he gets SO mad at me if I try to snatch it, but its so nice, lol! i don’t think his was 500 though. Anyway….) and don’t leak and are still fancy so Charles can still feel superior to others bc his pen is nicer.
Yeah, I found the whole thing really relatable but maybe I’m kind of grumpy too. 😂
I was watching that and going “Just shut up. It doesn’t really matter if the date is wrong. It will be a funny little thing they show on the tours.”
Also, this shows how brittle someone becomes when nothing is ever allowed to go wrong and they don’t have the sense of how to just route around problems or come up with new solutions.
Forgetting the date is fine and we all do it from time to time but the time to ask for the correct date is BEFORE signing a document, not after, Charles. And if having a leaky pen is the worst thing that happened to him on that day, then he is a lucky man indeed. Anyway, I’m still waiting for the famous “Don’t complain” part of that old expression. I would tell Charles to grow up. Fire people if you must but grow up and behave like a mature person in public, not some self-indulgent baby.
I mean maybe, or maybe it shows how brittle someone can be when they are grieving the loss of someone they dearly loved.
He used is own pen, kept in an inside jacket pocket, on Inkwell Day. Did his dresser forget to place it there on 9/13 ?
I wonder if these pens are considered symbolic and are kept afterward and out on display?
Becks1, I just checked amazon, you can get a two pack of mont blanc refills for $63.
I read a post a long time ago that said if you cut off some plastic, it fits in the barrel of a pilot.
I use fountain pens for everything and I am very well aware that there are several high-cost pens that never misbehave. Conway Stewart is English as is Yard-O-Led. And I doubt that any royal would snub a high end Mont Blanc.
https://conwaystewart.com/en-us
https://www.yard-o-led.com/
These pens do not blear or smear or leave ink on the fingers if they are treated well.
Gubbinal, I’m a fountain pen person myself. 😉 And one would think by now reliable high-end fountain pens would be a no-brainer at KP. It sounds like these pens aren’t getting cleaned out enough–or the points changed/fixed.
I remember in grammar school we used those cheap fountain pens with the ink cartridges that would explode all over our fingers. We learned our penmanship with those messy pens and always had to wipe our fingers with tissues. Good times. Maybe someone substituted one of those for Charles.
@ Noki, I thoroughly enjoyed these tweets of Charles III’s melt down. I couldn’t stop laughing at the digs of everyone worldwide!!
https://twitter.com/ArchewellBaby/status/1569734351335604226
Yes Noki this could be me. I have been known to snap the odd time and he’s having a hell of a week plus his mother died! When my mother died I landed by plane only to be picked up and brought straight to the funeral home. the next few days felt like a marathon. I’m willing to extend some grace to the man
Maybe they knew they were getting laid off and this is revenge? Maybe they really dislike Charles and want the world to see what a tool he is? There is annoyance when people make mistakes but there is also handling an issue with grace, especially in front of a camera. If this is his behavior in public, I would cringe at having to work with him in private. So what were the results of that bullying investigation again?
And isnt this behind the scenes,did someone leak this? I was surprised to see it on skynews insta page.
How could it be behind the scenes, it’s being televised. If you were referring to the letters of redundancy being made public and obviously provided to the newspaper, then no it wasn’t leaked to the news. How could it be? We’ve been told over and over that these people don’t do that, right? They have no access to the press do they? They’re just babes in the woods.
I thought it was interesting that Camilla was standing there holding the pen … “oh no it’s leaking” obviously getting ink on her hand, Charles looks at it, pulls out a hanky/tissue … then wipes his own fingers and turns away from her. While complaining to staff.
Any grown up I know in that circumstance would have either offered the tissue to the person holding the pen, or used the tissue to take the pen from them and contained the mess on the tissue.
It’s not surprising given this is a man who gets cranky when his servants don’t place his toothpaste on his toothbrush properly instead of just doing it himself.
Yeah. It shows that he is used to servants doing EVERY little thing for him. It’s like any other adult would have simply moved the ink wells. It reminds me of the big “Meghan closed her own car door” fuss. Adults get used to doing things for themselves but KC apparently never has.
I get that he’s grieving but this is a spoilt man-baby who is behaving like he always has. What a twat.
@ Woo woo, I don’t thing his grief for his mother was the driving force behind his childish melt down. That was Charles III, their own current Head of State showing his true colors.
I agree @ BothSidesNow. This is about a man who has waited a long time to be king and perhaps, in his mind, being king means that you have no boss and don’t have to apologize to anyone, so he feels no restraint and makes no effort to control himself — not for the public which he “serves” (Ha!), nor for the cameras which are surely visible to him.
