UK United Kingdom Royal Family / Royal Families Drama General Thread - formerly "Prince Harry and Meghan to step back as senior royals"

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced they will step back as "senior" royals and work to become financially independent.

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In a statement, Prince Harry and Meghan also said they plan to split their time between the UK and North America.

The BBC understands no other royal - including the Queen or Prince William - was consulted before the statement and Buckingham Palace is "disappointed".

Senior royals are understood to be "hurt" by the announcement.

In their unexpected statement on Wednesday, also posted on their Instagram page, the couple said they made the decision "after many months of reflection and internal discussions".

"We intend to step back as 'senior' members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen."

They said they plan to balance their time between the UK and North America while "continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages".

"This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity."

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said discussions with the duke and duchess on their decision to step back were "at an early stage", adding: "We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through."

The couple's announcement on Wednesday comes two months after the Duke of York withdrew from public life after a BBC interview about his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in August.

www.bbc.co.uk

Harry and Meghan to step back as senior royals

No other royals were consulted before the couple's announcement, the BBC understands.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
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KiwiFuzz2 said:
I feel like if the King was dead and all the flags had been at half mast for the last six hours there would have been a press release or something by now.

I smell a nothingburger.
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I can text someone who will be commuting to work in London. I will probably get a sarcastic reply about there being no flags on the tube BRB
 
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I'm not some bleeding heart communist leftie, but I'm also not a fan of the status quo. So, what I'm basically getting out of this thread is "shrug, let's just keep things the way they are because what comes next would probably be worse".

Well, how do y'all know it will be?

At least in the US we have some power to get rid of political dynasties; it doesn't always work, but damn it if I didn't laugh my ass off when Hillary lost her chance at the big chair. There's no reason why some people on this planet should be "chosen by God" to have power and influence, when the rest of us are perfectly capable of screwing things up the exact same way, or, even perhaps make it better. But we don't know if we can never have any power to change the institutions.

And as for "keeping cultural traditions alive", I remain dubious of the idea that there are some traditions that need to be kept alive, among those, is bowing to people with sashes and expensive hats because they have almost arbitrary fancy titles that frankly, weren't earned by anything more than birth, marriage or knowing the right people. There will be people that will gratefully keep those traditions alive without an institution anyway (we have historical re-enactors everywhere), and for the rest, there are museums.

I don't know how true it is in "The Crown" when Philip is making the point about the Royals being "value for money", but I imagine Peter Morgan had some idea that he knew what he was talking about. But back then (or for that matter, until she died), Liz might not have seen it that way. What it seems to me that she did see was that despite her enormous privilege, she was a servant of the people for her entire life, and she kept to it.

Do I see the current crop of royals being servants of the people? Even seeing themselves that way? It just doesn't strike me if I keep seeing them on magazine covers and publishing books and on red carpets and on being arbiters of style. If they're not smart, like Harry is demonstrably not smart, why should he be able to keep a title of any importance? If the monarchy can be "slimmed down", surely that means titles are purely arbitrary? If competence were in any way important, we'd have a "Queen Anne" right now and not a "King Charles".

These people could be spending their time and enormous wealth becoming educated on issues of the day and quietly sitting out issues but acting behind the scenes (if they really must be politically neutral) instead of being eternal fence-sitters.

Point is: to be attached to a cultural tradition like the Monarchy is no better than electing the same people into power. Maybe it's the fault of the people for putting up with it, but it isn't automatically the worst thing that could happen if that tradition goes away.
 
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Hitman One said:
I'm almost certain it's this. He probably has bad cancer, like pancreatic cancer or something similarly grim, and is trying to treat it by drinking boiled acorn tea or seaweed infusions.
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If his swollen hands and fingers are any indication, it's edema caused by congestive heart failure.

But then again, my medical knowledge comes from YouTube, Wikipedia, and 4chan. So what do I know?
 

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I don't care what the outcome is, the dicourse coupled with the radio silence is hilarious. Buckingham could easily throw together a press release "shut the fuck up retards, nobody is dead" but it's been quite a few hours since the trending began and it's crickets from everyone.
 
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A propos of Otterly's post, so more Weekend at Bernies with Kate allegedly seen near Adelaide Cottage, according the Daily Mail:


No photos according to some agreement. I doubt she was even seen. I'll edit It in an archive, but I just want to note how clumsy the Royal publicity machine has become. While a dying King and Princess of Wales with some sort of abdominal operation is not an easy sell, the secretivrness gives rise to whispers.
 
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Not A Bunny said:
Well, how do y'all know it will be?
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The royals are a symbolic figurehead and basically validate the legal fiction of the state. If we get a president, we'll probably end up with President Rylan or President Gemma Collins or something equally stupid... and they won't make a show of being apolitical.
 
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Sketchy Minecraft Mod said:
I don't care what the outcome is, the dicourse coupled with the radio silence is hilarious. Buckingham could easily throw together a press release "shut the fuck up retards, nobody is dead" but it's been quite a few hours since the trending began and it's crickets from everyone.
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True true. If someone died or is dying it would be interesting to see what's next. Charles inherited the throne very late. So him dying wouldn't be a surprise. The difference is that it would be so soon since his mother's death and funeral.
 
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AssignedEva said:
The royals are a symbolic figurehead and basically validate the legal fiction of the state. If we get a president, we'll probably end up with President Rylan or President Gemma Collins or something equally stupid... and they won't make a show of being apolitical.
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I, for one, look forward to President Winkleman rooting out all the Traitors in the country. Meanwhile, Vice President Carr's tax reforms will serve as a well needed refresh to the middle class.
 
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