During Wednesday’s investiture ceremony, Prince William was visibly swaying and furiously blinking, as if he was under the influence. He also dropped a medal. Something like that would have caused a full week of headlines if Prince Harry had been “butterfingered in public” or visibly drunk at an official honors ceremony. But because it’s William, everything gets swept away or not commented upon. Interestingly, those weren’t the only weird moments at the event. William also presented Patricia Spruce with an MBE, and by her own account, she said that William mentioned that the Princess of Wales had “two Filipino nurses looking after her.” Oh. Okay? There was a backlash:
Prince William is being slammed online for praising Kate Middleton’s “Filipino nurses,” with social media users stating their ethnicity is irrelevant. During one of his first public appearances since the Princess of Wales returned home from the hospital following abdominal surgery, the Prince of Wales honored a woman named Patricia Spruce with a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) on Wednesday.
“What an amazing experience, the castle was just breathtaking, everyone was so lovely too [sic] us as we were just in awe of everything,” Spruce wrote in a public LinkedIn post.
“Prince William said that Katherine [sic] had two Filipino nurses looking after her and they were amazing and kind.”
Royal watchers were quick to put William, 41, on blast for involving the nurses’ ethnic background.
“Like what does their race have anything to do with it??” tweeted one reader.
“It is very important to know Kate’s nurses were Filipino. Why? Hell if I know, ask Will,” wrote another. “He made their race a focal point in a room full of White people.’
“It’s very telling who was included in the Archie’s complexion debacle,” the second X user continued, referencing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s claims that royal family members had questioned their son’s skin color.
“William said Kate had two Filipino nurses. Why was it important to say they were Filipino nurses as opposed to just nurses?” questioned a third.
Let’s be fair: there could have been added context which was not included in this woman’s Linkedin post. Let’s also be fair that William has a track record of being racially insensitive, if not downright racist. I shudder to think how he might have questioned the two nurses’ ethnicity and perhaps even wondered aloud why Kate couldn’t get some white nurses. But honestly, my pet theory is that William was simply drunk and lying. William and Kate both do that all the time, they meet someone and they hear that the person is an astronaut/accountant/ski jumper and Will or Kate will say “oh, that’s so interesting, George wants to be an accountant and Charlotte loves space and we can’t keep Louis off the ski slopes!” They lie for clout and relatability all the time. The specificity is what signals, to me, that William was lying – TWO Filipino nurses? That man was sh-thoused and lying his ass off.
The Prince of Wales has returned to royal duties after his wife's abdominal operation and following the announcement of the King's cancer diagnosis.https://t.co/Ig4ZQJ3Vi4 pic.twitter.com/KUXAYfZZfp
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 7, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- London, UK, 07 February 2024: William, Prince of Wales arrives to attend the London’s Air Ambulance Charity Gala Dinner at the OWO in central London.,Image: 844429435, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: DANIEL LEAL / Avalon
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- London, UK, 07 February 2024: William, Prince of Wales talks with Air Ambulance pilots, doctors and paramedics as he attends the London Air Ambulance Charity Gala Dinner at the OWO in central London.,Image: 844429498, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: DANIEL LEAL / Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales during a visit to Sebby’s Corner in Barnet, north London, to kickstart an initiative from her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood to provide support to families with young children in the run up to Christmas. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 24 Nov 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Kate Middleton Catherine Princess of Wales to the Royal Variety Performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, during the second day of the three day visit to London. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 30 Nov 2023 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- The Prince of Wales, Patron of London’s Air Ambulance Charity, talks with Air Ambulance pilots, doctors and paramedics, at the London’s Air Ambulance charity gala dinner at Raffles London at The OWO, in Horseguards Avenue, London Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 07 Feb 2024 Credit: Daniel Leal/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales attending the London’ Air Ambulance Charity Gala Dinner at the OWO Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 07 Feb 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Or he (or someone who works for him) had the dumb idea that “Kate can’t be racist! She lets Filipinos look after her!”
I think it’s exactly that. Look, we like people of color when they are in service of us.
Unfortunately no, this is a Thing in England, to specify that service staff is Filipino. It’s abject racism about having a “nature for service,” it has nothing to do with not seeming racist.
Racists in Canada do this, too. My health care team has two nurses and a physiotherapist who are Filipino-descended and assholes comment on it ALL THE TIME. It’s so gross.
Exactly, Sunday…
Also it’s selective ‘racism’ because nurses from the Philippines are renown to be very good (their reputation is anyway), so his message was “yeah I’ve two foreigners in the house, BUT they’re the best ones among them”.
I usually avoid PettyWill posts but this is appalling, it’s racism and xenophobia at its finest.
About 30 years ago I worked for a charity that provided medical aid to the Philippines and at least half the phone calls we received were from people looking for Filipina nannies and nurses. I believe employing Filipinas is something of a status symbol because of their renown reputation.
My mind has officially been blown, I have never heard of a Filipino “nature for service” racist trope.
This is a huge thing amongst Spain’s upper crust too. Filipino staff made to wear all white gloves is a status symbol there.