And I say this even though I think the staff should have done better but, let’s face it, sometimes things go wrong in life but it doesn’t reflect well on their upbringing if adults carry on like cranky children who needed naps. Then again, what do I know with my middle-class values.
This is a man who has never had to run his own bath or squeeze his own toothpaste. Someone even dresses him every day.
Of course he’s going to have a meltdown if something doesn’t go 100% to plan. Rather than, say, just laugh it off and ask for another pen, like any normal person would do if they know they’re in public and it’s all being filmed.
@Debbie. Had Meghan displayed much less, her British female staff -who considers working for a biracial princess as an unsufferable doowngrade- would have screamed bloody torture already. So let’s appreciate the double standard, here.
@SugarHere, exactly! The only thing that comes to mind is the line from Black Panther: “Is this your King?” Is this the character of a leader? It hasn’t just been ‘Pengate’ over the decades. Let’s never forget Princess Diana.
I think there will be a transitional period and then Charles will be firing the incompetents from the BP staff. He should probably take another look at his own staff while he’s at it.
They need to be good at something other than money laundering and setting up shell corporations.
We’ve always said that both his and William’s staff are totally incompetent and they’ve just skated through everything so it does not surprise me that now that there is real actual work to be on and under time constraints it’s all half ass.
I don’t want to know what’s going on here, but I would fire everyone at BP, they all look like a bunch of incompetent.
The King should use a quill & ink pot instead. Or maybe a bic. The media keep playing the “leaky pen” video, lol.
Why did they have the silly ink well in the first place? I would have had a tray of pens so everyone could use and keep one as a commemoration.
Apparently the inkwell was a gift from his sons.
He is so embarrassing. What a big man baby. UK! Is this your King!?!?!
I read a profile of him years ago and it was NOT FLATTERING. It reported him as saying on multiple occasions things like “no one has it harder than me” and throws fits and tantrums over trivialities.
‘Nobody knows what utter hell it is to be Prince of Wales,’ Charles said in November 2004.
when he is invited to visit friends’ “country homes” a van shows up with his bed and his toilet seat which are moved into the “royal bedchamber” for his comfort. Apparently he goes nowhere without his own chef, and even at these other peoples’ homes he gets served only his own food.
found the link, yes it’s the Daily Fail.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5511397/Prince-Charless-remarkable-travel-demands-revealed.html
@susan
WOW 😳😳😳 I thought I was reading a recap of a Mel Brooks movie spoofing the monarchy. It also reminds me of the beginning of Coming to America and Prince Akeem’s morning routine. I wonder if Charles also had a royal penis cleaner or was that Camila’s job.
As I read this, I felt like Charles is so resentful of his existence that he was determined to make everyone else around him as miserable as he was. I also imagined all the ways Harry probably pranked him growing up just to piss him off. Like switching out his toothpaste or moving something out of place by an inch.
No wonder people preferred the Queen. She seems totally chill compared to Charles.
I read somewhere that a lot of his behaviour is because of the Queen Mother who absolutely spoiled him – it was allegedly one of the reasons his father sent him to Gordonstoune (which we all know he hated as he was bullied mercilessly).
@Snuffles. I’m not sure how chill the queen was. Heard a story yesterday about how during the pandemic she was watching the rehearsal for her birthday parade out her window at Windsor and sent a note down pointing out their mistakes.
@ susan, thank you for the link as it was certainly an eye opener! Quite a tight fisted miser he is regarding his refusal to make donations and declaring lies with access to his own funds. It’s no wonder that people have been reluctant to bestow the honour of hosting Charles as he is certainly not a well-behaved guest.
The cherry on the top was the fact that Tom Bower was the author of this book exposing Charles for his actual pettiness as well as abhorrent behaviour. I could not imagine grabbing a mere piece of bread only to be shouted at, “no, that’s MY bread”.
Good grief. How insufferable he is. Reminds me of a story I read when his grandparents visited US – early in their reign and his Grammy brought casks of water from London for her tea while in the US.
I love reading this stuff but at the same time it angers me that they are so rich and powerful in a system which is solely based on who is first born.
I just read that article and the man is a monster. The Laphroaig just makes him a monster with really good taste in scotch.
So that’s where William gets his more-toxic fussiness from. Explains a lot…
I understand the reasoning for letting the staff go. I just think they could have waited until after the funeral to announce it, because it’s not a good look.
