Prince William made a “surprise visit” to Belfast, Northern Ireland on Thursday. For a second, I wondered if this trip was something thrown together at the last minute because William has been loudly criticized in some quarters after his Cape Town trip bombed so badly. But then I remembered… royal visits to Northern Ireland are almost always a “surprise.” They’re rarely announced ahead of time, although some reporters were obviously given a heads up, and some rota people even traveled with William. It’s just the way it is and probably always will be – the Windsors have to take extra precautions whenever they’re in Northern Ireland.
Still, I doubt many people in Belfast knew the heir would be in town on Thursday. So while there were few crowds, there were also no large-scale protests. And yet, there was one small-scale protest at Ulster University. William was booed entering and leaving a building on campus, and apparently the protest was made about of about thirty pro-Palestinian protesters. GB News claimed there were about 100 students waiting for a glimpse of him, but that he still got a “muted response” from them. Still, nothing beats the reception given to William whenever he’s in Aberdeen. I swear, the Scottish people in Aberdeen simply refuse to give him one iota of attention.
As for why William even went to Belfast… he visited some homelessness project or shelter and he visited the university, where he did a photo-op with a motorcycle. It was actually a staged thing at the Virtual Production Studio at Ulster- students basically learn how to greenscreen and such. The background was supposed to look like Arizona, and William was especially keen, because he loves motorcycles. He also loves hanging out with college coeds, doesn’t he?
The Prince of Wales, Prince William has arrived at @UlsterUni Belfast. @BelTel pic.twitter.com/q6Ksgwj77A
— Kurtis Reid (@kurtisreid_) November 14, 2024
A less than warm reaction to Prince William as he departs @UlsterUni in Belfast this afternoon. @BelTel pic.twitter.com/jTJ2cLmUri
— Kurtis Reid (@kurtisreid_) November 14, 2024
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The Prince of Wales tries out a motorbike in the state-of-the-art Virtual Production Studio, where students are developing their skillsets in virtual production, during a visit to Ulster University’s Belfast City Campus Centre, to hear about work that is being carried out to solidify Northern Ireland as a global leader of creative excellence and innovation by developing and upskilling the future workforce and expanding technological capabilities Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Belfast, United Kingdom When: 14 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales tries out a motorbike in the state-of-the-art Virtual Production Studio, where students are developing their skillsets in virtual production, during a visit to Ulster University’s Belfast City Campus Centre, to hear about work that is being carried out to solidify Northern Ireland as a global leader of creative excellence and innovation by developing and upskilling the future workforce and expanding technological capabilities Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Belfast, United Kingdom When: 14 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales records a video message for the friend of a student who missed his visit to Ulster University’s Belfast City Campus Centre, where he heard about work that is being carried out to solidify Northern Ireland as a global leader of creative excellence and innovation by developing and upskilling the future workforce and expanding technological capabilities Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Belfast, United Kingdom When: 14 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales leaves after a visit to Ulster University’s Belfast City Campus Centre, to hear about work that is being carried out to solidify Northern Ireland as a global leader of creative excellence and innovation by developing and upskilling the future workforce and expanding technological capabilities Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Belfast, United Kingdom When: 14 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales arrives for a visit to Ulster University’s Belfast City Campus Centre, to hear about work that is being carried out to solidify Northern Ireland as a global leader of creative excellence and innovation by developing and upskilling the future workforce and expanding technological capabilities Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Belfast, United Kingdom When: 14 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
That photo on the stationary bike in front of the fake backdrop is a keeper….. LOL! He really is such an idiot.
I want to see what those students really do with that image. Now that they have his pic, I can imagine all sorts of hilarious memes being created.
They took a video, it’s on TikTok, but it’s pretty much just garbled gibberish, he’s making no sense : https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdF9vR2u/
Reminds me of Trump going vroom vroom in a big truck.
He really thinks he’s something, doesn’t he? What a twat!
It’s like he’s In a commercial for motorcycles.
@Tessa, you’re being kind. It’s more like a commercial for people that don’t ride motorcycles. Know a lot of people that have them. Harleys & all. Never would any of them wear that outfit unless they weren’t going anywhere.imo Performative. That photo is so funny.
The SECOND picture of W on a motorbike with his hands folded is much better!
@ML. You win. Many years ago, when dealing with our Dad’s Alzheimers, one thing he did every day was ride his stationary bike. One day, while on my watch, he sat on the bike and did nothing. I’m like, “Dad you need to peddle.”. His response, “You can’t make me.”. Hands folded. I’m like, “Do you want to watch The Price is Right?”.