One thing I’ll say as a Canadian RN … As a rule Filipino nurses are GOOD. Like really fucking good. This is because the schools in the Phillipines that are (more) recognized in Canada are brutally competitive. Getting licensed in Canada is a whole messed up process for folks from overseas, especially when English isn’t their first language (TOEFL is really problematic with how universities use it). Those who get through it are high functioning smart AF people. This doesn’t negate any of the points about racism above but there is also respect and understanding amongst many in healthcare in Canada and probably the UK and US that clinicians from the Phillipines know their shit backwards and forwards. Can’t let this post stand without a shoutout to my colleagues who kick ass.
Also pancit at the potluck if you know you KNOW (and li-chun … I could keep going, nursing perks are few but an overview of Filipino food is one of them) ❤️
Everything seems like what happened to Charlene. Her mental health to low paid illegal immigrant workers. This fillipino nurses also sounds like Charlene’s slave workers. KP and WK are very famous for their low salary job vacancies. Who knows they are really nurses or spa/massage therapist for Kate.
In the US, nurses are required to be licensed by the state they are working in. Is that the same in the UK?
You need to be licensed in the UK to be a nurse so I don’t think that’s the same issue as Charlene’s here, the UK isn’t a little ‘kingdom’ Monaco-style.
Why would they not be nurses?
Oh FFS, they’re trained nurses, not illegal aliens being paid under the table.
That’s just the Tory in him nearly blurting out “Look ! I can’t be racist, I let TWO filipino nurses breathe in my presence !”
I just checked the woman’s twitter account. She’s a recruiter for the NHS & was rewarded for that work; one main program they have is recruiting international nurses. I think this is the background for William’s comment, the nurses perhaps were recruited through this program. Loathe as I am to cut William some slack, I think his comment was OK? Maybe he could have said we’re grateful, two nurses from this program are currently taking care of Kate. Yeah, that would have been better.
He’s supposed to be a statesman. He’s the one who has promoted this idea, so he absolutely SHOULD have used his words with more care when talking to the person in question. He should understand the many issues at hand, including the trope about “Filipino nurses” even if he wasn’t using it that way, and he could have chosen not to mention where the nurses came from. I mean, off the cuff, you understood a better way he could have worded things.
And I cut him as much slack as they cut Megan.
this is the obvious explanation but you know it’s not nearly as much fun
This type of comment makes it easy to picture Bill and Kathy being “curious” about Archie’s skin colour.
Unconscious biased is how they term this racist thingo. Btw – how hard is it to be a working Royal? You cut ribbons, shake hands ,you make a speech prepared for you, your children have nannies, you are chauffeured everywhere, you have a valet etc etc , you have monetary allowances on top of your taxfunded trips etc etc
It’s apparently incredibly hard when you aren’t interested in other people and don’t care enough to learn and regularly put your foot in your mouth.
Setting aside the stupid racist gaffe, if Kate has two nurses looking after her and we already know Nanny Maria is on the job, and the children are in school during the day, then…why again is TOB going to be off indefinitely?
Good point. 2 nurses, nanny Maria and yet he still needs to take time off. It feels like a slap in the face to everyone who has less. He’s getting lauded bc he’s making his family his priority. Nah, his family is his excuse. No one’s saying he has to even be working every day. But the message should be he has a lighter schedule but he’ll still be working while supporting his family. Like twice a week for half a day. The press could big that up for him and make it seem like more. The way he’s arrogantly saying no I can do nothing bc my wife had abdominal surgery, despite the fact that he has nurses and nannnys 24/7. Gtfoh.
Hahahah – twice a week for half a day is way more than he’s ever worked before. I don’t know if he could stand that punishing schedule!
Such a good point. It’s telling that the go-to exploitation of any situation is that William will work less. They could just as easily use it to show how he’s a devoted family man and devoted to service of the country, even with him continuing to have a very light schedule. The lack of PR is puzzling.
You’d think that someone who is work shy would avoid being so explicit about not working. But he’s lived such an entitled existence that he hasn’t ever needed to be clever about doing jack all, because there’s no accountability.
I was wondering about the same thing. I mean WE ALL know, William is not staying at home to help Kate, why won’t the press ask anything about this out loud? I don’t even understand, why Kate needs TWO nurses, if she is doing fine and is already putting in some work (haha) from her bed.
@greenmonster
Your question is a hard slap for KP ‘why Kate need two nurses’. Her house have only 4 bedrooms. No space for live in maid. Then how having two nurses possible?? Even if they have two different shifts how this family of five can manage to share this house with the staffs?? This nurse story further ensures Kate is separated from kids and William. And two nurses means intense care. Then it must be mental health problem.
@Honeybee They go on and on about how small adelaide is but it has separate quarters for staff outside the main cottage. It’s the usual lies and BS.
@Honeybee
Most nursing shifts are 12 hours (at least in US and Canada).
Two nurses would be right. Each on for 12 hours.
However, the same is also true for psych sitters/minders.
I think it’s probably two different shifts, not that there are two people working to help her at the same time.
@Honeybee — we don’t actually know where Kate is. If she’s at Adelaide there are adjacent buildings for staff. Furthermore, the nurses wouldn’t be living there, they would be there in rotating 12 hours shifts. Nor does this prove that she’s getting mental health care, if that were the case she’d be in a proper mental health care facility. NOBODY knows what’s wrong with Kate except her family and Williams. PERIOD.