And no it’s not all of the UK’s fountain pens having this issue — mine works fine! I’d like to think this is the universe being a bit petty towards him because he’s so insufferable LOL.
Terrible timing, after the funeral would have been more appropriate.
Right, they’re canceling so many things during the mourning period, like other funerals and even medical care, but they can’t hold off on letting the staff go. Although at the same time, if you’re gonna be let go, I guess it’s best to prepare what you’re going to do next.
Well said @ Jessie. They do need to let staff go, but announcing it during the church service for QE is awful timing. Just like with PW announcing that he was PoW before KC’s website had relinquished the title, this just looks terrible.
Announcing staff cuts while the world is looking at a memorial service is sneaky. Not waiting two weeks and giving his personal staff the dubious distinction of greeting their new king before getting sacked is lacking grace. Probably the only reason BP cuts haven’t been made yet is many staff are live in, they’d be jobless and on the street
He inherits untold billions tax free but he can’t waste a minute to can the staff. He must be such an inspiration to work for.
All that flurry and drama about a pen? People rushing about while Charles has a mini tantrum…
And this dude is supposed to be a KING? With that little self control?
That brief moment just showed what a waste of space and resources one royal can be. Imagine 24 hours of that (for years upon decades upon centuries).
The man is literally drunk with power. You know the type–like an actor. As soon as they’re hired to lead a movie, they become insufferable and petulant, demanding, throw tantrums, blame others, have fits, and “Can’t work like this!” That’s Charles now. And William will be worse.
@ ThatsNotOkay, oh yes….this is a slight insight as to who Charles truly is and yet come Bullyiam, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sent KHate to be locked into the tower. Bullyiam will be line his father but on steroids at every moment of the day, in public as well.
In all of this we need to remember they are human they need time to grief, hell I make more noise when my pen doesn’t work on a normal day, Thank goodness there’s no cameras around especially god forbid if my mother died, Also when are they actually going to get to grief on their own, I swear we’ve seen them everyday since the death
So we’ve got Duke Peggington and now King Pennington.
The staff have been showing they are very bad at their jobs, like setting up basic functional office equipment and logistics. (Though TBH I sometimes have to order pens at my job and it’s awful how many brand new pens leak or clump out ink – even models I’ve used before it’s like pen companies have forgotten how to make them well)
But I’m wondering why all these cameras filming ever signing? QEII sorted through her red box and signed stuff without streaming it out everywhere, does Charles have to wander the country going from fancy desk to fancy desk showing people the many (stressful) ways he can sign papers?
I think he’s signing “proclamations” promising to serve (or rule, heh) the people in each country that makes up the UK. That’s why they’re filming. But I like your idea better, LOL!
This particular signing was the guest book at Hillsborough Castle in Lisburn (just outside of Belfast), where the official book of condolence is being held.
King Pennington! lol!
Related, perhaps, to “Lady Pennington” of Bridgerton”? A “cousin” perhaps. An HRH who will write about the cruelty- is-the-point -king, who stripped her cousin Harry’s family of their rightful HRHs.
Hey Shonda, here’s your next season, laid out for you!
@ North of Boston, thanks for the laugh!!! Duke Pegginton and now King Pennington!!! You are absolutely brilliant!!!!
Though I do not think that we should lay blame on his staff. KP could have certainly handled the pen situation with grace and a mere request for a different pen. To lay blame on them is simply a scapegoat to remove blame from KP of behaving as an absolute twat!!
The fact that Charles pulled a napkin out of his pocket to wipe HIS hand not give it to Camilla to help wipe her hand as well and then left her was really shitty.
This is what Camilla wanted my much like Kate wanting to marry william
It’s exactly how William treats Kate: like she’s not even there.
Harry is the exception in so many ways.
and then just walked away and left her as she was signing the book! Just left the room!
@ Becks1, it seems that PoWails is a chip off of the ole block, regarding treatment of their wives except Charles makes a clear different handling of Camilla privately. But it is lacking any sense of a gentlemanly manners not pass on his handkerchief. My, how cold you must be to do this??
I couldn’t believe how oblivious he was to Camilla. I guess being the heir means rarely cultivating skills for others’ wellbeing. Clueless clod.
Alot of excuses. Charles is a terrible and entitled person. His becoming King has exposed that to public. And laying off people before the Queen’s funeral is just bad management.
100% this.