He is such a Putz and looks ridiculous on that motorcycle. So happy to hear those boos. Wonder if he went home and started throwing pillows around the palace.
The casters! They pushed him into place in front of fake Arizona!!!! This is hilariously stupid, I love it.
Wasn’t he doing a masters or some advanced course a couple of years ago? Did he ever finish?
No he never completed that course
It was a ‘bespoke’ course something about land management maybe linked to inheriting the Duchy of Cornwall. He didn’t finish and I think it was an excuse to get out of the house when one if his kids was little.
More than that, he started it when George was a few months old. And they made a big deal about how he was staying in where the course was instead of with his wife and newborn heir. And then he didn’t finish it. It was only supposed to be something like 10 weeks long too.
Wasn’t it something like 6 weeks, and he still couldn’t be bothered?
The royals always look so ridiculous when they show up to these inane appearances – they just don’t work anymore or they can’t pull it off. Either way – just stop. Please.
Exactly. They’re hardly icons for the future. More like full on bores.
CM and Liz, I totally agree. I think those “let’s thrill the peasants with a visit” visits worked up to the 80s or 90s, but with the ubiquitousness of social media and their failure to do/give anything of substance during their visits, it all falls flat. Not just for Egg, but for all the Left Behinds. You add their maltreatment of Meghan and their terrible financial behavior, and you get simply get wealthy people behaving badly, which few can tolerate these days.
He just looks so weird with the stubble on his face
Is he going to invite rfk Jr to earthsho t
These visits just seem useless to me.
All those barricades and nobody behind them
Things just aren’t going Peggy’s way are they? It’s like there is a dark cloud following him around raining 🌧️ on his parade wherever he goes.. Hope that hate racist hate campaign against his brother’s wife and the children was worth it.
Well it’s ok for Harry’s family to bash family members have you seen proof of their lies
He must be fuming thinking hey wait harry is the one who should be booed not me I am going to end homelessness.
So I get why it wasn’t announced but I still think it’s pretty funny that William’s surprise visit landed on his dad’s birthday. Charles was doing some special food thing for his bday but William pops up in Belfast.
Yes and he was not there to help dad cut the cake.
For all we know, maybe it was KC who suggested this? “My dearest boy, it would be wonderful if you left England for my birthday.” Something like that.
Ha! Maybe but I find it hard to believe Charles wanted to be upstaged on his bday. But who knows? I’m always curious bc I assume they somewhat have a head ups of each other’s schedules. Or do they😂? Either way, perhaps William getting booed was Charles birthday surprise present.
So was this a FU to Chuckles?
Not been invited to his dad’s birthday party so the trip to Ireland was a good excuse for not going.
One of William’s issues, which isn’t really his fault, its just his personality – but its that he’s not “cool.” He doesn’t have “rizz” as my kids would say. His youth and status as the “hot young prince” (back in the day lol) gave him cover for a long time but that’s long over. He doesn’t know it though (that part is his fault.)
So when he does these types of appearances, he thinks the college students see him as equal or connect with him as a peer; he doesn’t realize that they see him for what he is – the middle aged prince who is using this as a photo op so people can’t say he doesn’t “work.” This is so awkward because its the middle-age dad (or mom) who is trying to be cool with the younger generations and fail miserably (he’s not a regular prince, he’s a cool prince.)
Charles might have gotten on the motorcycle but not because he thought it made him look cool or because he loves motorcycles. QEII would never have done it. She would have looked at it, looked at the programs they used, made her comments, but not this.
William thinks these appearances make him look relatable but because of that lack of charisma/personality/coolness/whatever, they just make him look silly and stupid. He doesn’t realize that for some of these students, he’s more than twice their age.
Harry could have pulled this off because Harry does have that charisma, that “it” factor that makes him able to relate to anyone. He and Meghan connect with people without it seeming forced or like they’re trying too hard. It’s a gift and William doesn’t have it. That’s not necessarily his fault. But the palace, their social media and William himself all need to stop acting like he has it because it does him no favors.
William squandered his twenties and went in for bar hopping and vacations. Not much charity work. The queen should have required work from him and not let him do as he please d. He had that gap year where he did work but it was all downhill from there.
oh I agree with that 100%, but that’s an issue related to his laziness and entitlement, not his lack of personality for these types of appearances.