Excellent question, Jay. Although given how he showed up to work swaying, him taking care of K looks like a stupid idea as well. When I was on vacation in the UK, I was horrified to hear that many people work 12-hour shifts. I hope that these two nurses don’t have those hours! It really doesn’t sound good that Kate needs that much help to be honest.
12 hour shifts are very common in the US. I worked them in icus regularly. It’s good especially for patient care continuity in critical care.
NotSoSocialB, I have a lot of family members who were in healthcare and most worked or started out in hospitals in the US. My mother had 8-hour shifts, but would need to work double shifts every week to two weeks. And if the replacement didn’t show up, she wasn’t able to leave until they did. My aunt, two of my cousins, an uncle, my grandmother and grandfather—as well as some family overseas—mostly worked either 8 (in some cases this is 9 hours with a break) or 16 hours, but not twelve. Interesting.
@ML when where they in healthcare? My mom is a retired nurse. She used to work 8hrs/5 days in the beginning, but almost all hospitals switched over about ten yrs before she retired to 12hrs/ 4 days. This is in the US
It’s been intensely studied. We know that people will not perform as well after the 8 hour mark, and that harms patient care. But what they’ve quantified is that the greatest risk to patient care is actually the shift handover. So reducing the number of shifts from three to two results in less overall harm to patients, even though the nurses are fatigued and less effective after 12 hours.
Steph—I left the US about 2 decades ago. The older generation was at the end of their careers at that point. Just spoke to one of my cousins who burst out laughing at me. My aunt moved over to a private hospital and the rest have gone into private practice. Mom stopped working about 15 years ago under the 8/ 16 hour shift system. I had no idea that the US shifted and I now live in the NLs where they work with 3 shifts per 24 hours. Once or twice a month you need to work overnight for a few days here, so how they schedule is different (my mom and her siblings had normal schedules).
Previously, US employees received overtime pay, 1.5x, for any time over eight hours in a day or more than 40 hours per week. Republicans changed it to only more than 40 hours/week.
ML: Critical care areas usually have twelve hour shifts. ICU, NICU, SICU, PICU. Twelve hour shifts are standard in these areas in the US. One nurse will have far fewer patients in such areas as opposed to the regular medical floors, but they will require much more care.
My fave one was Kate telling Mary Berry that Louis’s first word was Mary.
Louis who’s nanny is called Maria.
Ok…
LOL!
No comments were allowed on some media comments sections. It got the derangers upset because they were busy slamming the sussexes.
You’re giving him way too much benefit of the doubt, we all know the missing context would have been “…and Kate preferred them over the black nurses.”
That could be possible.
I’m so glad you included the video of day drunk Will again. Can’t get enough of it.
As for the nurses ethnicity, he’s admitting that he is not caring for her as the tabs have been insisting for weeks now. Begs the question, why can’t he do more engagements? It would give him something to do besides getting hammered by noon.
Will (or Bill) isn’t day drunk, he’s business drunk! “It’s like rich drunk. Either way, it’s legal to drive.” #40 Rock
I just watched the video of him above and I can’t believe no one in the British media has mentioned his obvious swaying.
It’s truly a shocking dereliction of duty by an allegedly free press to find out what the hell is going on. They just ignore it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
He’s also admitting that she needs round the clock care. A month after abdominal surgery she needs care 24/7? Says a lot about what may actually be wrong with her….
I haven’t been on Twitter recently— is it true that NO ONE (in the media, not just people like us) has been commenting on or questioning that video? William’s demeanor is so unbelievably alarming that I can’t imagine simply failing to address it.
I know they protect him, but in this case, it’s right there on video that millions of people have seen! How can they simply ignore it?
@BrassyRebel is right, it’s dereliction of duty. This goes beyond the “invisible” contract.
Any guesses on how long it takes for the royal family to scrub that video from the internet and social media?
Two nurses? Were they at the hospital or are they at home with her? Just how bad is she? Seems Peg is like Philip with these Filipino comments. We are not a racist family is once again proving to be not the truth.
The two nurses probably work in shifts. It still doesn’t sound good that she needs 24h supervision.
Exactly, the fact she has two nurses 24/7 at home there doesn’t seem she’s well at all.
I believe it was at the hospital.
Sure, we don’t know where or when or how long these two particular nurses were taking care of Kate.
I think I read that the woman being honoured was in charge of an organisation encouraging non-UK medical personnel to emigrate to the UK and provide services? So perhaps William’s staff briefed him to say something specifically about their ethnicity?
Although given his condition and how he never prepares for any engagement, I’d be surprised if he managed to remember that detail…
” I’d be surprised if he managed to remember that detail…”
Yeah, he was drunk and he doesn’t give a crap about conducting a meaningful conversation with the plebs.
That makes sense – she probably told him about her work and so he went off script trying to add to the conversation. How much do you want to bet that he never learned their names and can’t tell them apart?
Unless there’s a “hot one” 🙄
So….Willy was assuming these nurses were immigrants because they weren’t white? Checks out.