The Queen was old and frail, a clear plan should have been outlined to her staff as to what would happen in the event of her death. The staff should have had no surprises. Then they could have announced the layoff plans to the public a month or so after her death. No excuses. Their one job is to represent “what is best of Britain” — essentially the biggest PR job ever — and they suck at it.
Staff in both household have always known this would happen when there is a change on Monarch – the reports are saying this I read elsewhere its written into their contracts.
This was a leak – I don’t see anywhere that it was an official announcement.
The staff are getting their letters now as in the UK redundancies is a long process and can take 2/3 months. I should know as I have been through the process twice now.
@ Ocho, yes. KCIII could have waited until after the funeral as I am certain that everyone behind the scenes are working tirelessly to make every day run smoothly for all of the family members as well of those in The Firm. Again, another example of how poorly KCIII is at handling delicate details regarding staff, or anyone for that matter.
The staff work at both signings was shoddy, but CIII showed how pissy he is in his dealing with underlings. Camilla looked strained at both episodes, so I can just imagine what he’s like in private. How much better would his reign start off if he’d chuckled or used a little self help to accommodate the staff’s mistakes — they’d still have gotten the message, but he wouldn’t have come across as the petty little tyrant he is. The CH staff has also been working long hours since the Queen died (for people used to a leisurely work schedule, this must be sooooo stressful). To get redundancy notices in the midst of that was no doubt a shock. Poor things. I can’t wait to see what Charles does with the BP staff!
Camilla really did look strained. I’m sorry but if he gets this pissy over a pen yikes. I get he’s under stress and grief and the staff should have had a non leaky pen but he is coming across as rather unpleasant. Agree @C-shell, if he chuckled after complaining about the bloody pen or did something to acknowledge some levity or awareness, it could come across better.
That’s probably why Camilla still keeps her own house. Even a whole castle wouldn’t be enough space to keep away from a petty tyrant.
He’s just lost his mother FFS and undertaking a heck of a lot of activity for a man (or woman) that age. The RF are puppets in the rota scrum. Time that was ended
Lol
My standard comment to this kind of excusing his behaviour is: he’s beyond well compensated for his “duties”.
And an even bigger lol at the flurry of activity you seem to think he’s undertaking, while having every single need taken care of while he “mourns”.
How out of touch are you? We peasants are lucky to get the day off the funeral off if someone dies. This man is signing papers & shaking hands. That’s not work.
It’s a freaking pen. If he can’t handle a pen mishap, what use is he at all?
None.
My feelings exactly.
@ Kokiri, agree wholeheartedly. If KC III is incapable of a merely a slight oversight, this doesn’t give him the right to behave as an absolute Wanker. Grief isn’t the new Kings problem, it’s his inner feelings of lashing out to those who are all around him. His utter self demands to not to be inconvenienced in any manner, whether it’s a simple pen or his lack of the amount of toothpaste for him to use.
This is what Britain and the rest of the CW countries have seen as to how petulant and childish that King Charles III is truly like behind closed doors. Imagine how his entire staff must endure during one of his tantrums as he lashes out to those who happen to be in direct line of sight. And they are certainly in for a doozy once PoWails becomes king.
When my wonderful mother died, I was heartbroken. And even in my grief, I was intent on being as warm and as wonderful a person as she was. Had I lost my cool, I would have apologized — because that’s what she would have done. She had set an example, and now I was left to follow it.
Charles is a prissy, entitled jerk. He was raised to be a prissy, entitled jerk and he raised his heir to be one, too.
Harry is just an entirely different kind of person — as he says, he has a lot of his mother in him.
Yes, he lost his mother and has a lot on his plate. I do understand that that is not easy. QE was very obviously ill for a long time, and while the end is never quite expected, she was in her 90s as well. Plus, for years, her death has been planned in great detail. So, while I do understand his sorrow, he is acting poorly toward others. And perhaps it’s not a bad thing that he cannot disguise this behavior because it’s in front of the cameras.
If he is hurting or grieving he certainly doesn’t show it with the spoiled and insensitive behavior he has been showing in public – to those working for him and his much loved mistress turned QC.
The number one goal of the monarchy is to continue existing. The number one problem is if the people decide they don’t need and/or want the monarchy anymore. That’s the whole point of all this hoopla. It’s sending the message to the people – look at how splendid we are, look at how we will continue to be splendid, and look at how that reflected splendor will make you feel safe and proud. Charles grew up knowing all about this – grousing about pens is not splendid.
What in the world is going on with these pens??
I don’t like Charles. At all. But this feels unfair—did he know he was being filmed by the media? This is kind of embarrassing for him. They seem really tired.