True, the lack of charisma is not his fault. However, his lack of empathy and not having an “it factor” or likeability has been obvious for years. It is his fault for not doing appearances that take this into account. [looks at W with his hands clasped in front of his crotch on a motorcycle and hands you popcorn]
*accepts popcorn thank you very much*
Exactly!! He doesn’t have charisma. He doesn’t have the kind of personality that connects with people the way some people do, famous or not. That’s fine. But he and his team need to tailor his events accordingly. They need to model his visits after his father, after Anne, after QEII. Instead he’s desperately trying to play catch up to Harry or trying to look like a cool 20 something or whatever and it just looks…..sad and awkward.
His lack of charisma may not be his fault – but he has an off-putting air of entitled arrogance that is entirely his fault. It is partly an effect of the insulated bubble he has grown up in but it also shows that he really does not interact with different from him and that he does not really care to put himself in other people’s shoes. He lacks empathy, which is not surprising since it has been shown that very rich people often lack empathy. It is too easy for them to isolate themselves from the less fortunate.
Harry is the except within the family and it is, quite frankly, a bit of a miracle that he has turned out so well. He was lucky enough to meet some wonderful people at a critical point in his youth that cared for him and were good role models, like that family he mentions in Spare.
@ArtHistorian I think you missed that William is going to “throw some empathy in there as well” because that’s apparently how it works (please note the sarcasm LOL)
I do kinda feel bad sometimes for William bc he doesn’t have riz while Harry does. Even if he had worked steadily his whole life, I’m not sure he would have ever gained riz. That said, had he genuinely worked with purpose, he could have maybe found his niche and leaned into it. Something genuine to him. He doesn’t have to be Harry. He could’ve been his own thing. As of now, that ship seems to have sailed. And William has done a lot of karmically evil things to his brother and Meghan and their kids. To the point where he comes across as inauthentic and fake when he tries to throw empathy in there as well.
Save your empathy–remember how he treated Meghan, and how he treated his own brother. He’s a racist, right wing mediocrity who lacks any empathy, any interests beyond sports, any talents, and he has a monstrous sense of entitlement. He has the looks and the rizz that quite frankly, he deserves, and even so, he’ll do nothing but fail upward all his life at the expense of the poor, the vulnerable, and the marginalized.
I hear you. Every time I kinda feel bad I do remember all that you said. And honestly, the next time William’s friend calls up Sykes and rages and says nasty things about Meghan any potential empathy is dried up and then some.
Jais- you’re right, charisma may be elusive but William could at least have developed his interpersonal skills a bit more. He seems so socially awkward and uptight when dealing with the public and celebrities, as if he sees the plebs as a whole different species he doesn’t know how to handle. He should have tried spending more time mingling with people outside his small, moneyed, titled social circle.
Most people don’t have charisma and it is fine. But there are those who have hobbies/passions/jobs they are really good at and once they start talking about it they become interesting and you want to listen. This can be done by most of us – the only prerequisite is to be prepared and engaged! Wills wants people to fawn just over the mere presence of himself and he has to accept it is not happening.
William really needed to throw himself into learning everything he could about a cause he cares about (therein lies the rub, he was allowed to care about nothing and no one), and putting actual passion and purpose into action using the platform he was born with.
He could have been a Mr Rogers type, definitely not dripping in charisma, like Harry, but beloved because of who he is and the care and intention he puts into everything he does.
It’s like the palace thought, “Phew! We finally got a hot heir!”, and were unable to let it go once the looks evaporated. They have spent the decades in between buying polls and planting articles with the rota about how, no, really, he is still that gorgeous teenager (hork, it was such a gross strategy, in retrospect) we all remember! If you turn your head to an almost right angle, squint, but only during a crescent moon, you will still see Diana, we promise!!!!
What a waste of a life. No one cared enough to encourage him to become anything, other than a spoiled idiot who can be easily manipulated.
Charisma would get William noticed in the tabloids, but I wonder if he shouldn’t just embrace the dullness and move on. The People article about his Belfast visit is actually pretty substantive, with good reasons for his visits to the homeless projects and the university. Keep doing that, William, and forget about competing with Harry.
Becks1 – I think that’s a really good point. William and Kate had a relatively normal university experience (living in a houseshare, playing pool down the pub etc) and they were supposed to be down-to-earth, relatable, modern royals. Since then they’ve just proved to be as out-of-touch and unrelatable as the older generations of the BRF. Maybe William expected students to remember he was once a student and relate to him, or maybe he still sees himself as young and cool. He’s either oblivious or in deep denial.
