The Telegraph is promoting a new poll, and as someone who has always questioned the methodology of British polling, it’s fascinating. This is not one of those weird YouGov polls of “what Americans think of Prince Harry and Meghan.” This one was done by Ipsos, and they polled British people about what they think, in general terms, the Windsors should be focused on. At no point were people polled on specific royals, and it doesn’t look like anyone specified “Harry and Meghan left this island five years ago so obviously they’re not part of the ‘royals’ we’re talking about, right?” Apparently, British people want the Windsors to stop talking about themselves and their personal issues, and they want the Windsors to focus more on real issues. So why is the Telegraph’s header photo of Harry & Meghan again??
The Royal family should do fewer interviews about their personal lives and talk more about the “challenges facing the country”, a poll of the public has suggested. An Ipsos poll, conducted for The Telegraph, found that a quarter of British adults want the Royal family to drop media appearances about their personal lives, preferring more focus on charity work and current affairs.
Nine in 10 people want the monarchy to do more or “about the same” amount of talking about “social issues and challenges facing the country”; 43 per cent want more and another 33 per cent believe they already get it right. On the subject of promoting “charitable causes”, 43 per cent said the Royal family should do more, while 40 per cent thought it should continue to do “about the same”.
The result may be a surprise to some traditionalists, who have cautioned against the King and his family veering too far into current affairs in favour of concentrating on the volume of engagements and patronages in line with the late Queen and Prince Philip’s approach to working royalty. The survey was conducted by Ipsos UK online, questioning 1,089 British adults aged 18-75 between November 8 and 11.
Three-quarters of the general public would like to see members of the Royal family conduct more or the same number of interviews focused on their work. A quarter said they wanted the Royal family to do fewer interviews about their personal lives, compared with 21 per cent who wanted them to do more. Some 35 per cent said they were content with the amount they currently do.
The most high-profile recent personal interview was from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who spoke to Oprah Winfrey about why they left the working Royal family.
The Oprah interview was in 2021, and it was one of the most-watched interviews globally in many years. Harry & Meghan’s Netflix show was also an enormous success, as was Harry’s memoir. So… people actually are interested when Harry & Meghan speak or write about their personal lives and the numbers show that. What’s funny is that every time William or Kate open their mouths, people groan. In just the past three months, we’ve gotten a “short film” from Kate which was shot like a prescription-drug commercial, all to announce that she had completed chemotherapy and she was now “cancer-free.” People in the British media absolutely HATED it. In recent months, William has done a naval-gazing two-part documentary in which he centered himself in the issue of homelessness. He then went to South Africa where he gave several personal interviews about his life, all of which were poorly received back home. Seems to me that the British people were actually talking about William and Kate’s laziness and their narcissism more than the family who moved away five years ago.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Kensington Palace.
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- Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales with the Prince of Wales. The Princess of Wales said she has finished chemotherapy and is “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months” Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales. The Princess of Wales said she has finished chemotherapy and is “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months” Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I think the world would like them to stop talking about the Windsors. I know I do but then again if they don’t talk about them with the truth then how will we be able to mock the unbelievable articles.
I don’t know why the British public would want them talking about social issues at all. But I certainly understand the desire for them to not talk about their strange, dysfunctional personal lives. It kinda sounds like the British public doesn’t really know why they have this family of grifters and pedos hanging around on their dime.
William just participated in an all access documentary and did several interviews in South Africa a month ago, how is the most recent interview from 2021? Also, I know they have to make it seem like it’s about Harry and Meghan but why would the country want Harry and Meghan to focus on the things going on in the UK more when Meghan (as they have mentioned in every single article ) hasn’t been to the UK since September of 2022, and Harry primarily for court cases outside of a few charity events? They just can’t accept that the problem is not the two who live in California for the popularity of the monarchy. You all have had it for half a decade, this is your show.
@Dee (2),
Key words in that quote are “high-profile”. I believe that the William interviews you mentioned aren’t considered “high-profile” despite his being the future King. Kind of tells us what they think of the Egg…
It is annoying that i can’t find the oprah interview anywhere online – i would really like to re-watch it.
This comment, much life “royal” coverage- also, not about the left behind windsors.
Though it is kind of amazing to see the whole thing crash and burn so quickly following the queen’s death.
As a spectator.
Watching our own country set itself on fire for racism, misogyny, and meanness is much less…. entertaining.
What? You can’t find it? I had such trouble finding Harry’s full travalyst skit as well.
Someone is scrubbing the internet incredibly well.
Here’s a link to the whole interview https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H5tLr1ZXq6ihH54EBbCBI2tJReR5vjjl/view
The blatant racism and mysogny has been shocking and very disheartening to witness.
Why would the public want the royals to talk about things at all? Why would they not want the RF to spread the wealth and take action to change things. No talking needed.
Right??? If I were filling out this survey, my answer would be “Not talk, Do!!!! Or go away and give the public back their money”
Maybe it was along the lines of ‘well if I have to hear them talk, at least make it about the ‘job’ (for which we pay them millions we can ill afford).
All this kinging and keening is such hard work, that’s why the Windsor-Wailses-Parker Bowleses who were left behind to deal with the peasants must constantly overshare how brutal their life is.
Poor dears.
Just imagine they’d commit to living in the 21st century and would successfully promote actual projects and support them with all that money from the Duchies that they don’t need.
No, just let them complain some more, thus hopefully making more of the people turn against the workshy Windsors.
The headline is incorrect; according to the numbers cited, more people want the RF to do the same amount of talking about themselves than want less.
‘The math ain’t mathing’. As a person with a math and science degree I freaking HATE how they report poll numbers. They mention only the part that agree with the answer they want. They mix ‘quarters’ and ‘percent’ in the same sentence and from opposite answers, so you can’t tell how they got to 100 and from what question. So there is no way to find out the total percentages by doing your own math. And of course the complete poll report, is never published. Which is why this headline and 3/4 of 20% percent and 18 oz of the conclusions in the article make no sense.
I’m taken aback by all the heavy, emotional lifting that Kate is doing in her “twue love” video. Watching William’s response to her attempts at affection is rather stomach turning, does she have no sense of self-worth?
He couldn’t even fake it in a scenario where they had multiple takes. Maybe this was the best they could do too.
William is having a breakdown.
What could the pampered royals possibly have to say regarding the real issues facing ordinary Britons??
When they attempt to work on causes such as homelessness, they are so desperately out of touch and self-centered that it’s painful to listen to them speak.
Harry and Meghan are in the same category as Beatrice and Eugenie so they should not be included in any polls. I may be reading this wrong but I got the impression that the public wanted to hear more about their work and for them to do more.
I hope that Peg keeps doing his “promote me” interviews, I want the British subjects and government to get fed up and cut their budgets… so keep the “all about me” scripted videos and interviews coming.