I can only imagine how many videos of crap like this and worse there would be of Trump. Ketchup on walls?
Of course he knows its being filmed, lol. This is part of history. He’s just entitled and has lots of convenient excuse makers around him. He doesn’t even have to give his own excuses!
@ MsIam, how anyone could look at his actions and declare that his behaviour is simply a reflection of his grief is code for the actual brutal truth of who King Charles III is.
All of the trappings of incomprehensible lifestyle of privilege shows how out of touch he is. And now those that he is to reign over are seeing his true character.
It stinks that someone set up the table weird, and that this pen leaked on his hands, but he handles it SO poorly. A person with grace would just move things as they need to, or say “oh dear, this pen is leaking, do we have another?” instead of throwing a fit like he did.
I don’t doubt he’s under a lot of stress, and grieving, but he’s spent his whole life preparing for this, and should know how to conduct himself.
He’s so gross.
And William inherited his personality it seems, both ragey over privileged horribleness.
I’m tired of him already & I never paid him much attention before anyway.
And hes a terrible public speaker.
Terrible timing – supposedly many of Charles’ staff have been working long hours with his accession, and the process isn’t done yet! We can have a debate about how good at their jobs any if these royal staffers are ( and my guess is not very), but if I were Charles, I might try to minimize the number of disgruntled employees out there who might give details about my habit of collecting cash in grocery bags.
The article also mentions that some of the staff will be given “priority” for jobs in other royal households, which I guess means they hope that William will take on a few extra salaries? That seems unlikely to me.
is Fawcett still around to help
I think Diana provided the pens ; )
Lol, good one! “Tell Charles it was me.”
LOL!
That would be my guess as well. (And my I say, “Keep ’em coming.”)
Lovely view and so well fitting, I might add @ Phyllis!!!
Steven barry wrote how fussy and high maintenance Charles was barry was Charles valet when Charles was in his thirties
Barry’s books aren’t talked about enough. So much foreshadowing!
This couldn’t wait until after the funeral? Honestly, I assumed he would be axing the bulk of the Buckingham staff first. And maybe he probably still will.
I can understand him laying off the Clarence House staff in charge of maintaining the household if they are closing the house down. But I’m surprised he’s laying off private secretaries, the communications team, and the finance office. I would have assumed he would keep them since they know how he likes to operate.
That said, he’s running the show now and he’s well within his rights. It’s just the timing for me. I wonder if he will do something about the useless staff at Kensington Palace. He should install his own people to run shit and keep a close eye on the Cambridge because they clearly are woefully unprepared for the days to come.
No really . It is eveybodies contracts that this would happen ,his former butler wns on the BeeB this morning explaining it all and they had to be told at this point
So some will get moved around to other jobs, some will retire or take redundacy pay outs . It was always going to be the case as they have gone from 3 staffs to 2 – BP,CH.KP one lot has to go
I thought Charles always made much about continuing to live at Clarence House when he became king; and, opening more of Buckingham Palace to tourism. But then he also promised that Camilla would never be a Queen Consort as well. I want Charles to open up BP to tourists, live at Windsor Castle and make the Wails continue to live in Adelaide Cottage! I also co-sign with those saying that it was bad form of Charles to inform their staff at this time.
I think Charles was told no about Clarence House. Supposedly he was going to offer it to Harry. And Buckingham Palace has like 700 rooms, they could easily open it up more to tourists. I’m sure a lot of the rooms are for the palace staff though. It’s only Charles and Camilla, not like a family with kids as when the Queen first took the throne. And even then that was a ridiculous amount of space.
My favorite part when he was really about to lose it. Then looked at the camera and remembered he was being filmed.
I would say he is just at the anger stage of the grieving process. But this is just another September 12th…. 13th for him.
If this is how Chuck behaves in public, woe betide the people he rages at in private.
“Was the pen provided by the IRA?” @Kaiser, stooooooooop. I cannot stop laughing at the image of them planning that.
I think it was Scottish independence peeps, lol.
I can see one of them setting the leaky pen trap, and running away yelling “Freeeedommm!” Braveheart styles.
Why would it be the Scot Nats ? The SNP said even if we get inependance the King stays on ,it is just a reset to 1707 as he is a direct decendant from The Bruce
Will the incompetents get the axe or will the servants who don’t make KC feel flattered? This past spring or summer there was an article related to Michael Fawcett that implied that KC is terrible at picking the right people around him.