In UK they even hear another weird accent and they assume you are a migrant and certainly not a British citizen, unfortunately I get that all the time and after 20 years it pi$$es me off. And I’m white, I cannot even imagine how different races can cope with it, it’s abysmal.
@AlpineWitch
That’s so awful. A Danish relative of mine and her Belgian husband lived in the UK for many years – and they decided to the the UK altogether after Brexit because they felt badly treated. They felt that they were no longer welcome at all and they are white. I shudder to think how non-white Brits are treated.
You also get the “oh my your english is EXCELLENT!”
Like, yeah, my ethnicity has nothing to do with the ability to learn and master another language. I’m 36 and been told this my whole life.
@Cee: I once got the surprised “Oh, you speak English very well!” from a man too. So, I turned it right around on him and said “So do you” to him (with a very innocent smile on my face). You should have seen his surprised and puzzled look, like he was thinking, “Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?” Well, that’s just the way I felt.
Yes. This makes sense. I can’t imagine that he would spare a thought about Kate’s nurses, white or otherwise, unless he’d been briefed about them beforehand.
Stupid me, my first thought was they had flown her to the Philippines to hide her away.
I think he was not lying and he found it important to add that they were Filipino nurses, because how exotic… or some shit like that. The fact that he was drunk also removed some of his filters, so they heard more of his internal monologue than usual. He finds it funny, strange, and unusual that the nurses are not white, because they are surrounded by white people all the time. It’s by their own choice, but I’m sure people they encounter also make sure it stays that way, like selecting white nurses and wait staff for them, to make sure they don’t complain or something. The turnip toff asshole crowd he hangs with probably finds it hilarious that Kate got Filipino nurses instead of “proper” ones.
He was replying to some lady who recruits foreign personnel for NHS. So maybe that’s why he felt relevant mentioning the nurses’ provenance. I think we can cut him some slack: His wife and father seem to be ailing (at least, I found ominous the ‘Kate has been able to see ALL her kids) , he’s visibly conmotioned and this is not the time for him to behave like the brighest bulb, for more than his head resembles one.
I’ve said it before, I’ll cut him as much slack as they cut Megan. No more, no less.
Aurora, no, I’m not cutting him slack. If he was really going to do this, he should have learned more and been able to talk to her about the fact that he’s read that there was approximately XX number of nurses recruited over a such and such period. See how that’s done? He doesn’t need to talk about ethnicity at all. It’s not important. What is important is the number of nurses recruited.
If, as you say, he’s not tracking because of his ill wife, then his staff should have drilled him on this before he ever entered the room. Deliberate ignorance is not a reason to be racist.
If she needs two nurses that means someone has to provide medical care 24h/7. That is why the y limit his engagements- he is stupid and doesn’t realize what he actually says.
I wonder if Kate is on a ventilator. At one point I picked up a home case for extra money. Most of my job was watching the ventilator for 8 hours and making sure the settings were correct, my patient was suctioned and coughs induced periodically per doctor’s orders
Post-op patient who is recovering might need home staff to bring the food, help to the bathroom, fluff their pillow and a nurse maybe once-twice a day to administer injections? Two nurses don’t sound good.
If the nurses are caring for her now rather than in the hospital (not sure what he meant)– she could still be in a coma? No one knows. The two nurses comment just stirred the pot. But Yeah, I wonderd if she was on a ventilator too.
Either that or she’s a 2-person assist when they need to move her. My father is in a nursing home post-stroke. His orders are for 2 people to assist him out of bed to the chair and back. Otherwise, he will slide right down to the floor.
To me, this is a perfect example of the unconscious bias Harry talks about that permeates British society. They literally don’t even know they’re doing it, and if you point it out they get all defensive because they, again, don’t even know they’re doing it. Pair that with their Empire mindset of everything England does is perfect and they’re the pinnacle of society and intelligence, and how could THEY possibly have anything to learn, it’s the sensitive people who are wrong.
They’ve got a long way to go.
Our PM got all transphobic in the House of Commons in front of a mother whose trans daughter was murdered. It speaks volumes about how awful they are.
Oh and… of course he refused to apologise because ‘they’ are never wrong!
That was just abhorrent. RIP Brianna Ghey
It happens all the time in journalism…the qualifier of “blond”….. when describing a young child or young woman.
Why does Kate need around the clock nurses? That says something is seriously wrong.
Yes. The more time that goes by without a “Kate Convalescing” picture, and now with mention of two nurses (did he mean in the hospital? or now?). The Magic 8 ball says Kate is in a bad place.
I don’t think Kate is in a “bad” place. Alarmist fantasies abound here. Coma patients need IVs, monitors, etc & there’s no way they’d do that at home around the kids.
She’s got 1 nurse at a time (if 2 at once were needed she’d still be in hosp) for with bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting help, etc.
Kate will milk this for as long as possible to laze at home & get sympathy. Will isn’t hanging around her bedside either. Can you even imagine him helping her in the bathroom?
This is an old standard of British racism. I personally have experience with this exact thing because I handled US comms for a British company for a while and had a huge, drawn-out battle with upper mgmt in Oxford because they didn’t understand why specifying that the staff on a cruise ship was “All Filipino!” wasn’t acceptable in the 21st freaking century. I got it taken out of the US collateral but lord was it a fight.