I don’t know if william had the normal experience they say. It has come out more than once that William expects to be top dog in his friend circle and of course the sycophants don’t object. He also had to change programs because otherwise he wasn’t going to pass art history. Not everyone would have gotten the same break as him.
And Kate wanted so bad to be chosen she would not have put him in his place. Instead she tolerated poor behaviour for years.
Maybe one year in a basic houseshare but they were living pretty palatially the last few years. And they went to bars that were specifically for their set of people–others were NOT welcome there.
Charles seemed to have accepted from an early age that he was kind of a dork and not the cool guy. I don’t think William accepts that he isn’t cool, especially when his brother definitely has the cool factor. Charles probably had it better because neither Andrew or Edward are considered cool either.
Is it just me, or in that still photo on the X post, where Egg is leaving the building and he’s touching his tie as he strides- is he trying to “pull a Harry”? We often see Harry do this, I suspect very unconsciously, as he walks- and it looks like Egg is totally trying to copy-keen Harry, right down to the beard and his gestures.
it’s amazing just how much space Harry occupies in his head.
Bully, via the dictates of his handlers, is going thru a total colonization of H’s life and personality.
Its a real thing the royals do and have done for the past 100 years at least. I mean, colonization is their brand; theyve coveted and stolen other people’s valuables since the 10th Century.
But ive noticed that since the advent of M, theyve resorted to swallowing then regurgitating everything she did while there and even now, in a bid to erase her and pretend that the ethos she brought to the table was always really theirs. (Rmbr the narrative they started about her: first…….”she wanted to modernize the monarchy;” then after the racist abuse and she left, the narrative became: “she wants to destroy the monarchy.”)
Dont forget the naked, blatant copying/colonization of M that the cancer-fraud victim did before the got banged up in Dec 2023 and to date. And dont forget the sudden disappearance of the concept of “breaking protocol” which M was always being accused of, until she left and then all that breaking of protocol suddenly became a thing all the royals do, including the M-shaped fascade over what “royal work” became.
All that to say: what you see happening with Bully:…..the beard, the attempt (sometimes) to dress more like a certain british-american; the language used to describe the “work” (eg empathy, community, impact, etc)……are all part of Bully’s process of morphing into a facsimile of Harry’s life.
I’m still waiting for a crowd to show up at one of his events and collectively boo him for his greed and laziness. Has this ever happened? If not, LFG!!!!!
He’s completely useless.
“Does this green screen make me look just as cool as Tom Cruise?”
Let’s add this to our folder of William being cringey, right alongside his tightrope walk a foot off the ground.
One of my all time favourite videos.
“Am I manly enough” LOL
He really fancies himself as James Bond when he is closer to Mr Bean!
This made me laugh so hard. That’s it!😂😂😂
Too bad it was only 30 folk booing him.
He has as much charisma as a sack of tatties and he looks like one especially when he’s tanned. I just can’t be arsed with him, he won’t be my king whether I’m in the UK or France but hopefully I’ll kick the bucket here in France and have no need to return to Scotland. He’s lazy, self indulgent, has the intellect of a raisin and again is just plain lazy.
Peg must be absolutely miserable that his brother has effortless charm, oozes “rizz”, has a kingly bearing and can relate to all kinds of people who clearly admire him. It must keep Peg up at night trying to figure out why Harry’s success alludes him, the heir.
Nothing but compassion for someone who has so much and gives so
little. He gave up trying a long time ago.
Such a victim consciousness. And lethal for all those affected
He is an example of what happens when you raise someone to be king. He was given special training and things like special teas with his grandmother. Also I am certain staff and others treated him differently and encouraged his narcissism.
Yet somehow other European royals managed to educate and prepare their kids for the role – foreign languages, diplomacy, work – not chats with your grandma telling you how important you are and what to do to keep peasants happy.
William has no charisma. And that in itself needn’t be a problem – if only he wasn’t so obviously desperate to claim he has it.
If W had a track record of solid public service, and an evident sincere commitment to using his platform and privilege to make peoples’ lives better, he would have earned public goodwill anyway. It wouldn’t matter so much if he found it hard to personally project warmth & empathy, if it was evident from his actions that those qualities were there.
But the recent Dispatches revelations – that he is directly profiteering tax-free from public organisations which run on our taxes, and from charities (from donations made by members of the public on our taxed income) – fatally undermine his claims to be a caring person. He can’t project caring because he doesn’t care.
He is happy to take slices of profit from struggling public services during a time of crisis.So all his claims to serve the public eg by ending homelessness, are completely hollow. Prince ‘let’s throw in some empathy’ William is a hollow vessel.