KC loves and expects sycophants and they are not always the most qualified. A man who is comfortable in his own skin and has a true sense of self awareness would not feel threatened by having people around who know their jobs and sometimes need to tell him the cold hard truth. KC is not that man!
So it is ok with the racist royals to lose their sh-t over a leaky pen and shoddy staff work but it wasn’t ok for Meghan to expect her staff to be up to par and do their d-mn jobs when she was still in Britain. Oh, now I know. It’s because she is a biracial American who knows more than they do, makes everything look effortless, and showed them all up!
No wonder Buckingham Palace refuse to publish the results of the bullying allegations against The DoS. Can you imagine the shit show that would be unearthed about how much all the rest of that family abuse & bully the staff
Please y’all be careful how you word things. There was never a bullying investigation to begin with. It was an HR review of palace procedures from the beginning.
Stop with misinformation that does exactly what the palace wanted.
The report produced by BP was not investigating whether or not Meghan bullied palace employees, it was a review of how the palace responded to bullying complaints when they were made. Recommendations on policies and procedures were made and the report got conveniently buried which likely means “nothing wrong here, nope, nothing at all…”.
I thought it was actually comedic. Especially not knowing the date and saying he hates doing things like this, I think we can all relate. He is mourning and the week has been a blur, a leaky pen could put anyone over the edge at a time like this. Is he entitled and slightly insufferable, yes. However, I found the video to be funny.
The video was funny. The pen situation is funny. But Charles wasnt really that funny. He was pissy. Which is funny but also cringy.
Yes, cringy is a great word to describe the King.
Charles is still the same idiot he’s always been. expect to see many of these types of “mini-meltdowns” in the future.
Charles is in no way his mother. The Brits already know this.
He is such a man-child. Petulant and pissy. Does he not know how bad all of this looks? He’s been preparing for this job his whole life. One would think he has learned how to manage his temper.
Honestly, I am glad that people get to see how these people really behave. He has been a king for what – a couple of days and has already thrown 2 tantrums. Imagine then what Meghan had to go through in private. If nothing people will get to see their real faces and understand that Meghan is not some sort of villain mastermind. At least I hope so.
Meghan too, but I was actually thinking about Diana being in a loveless marriage with this man. I mean, he cares about Camilla (so that may soften how he treats her privately), but Camilla is much older than Diana and has her own separate house she can retire to when Charles gets to be too much, but Diana had no such refuge.
This wasn’t a loveless marriage; she loved him. He didn’t love her.
They should have written into contracts that you get 3 months’ notice from the day the monarch dies, plus a severance bonus and help to find a new position. If contracts like that aren’t legal in the UK, they should at least have waited until after the funeral to send this letter.
This so-called “Firm” would not survive a day in the real world.
I think – or hope anyway – that once this ridiculous overblown farrago is over (British Cycling are currently being dragged for telling people not to cycle on Monday out of respect!!), it’s time for the UK to have a grown up discussion about the future direction of the country. & I think the more this entitled petulant tetchy old git behaves likes this, the more people will be thinking perhaps the time has come to become a republic. When you think of the practicalities, ohmygod, but still it’s a nice thought. I imagine that quite a large chunk of the populace were fondly ambivalent about the Queen but, my god, this bloke. & yes I have more problems being “ruled over” by a bloke, especially one who appears so bratty.
I can’t be the only Brit to have become a signed up member of Republic in the last few days. & we’re starting to see a few articles about the future of the monarchy & Radio 4 have just addressed the heavy-handed police tactics. Before her maj died apparently about 25% of us were pro-republic – I’m sure that figure will soar over the forthcoming months/years.
Not my king.
I’m not a Charles apologist, but I would also be pitching a fit if a pen leaked all over my hand.
Me, too, and I *love* my fountain pens. But the Queen would have never reacted like that 🙁 One of our former PM’s, Jean Chretien, found there was no ink in the fountain pen when signing the Constitution Act with the Queen — he swore under his breath, and the Queen laughed her arse off.
His hand looks like a ruddy bialy.
It does! I know I’m in the minority on this and I don’t wish death upon him, but I’ll be surprised if he lasts long
I had no idea what a bialy was. I thought it was a typo or a piece of farm equipment. Now I have to find and try one, or ten.
They’re quite good, but you really don’t want your hand to look like one!
Interesting to note that I don’t think we ever saw the Queen being anything other than charming (& that’s from a republican) but in the space of a couple of days this entitled tetchy twit has been throughly petulant twice on camera. I know he’s tired, it’s stressful, blah, blah but, again, I don’t think his mother ever behaved like this. Or not in public anyway.