It’s so thoroughly racist it boggles the mind, and yet a certain segment of Brits absolutely still think it’s acceptable to say that a certain segment of the population is just so good at service! It’s in their nature!
Guarantee Will AND the lady he said it to thought absolutely nothing of it. I’m sure they’re genuinely shocked there’s backlash.
OMG that’s infuriating. And I’ll bet that they thought “How can it be racist, it’s a Compliment!”
Look at the opportunities we’re giving them! Aren’t we GREAT!
At first I read it as the woman he was speaking to was Filipino, so maybe he was trying to find common ground. I looked her up and she looks very white to me, so there goes that idea. It’s just that easy profiling some people do. They need to specify if someone is not white when describing them, even if race or ethnicity has nothing to do with what is being discussed.
The bigger story, as many have said up thread, is that Kate needs 2 nurses. What is going on with her? I was trying to lay off the speculation but she must be truly bedridden to need 2 nurses looking after her.
Oh my. That swaying is something.
Especially when there was no stiff breeze indoors, and no one else found it necessary to sway like that. To be honest, I thought people were exaggerating when they mentioned William’s swaying, but they were not wrong, and it was odd. What is up with this bird?
He is so out of touch and in his own entitled bubble. Cringe!!!
Filipino nurses are recruited to work in British hospitals that’s why he referred to them as Filipino nurses. If I’m not mistaken the UK and the Philippines have an agreement to allow Filipino nurses to work in the UK.
No agreements of sorts and it makes the UK internationally appear as a country that prefers to poach valuable assets from another ‘poorer’ country to come here and be underpaid.
They do the same for other countries, particularly from the African continent.
Tory government cut all the nursery grants and scholarships, clearly now there aren’t enough ‘locally’ so they ‘import’ them. To me, it is equal to 21st century slavery.
I’m in the U.S. and it is confounding how similarly, here xenophobia is stoked but now-a-days it seems a politically ‘conservative’ thing to do that on one hand and gut programs that nourish the growth of vital professions. Especially among lower income and/or minority communities. Then underpaid workers are brought in (who should be paid the same rates as citizens). It’s like the lower income and middle-class conservative supporters willingly blank on this blatant contradiction.
Now, the wealthy of course get something out of this – as an economic class it saves them money on labor – and amongst the wealthy it’s often as if the increase of wealth only makes the beast hungrier, and more and more money is needed to feed the beast.
He referred to them as Filipino nurses because he’s racist. Doesn’t matter if there’s an agreement about workers from foreign countries, the fact he chose to qualify it is racist.
Kate can’t just stay in bed. She would be getting out of bed or given some physical therapy . If she stayed in bed there would be bed sores and she would lose much strength in general. Also risky to her health
If someone’s unable to move themselves then they need to be repositioned every two hours to prevent skin-breakdown and bedsores.
and that’s one reason among many that one might need a pair of nurses caring for you around the clock.
This family lives in a stale, archaic bubble. Of course they fretted that Archie would be too dark to be identified as a family member. They see themselves as the god-appointed paragon of white excellence and they just don’t befriend or socialize with non-whites. So of course it’s terribly exotic that two ethnic nurses are caring for Triple K.
I guess Kate’s not strong enough to recoil from their healing touch!
No, @Beverley. You don’t understand. That’s actually why she needs two nurses: one to help her heal and another to help her flinch from the first one’s touch. She is Kate, after all.
Sorry to be nitpicky but Filippino is not an ethnic background or a race. It is a nationality. There are people of different ethnic backgrounds in the Philippines. If the lady in question really was in charge of an Organisation that facilitates nurses from other countries working in the UK, his comment makes more sense. But still the wording is unfortunate. It should have been something like: health staff from other countries are so essential for our health system, we are so very grateful for their contribution and on a personal level, we currently see this, because two nurses from the Philippines are providing great care for Catherine
But, he didn’t say anything close to what you wrote. He is gonna be the leader of his country soon, represent UK in the world. Doesn’t he need to select his words more skillfully than a celebitchy commentator? Everyone around him knew what his job is gonna be, it’s not like he is new to diplomacy.
He’s supposed to be a “statesman” too. Aren’t statespeople known for using words with care and diplomacy?
Thank you Fina! Said as much above.
If the nurses had been Swiss, or American, or Norwegian because they’re from Switzerland, America, or Norway there would be no comment. But because Filipino or Chinese or Indian are interchangeably used to describe both nationality and ethnicity (however inaccurately), people are jumping to a lot of conclusions based on their preconceived ideas about William.
The real story isn’t about the nurses, it’s about why he needs to cut back his duties to care for Kate if she already has access to care. Keep your eye on the ball, people!
People from the Philippines aren’t usually white. Also, in UK the Filipino trope is well rooted so yeah that was racist.
Yes we understand it’s a nationality but HE doesn’t and probably the majority of Brits.
THANK YOU!! I was too lazy to point this out myself. Filipine / Philippines is a nation not a race/ethnicity. Doesnt change my opinion of this racist family. but if were talking about how words matter then lets all do better. cheers!