Vive la republique 🙂
Just a bit of clarification. Employment law states that if there are to be possible redundancies employees have to be notified as soon as possible so consultation can begin. It is actually part of the contract of employment of crown employees that their contract dies with the monarch (or crown) unless the new monarch (crown) takes them over or they are redeployed into other employment within the crown.
So the legal guy who sent them out was acting correctly within the law, but he should have waited I think until after the funeral.
The staff are still working long hours trying to put together all ceremonies up to the funeral. The timing is BAD. Some justify it by saying Chuck has always wanted a slim monarchy but the problem is the timing. Anyway wait for the expenditure report before thinking he’s going to reduce expenditure. Two working royals left and there was no significant decrease in expenditure. Reducing staff doesn’t mean he can reduce the spending. Let’s see the numbers.
I’m sure leaky fountain pens are a pain in the arse, but that’s no excuse for this behavior. He’s King now. He’s supposed to be gracious and composed while he plows through hours of tedious official duties, and in exchange he gets a vast fortune and a bunch of land and houses and privileges.
He’s already failing at holding up his end of the bargain.
My favorite tweet that I saw about this yesterday was:
King Charles: has a hissy fit over pen
Prince William: may I please have a pen?
Prince Harry: gets the pen himself
I mean, William is petulant and entitled too but he’s not King yet. Give him time. Also, he had his mother’s influence.
Harry is the only normal one.
Charles displayed more anger in this video than I ever saw expressed by the Queen in my lifetime. Her response would have been, “Oh dee-ah. Could someone get me a new pen, please? Thank you.” Keep calm and carry on, Charles!
Ann, I had similar thoughts. There’s a lot I criticize QEII for, but that woman generally was able to keep her composure in public no matter what. It was only in the past few years where we’d occasionally see a little bit of the mask slip with her. To see Chuck flipping out over such inconsequential things just seems to confirm all the firsthand accounts about his personality. SMH.
Charles is going to be a disaster. He’s too emotional and has a very large but fragile ego that needs constant stroking. Atleast the queen just got on with the job. All Charles and William care about is their own pr and embiggening themselves.
I laughed hard over poor Charles’ continual battle with pens, trays and ink pots. I hope the man who escorted Charles out gave him a fortifying shot of brandy after that encounter with the stinking pen. I’m sure his mother would have just said, “Gracious” and reached for a hanky and another pen.
The man who sat directly behind H&M at the Jubbly service and gave H a smug “Ha! I’m keeping an eye on you!” look was the same guy Charles was arrogantly waving to and baring his teeth at the first day of the pen fiascos. It was hilarious to see that guy jumping up and being berated on camera. Why do grown adults humiliate themselves just to be near this family?
Those who are excusing his churlish behaviour as just the stress of his mother passing away and all its attendant procedures, don’t seem to understand that it is now his job to lead by example. Most of us have been through the intensely painful experience of losing loved ones and the funerals, paperwork, and myriad details it involves, but we don’t start shouting at underlings and having toddler tantrums over something as miniscule as a leaky pen, especially knowing there’s a camera in front of you recording it all. The Queen wouldn’t have behaved in this “off with their heads” manner — she may have been many things but always the epitome of grace under pressure. Good luck with your new pissy-tempered, man-baby of a King.
If you were superstitiously inclined, perhaps you might think there is a reason why the fates have intervened twice now to make it difficult for Charles to sign his proclamations. Maybe it doesn’t bode well for his reign?
Oh and the staff. I think it’s probably true they have far too many staff and a lot of them will be incompetent. And yes there are rules in the UK about giving notice/consultation etc.
BUT would it have hurt to leave it until after the funeral? Timing is everything and the optics are really not great.
l commented in another post a few days ago that all the immediate briefings against Harry and Meghan and the power struggle between Charles and William are ominous portents for the beginning of his reign. Let’s add leaky pens and messy proclamations to the dismal signs.
Well, the first two King Charles’ reigns didn’t go so well, either.
Clarence House is being shut down…the Clarence House they just spent millions renovating?
Watch how they blame this on Harry. Oh, Clarence House was supposed to go to Harry, didn’t you know? But now he’s upped and left the family and has no sense of duty. It’s his fault we have to lay the staff off.
He’s going to be an awful King. And he has raised a future awful King. Who is currently probably raising a future awful King. Tick tock on the whole monarchy coming down.
Diana I sure hope you are up to some sh*t stirring.