What people might have missed is that because of Brexit, the UK is short skilled workers. The Tories and right wing press don’t want to admit what a catastrophe Brexit has been to the UK so they proposed to bring cheap workers from poor countries outside the EU to work. The NHS and caregiver system are especially short workers. NHS workers, doctors, nurses have been striking due to poor and unsafe conditions for staff and patients, wages that haven’t kept paced with inflation and so forth. The Tories and the right wing press have been on a tearing rampage to destroy unions, cutting more government programs while giving the rich more tax breaks.
What does this mean for fellow Brits. A lot of unrest and a shake up next election. For non-whites Brits, they face hostility because even though they are citizens, many people see them as foreigners brought in to undermine British workers and to keep wages low. The poor foreign workers are exploited and can’t complain because this is their livelihood.
THIS is why awarding this woman an honour is controversial. It also shows how stupid and lack of understanding the BRF and their upper crust white staffers are about the real world and real politiks.
Let’s use the racist gaffe to distract from Peg’s very noticeable swaying. I thought Peg was going to topple over, my gawd.
And the exaggerated blinking of eyes and clenching of fists. It’s astounding that no media outlet is reporting on these unmistakable, highly visible signs that something is not right.
1. My Lord why is he swaying like that.
2. Just seeing how they react to him makes me all the more pro abolish monarchies
3. And more importantly, the real story here is Kate. What is going on? No Middletons either and round the clock care – SHOW US KATE.
Absolutely! Where IS Kate and why can’t she be shown in a photo smiling and waving? Unless she is unable to smile or wave, of course.
@MyCat
You answered your own question 🙁
There is no photo because she’s debilitated. The only question is what caused it? And yes I believe the public is entitled to that information. If she can’t work, the public (her employer) deserves to know why.
Yeah, round the clock nursing care is worrisome.
The most convincing theory I have heard is that Kate had a post-op stroke. Also, if you want to fall down a slightly disturbing rabbit-hole google the increased surgical risks of people with eating disorders. Its pretty crazy
Now we know why Harry left. That family can’t help themselves. Did anyone believe William when he sad “ we are not a racist family”. Good grief who is doing the pr for them right now.
I keep watching for someone to relay some Kate quotes. Maybe I’ve missed it but I haven’t seen anyone say ‘Kate is so glad to be home’ etc. I suspect they have more than 2 nurses if she isn’t able to speak, such as being on a ventilator.
Someone, I think on this site, suggested a post operative stroke which would explain a number of things including the lack of pictures and quotes, also the long rehab timeline.
With all the protection the media give William, I wonder why this is a story. He’s being “slammed” by 3 posts on X? And there’s no other information – no context as to who is this honors recipient, are these nurses both taking care of Kate now or was it in shifts at the hospital. I don’t get the point of this story.
Its downright creepy that the press is not mentioning Kate in any way.
No questions. No long-lens grainy camera shots. No staking out her parents place….nothing!
This, from a press who snapped almost every other royal on deaths doorstep (Margaret, Phillip, etc, etc)
Its creepy.
Okay-god help me but I’m going to defend him here. The woman he gave the award to is in charge of recruiting medical staff from other countries, and she was discussing this with William. In the course of this conversation, he said that two of Kate’s nurses (at the hospital) were wonderful and from the Philippines. I really don’t see that this racist as this is literally part of her job, and he was mentioning it.
“she was discussing this with William”
How do you know that? I didn’t see this in the reports.
“from the Philippines.”
But, that is not what she wrote. She wrote that he said “two Filipino nurses looking after her”. “from the Philippines” gives different meaning to the statement. You can see that, right? KP has a white senior/office staff. Almost all non white staff are in service positions. That’s the context of the man adding the detail to the nurses. That’s why no one gives him the benefit of the doubt.
How do we know anything about this story – it’s from the woman herself. These are her words, not necessarily a verbatim quote from William.
@Eurydice, of course this is only the account from the woman he talked to. If palace sources go to the tabloids, we would know what Will thinks he said. Or, she would make another post correcting her previous post. Didn’t one royal reporter do that after Will got flack for saying that Europe not being used to seeing war? If KP contacts her, we will know, I am sure.
Because SHE said it. So again-not sure why HE’S taking flack for this conversation that is being relayed from HER. (And ARGH for making me defend this doofus. But it bugs the crap out of me to see things misrepresented. Torch the guy for being lazy and lame and raging about his brother-but I’m not going to jump on him for being “racist” in this context.)
going to agree with @MaryContrary here about incomplete reporting on the William comment here.
Took me two seconds to see why she got her award–it was for her work in recruiting health professionals from overseas. I’ve spoken to people whose job is literally this…traveling overseas to get quality nursing care for wealthier/Western nations. And there are preferences for nurses from one area over another…100%. Not to do with racism so much as training and quality. When I lived in central India, my kid’s pediatrician who ran a children’s hospital would go personally to recruit nurses from a particular south Indian state…those nurses were fought over and highly desirable to bring to other cities, because they were considered excellently trained. I don’t know about nurses from the Philippines specifically though.