“Who is currently probably raising a future awful King.” — It’s so frustrating to see the Cambridge kids getting emotionally warped in real time. I hope that going to Lambrook allows them to make friends with kids who come from emotionally healthy families, and that these friendships give them the possibility to reflect on better emotional choices for their own futures. Not really holding my breath, especially if they send George off to Eton afterwards, but I’ll cross my fingers for them: my mom and my husband both grew up with less-than-ideal dads, but saw happier alternatives in their friends’ families, and made conscious decisions about how to parent based on those experiences.
I think Charles’ honeymoon period is going to be SHORT. He will coast for a while on the back of TQ’s popularity, but it’s noticeable that even already the press and BBC are starting to get some subtle digs in.
I’m trying to imagine how an expensive coronation ceremony 6 months or so from now is going to go over with the general public. I doubt the general economic situation will be much better. And it would be coming after what I imagine will be an expensive winter with heating bills and general inflation. Chuck better watch out.
Oooh, right – the whole point of a coronation is arcane rules and glitz and ridiculous costumes. Even the most optimistic projections say the U.K. is in for a long, hard winter, and I could see there being outrage from someone who is choosing between freezing or starving will be funding this huge debacle.
Back in the day they would have buried the Queen’s loyal staff and corgis with her. Buckingham staff have gotten off lightly.
Seeing that horrible woman in a position of power makes my skin crawl my blood boil and my ears ring. Release the memoir Harry and make sure to put a picture of you in your military uniform during active duty as the cover photo With you and your nuclear family on the back jacket.
Charles spends so much time up there on that cross I’m surprised we don’t here more about how the wood’s not good enough.
susan – 😂🤣😂 Thanks for that gem!
It’s not just that he is firing his staff but the timing as well. The Guardian had a really good article about this, staff was notified during the church service for the Queen when we are constantly being told that we are not allowed to make any criticism as ‘now is not the time’
well he did not respect his own mother’s nationwide enforced mourning period.
again, one rule for us and another one for them
I haven’t encountered a leaky pen in decades. Whoever is giving Chuck these leaky pens is doing it on purpose.
I think the are probably traditional pens, notice the ink pots. The RF still uses seals that are stamped, this is in keeping with the same idea, I am not sure if the staff is allowed to test the pens.
I assume because it’s English royalty they have old school inky pens and not good ol’ Bics.
Lol, BW, l said upthread that someone must’ve slipped him one of my leaky old fountain pens from grammar school. It’s a pen conspiracy!
He inherits untold billions tax free but he can’t waste a minute to can the staff. He must be such an inspiration to work for.
Yes. It is like he just bought a giant corporation and accrued a large debt so he has to lower expenses. Such a Tory way of thinking, labour as an expense instead of an asset.
Is there an official need to use a fountain pen or something?
Probably, it is England, after all.
When I went to public school it was mandatory, ballpoint pens weren’t allowed. Fountain pens or cartridge pens, medium or fine nib tips, not broad nor extra fine. They didn’t like the cartridge pens all that much either, their noses twitched. Fountain pens and penmanship classes. Navy blue ink preferably, blue-black acceptable, no black ink. I tried to shake it up with peacock blue ink and got my ass stuck in class filling 4 pages of my penmanship book with Ps and Qs because my teacher, at the time, lacked imagination.
A ballpoint pen would solve this problem.
I’m prepared to cut Charles a lot of slack at the moment. My mother was 98 when she died and had been unwell so it was not a surprise when it finally came but it was still the death of my mother. When it happens you don’t think of the old woman who was lying ill and under medical care, you think of the younger, vibrant mother who was a huge and important part of your life for so many years and that is the person you have lost, and it is a huge loss. That is the person for whom you grieve. And Charles has not had a chance to properly grieve. The moment his mother died he had his new role immediately settle onto his shoulders and he has had all these other responsibilities to handle and is having to play his part in this London Bridge is Down exercise scripted by others. He won’t have a chance to grieve at his own pace until after the funeral. Though he is doing his best to remain stoic, at times his human frailties get the better of him. And now it seems the pens of the world have ganged up on him. I feel for him.
Having said all that, I find this video clip deliciously entertaining and I will be watching it many times.
Note to every single world leader that comes to the funeral.
Shake his hand, give your condolences and hand the King a pen.
Don’t be nutty enough to believe everything you read.
Bahaha. That was quite a little tantrum over the pen.
Y’know, he AND Camilla already look as old as QEII was at the end of her life. 😵💫