Now William is still a racist dunderhead, and unable to form a diplomatic sentence seemingly…but if we just hate completely on someone without context every time, it becomes unnuanced and dumb too
It has to do with Brexit fallout. The Tories and the right wing press have been undermining workers’ rights, unions and basic key governmental services like the NHS, British transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, basic education for 14 years now. They constantly reward the rich and connected politicians with tax breaks and government contracts (see Covid PPE contracts).
The Tories proposed to bring in skilled workers from non EU countries to solve this shortage and to wreck unions. Remember nurses, junior doctors and caregivers went on strike because of poor working conditions which were dangerous for patients and staff, poor wages that didn’t keep up with COL, long waits for cancer patients to get treatments, etc.
This isn’t about whether Indian or Filipino nurses are better. It’s about exploitation of workers. It’s really tough for non white Brits. My SIL who’s British born is a very experienced nurse-midwife and she gets abused and called racist names because she’s of Bangladeshi origin. Things are bad because people based their judgement on her appearance and often think she’s a foreigner. Her son gets worst treatment as a male. They have assimilated, but to many Brits, they are not British. Her son is a fell runner and the abuses he gets are both in his face and very passive aggressive.
It has to do with Brexit fallout. The Tories and the right wing press have been undermining workers’ rights, unions and basic key governmental services like the NHS, British transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, basic education for 14 years now. They constantly reward the rich and connected politicians with tax breaks and government contracts (see Covid PPE contracts).
The Tories proposed to bring in skilled workers from non EU countries to solve this shortage and to wreck unions. Remember nurses, junior doctors and caregivers went on strike because of poor working conditions which were dangerous for patients and staff, poor wages that didn’t keep up with COL, long waits for cancer patients to get treatments, etc.
This isn’t about whether Indian or Filipino nurses are better. It’s about exploitation of workers. It’s really tough for non white Brits. My SIL who’s British born is a very experienced nurse-midwife and she gets abused and called racist names because she’s of Bangladeshi origin. Things are bad because people based their judgement on her appearance and often think she’s a foreigner. Her son gets worst treatment as a male. They have assimilated, but to many Brits, they are not British. Her son is a fell runner and the abuses he gets are both in his face and very passive aggressive.
@Kit I agree with you. It’s totally about union-busting, low wages and worker exploitation. I was not comparing nurses from abroad to British nurses…just noting that within the business of hiring from abroad, they do tend to hit up some countries more I think.
As far as being considered perpetually a foreigner because of being non-White, it’s appalling and I hear you. The “Where are you really from?” brigade is alive and well in many nations. I hear that question as an Indian-origin US citizen in the US, and I can guarantee you that it happens in India too…for eg. toward its citizens from the North-east states. See: https://isdp.eu/publication/racial-discrimination-and-northeast-indian-women-the-pandemic-experience/
TLDR: Humans have a way to go yet to evolve
He just can’t help himself whatsoever can he? What should literally be a pr goldmine for headlines and sympathy he has destroyed in a few weeks. Wonder how long it will take him to destroy the entire institution that is that family.
just reminds me of that poor Indian nurse who had her own kids and hung herself after all the fuss surrounding precious Kate’s morning sickness drama. Remember the hospital was prank called by the australians and because it got out early that K was pregnant (Oh F surprise!!) the woman literally died of shame.
There was lots of total bunkum at the time along the lines of ‘ she did not get a strip torn off her by the hospital/royal hierarchy. Did ANYONE believe that?
So garnering attention for ‘mysterious’ illnesses and hospital attendances has real FORM here and real life consequences.
A leopard can not change its spot. He could not help himself because that’s who he is and will always be. I am so glad Harry took his family out of that place those two angels would have it worse than him.
I’m not giving Will any grace (unintentional sitcom reference, but I’m keeping it in).
He sees anyone who’s not white and English-born as “other.” That’s apparent here, no matter the context. He’s a racist.
Another context for this is that the UK is going through a massive, massive healthcare staffing crisis, which is directly because of Brexit (not just Brexit but Brexit is one major factor) which has seen thousands of doctors and nurses forced to leave the country, and these are primarily white doctors from other countries within Europe who can no longer legally live and work in the UK.
The UK has had to rely more on healthcare workers from outside of Europe to make up the shortfall. And lots of people voted for Brexit because of racial motivations, and the lie that Brexit would result in us “taking our country back.”
So Brexiteers are furious because Brexit has actually increased the number of POC healthcare workers. And pro-monarchists tend to correlate with right wing/pro-Brexit beliefs, so William has really put his foot in it with the people who tend to make up the BRF core fanbase.
The Wales are stuck between a rock and a hard place, they want to be seen as woke and liberal, they want to appeal to young people, but their core support is right wingers (and of course they are fundamentally racist people themselves).
I get the rock and hard place in regard to wanting to appeal to the youths and needing to appeal to older (conservative) monarchists. But in this case, IMO, there was no rock and no hard place, because he didn’t need to get into those details at all. All Will had to say was the nursing care his wife had received throughout her illness was spectacular, couldn’t have done without it, etc. No need to get into the numbers of nurses STILL caring for his wife. No need to say anything qualifying about the nurses at all, other than they were nurses. He’s supposed to be a statesman. You’d think he’d be able to take more care with his words understanding that they would potentially be repeated.
Good analysis!
If you look at Will’s circle and the BRF’s press sycophants, Sarah Vine – ex wife of Michael Gove, Boris Johnson’s sister, Piers Morgan, etc., they all are hard core racists and right wing trolls who are Rupert Murdoch’s hacks or part of the Daily Mail xenophobic and right wing press. The royals pulled their staffers from this circle and there’s a revolving door of personnel. Which is why OfCom is a bias, toothless organization.
They’ve long supported the Tories’ evisceration of the NHS, demise of British trade unions, tax breaks for the rich, insane cozy deals during Covid that netted these politicians millions. I can go on but yeah the old guard is making hay while the people, middle and working classes are suffering.
Note to William, what the hell does nationality have to do with how good or kind a nurse is?
Second question, How the hell do you know who’s looking after Kate,?your not living with her, Or is it on the cheques you have to sign?
Everyone! Haven’t you heard? Wills is ‘’bored’ of racism and therefore it doesn’t exist!!! we peasants just don’t understand
He’s totally got the “boy I’m drunk, I must not move” sway going on. It is hilarious! I wonder if they could smell it on him??
The woman he is speaking to is in charge of recruiting nurses from overseas. His comment is an allusion to what she does and there’s nothing racist about it.
Health care in the US is at an all time low.
PDNurses can pick and choose their jobs.
Many are going “private pay independent” meaning they set their hours, their wages, often in cash, benefits and bonuses, no agency Supervision, you’d need big money to hire, if you can find them.
In MN right now, LP, RNs, traveling Nurses are asking $50-$70+ per hour to do home care.
Close to $500+ for one 8 hour shift. 3 Nurses to provide 24 hour hands on care = $1,500 per day x 7 days a week = &8K+?
Now, of course, Royalty can afford it.
The race, gender, religion, whatever is all beside the point to any thinking person.
Whoever is IDing the Nursing staff by race should be fired.
And send those Nurses to a client who values their skills above all.
Wait the royals are saved apparently Kate has made a miraculous recovery and her and the kids are taking a break at sandringham. Cunning how all the Harry headlines have made this information come out. As of yesterday she was out of action until April.
So it’s been reported, but are there any photos?
An Eastern-European here…. Could somebody please help me to understand, why mentioning someone’s ethnicity or ancestor-country automatomatically counts as racist? I really don’t find myself racist and I absolutely enjoy diverse communities and company, but lately (reading CB) I became afraid to ask the question (that comes almost automatical here), where others (or their family) are from. There are not many black or brown, or Asian people here, and this question is really just shows curiousity to me. As for Philipino nurses… When I read a compliment of Hungarian nurses anywhere, or éven complain, I just find it informative. When did all the adjectives got discriminative? Mentioning weight is body shaming, skin color is racism, height is… idq, what can just be mentioned then? Or is it just because certain things don’t match the context?
@EvaM: it’s because the comments are loaded with subtext (that can be hard for someone from outside the culture to interpret) in addition to what they say on the surface.
We sometimes use the phrase “dog whistle” to describe how it works: a statement that can seem innocent enough at face value, in a vacuum, but to people in a certain group, they know how to catch the underlying meaning. For example, was it you a few posts back who asked why it was a bad thing to call someone “articulate”?
In perfectly neutral circumstances, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. But often (in the US, at least) that phrase is a dog whistle: it gets used to describe a Black person (or other minority, but most often someone who identifies as Black) and the implication is “see how exceptional that makes them? Because we don’t expect that of Black people in general, most of them aren’t that bright or well educated.”
Which, to be clear, is complete garbage: there’s a long tradition of Black eloquence and Black excellence that can be seen in the Black church, in music, in literature, etc. But people who use the “articulate” dog whistle ignore all of that.
@JaneS, I save my energy and concerns battling for patients who have to wait months to access cancer care and other health treatments or even to get seen and be diagnosed!
I don’t know why journalists don’t wear black, blanket news 24/7, or write touching prose about regular people who died prematurely or in agony because they couldn’t access proper care in timely manner.
Oh wait. My bad. Regular people don’t matter. Their lives don’t matter. Their families and loved ones don’t matter. It’s only privileged royal lives that matter and only their lives are worthy of our attention, reminding us of THEIR mortality and frailty.
What if he said two American nurses? Would it have made a difference?
lol. Britain can’t afford American nurses. The current government in power doesn’t want to pay British healthcare workers a livable wage either.
Brexit drove away qualified EU workers. The deliberate destruction of the NHS and worker unions by the Tories and the royals’ favorite right wing press made sure of that in the last 14 yrs.
Now the solution is to hire nurses from poor countries to work in the UK and pay them less. They are exploited, scared sh*tless, and have to toe the line for fear of being sent back home. They’ll never strike even if working conditions are dire for them and their patients. They are hated by the same xenophobic voters who voted for Brexit. They are resented by British workers for keeping living wages low and part of a rigged system.
William probably tried to be relatable in his post but he comes off as tone deaf as foreigners who are nurses are paid poorly in the UK due to the changes in the health system.
They constantly receive abuse and are exploited since the health system does not want to pay livable wages.
I hope these nurses working in the royal household are being paid and treated well however William’s behavior and past history of being skimpy make me believe otherwise.