The Royal Representative

Archive for the ‘Newspapers’ Category

The Aftenposten newspaper of Norway has decided to stop running its “News in English” service as a way of saving money. For those of us who do not speak nor read Norwegian, this will be a disappointing loss. However, due to the recent financial crisis, this move is completely understandable.

If any Norwegian speakers out there would like to translate royal news stories and send them to The Royal Representative, it would be greatly appreciated.

What marvelous photos! Have a look: “The celebration of a new king.”

Bhutan seems like it shall have a brighter future than poor Nepal.

Amanda Platell of the Daily Mail has given Prince William some useful career advice: “Get a proper job”.

Ms. Platell, if you remember, was the columnist who roundly criticized Princess Beatrice’s 18th birthday party. She was in a snit about the Princess and her guests dressing up as Victorian belles and gentlemen, declaring their outfits a “disaster”.

Complaining about someone’s themed birthday party doesn’t strike me as a “proper job” itself, but I do think Amanda Platell’s opinion is actually valid in this case. She has simply added yet another voice to the masses of people - monarchists included - who decry princely playboy behavior. William’s stints in the Army are not viewed as serious or earnest enough, and this is exactly what I had hoped to avoid. Instead, he should have returned to university.

I wrote a letter to Charles’ advisors, saying that Prince William should be seen furthering his education and taking his future role more seriously. Being a part of the military is admirable, but since William is the direct heir to the throne, he won’t see much action. It does help the prince gain an understanding of what goes on in military life and he gets to meet all kinds of people, but it is political science and international relations that are crucial right now. At least in my opinion.

There is so much turmoil in the government and fuss surrounding the monarchy that William needs to learn how to survive it all. The Queen can teach him quite a bit, but he also needs an official diplomatic education to deal with the cut-throat tactics out there.

My response from the advisors? Barely a paragraph. Clarence House treated me as if I was a sixteen year old girl who had written a gushy fan letter about William instead.

Slightly insulted, I realized that I would just have to sit back and watch the Prince’s official life roll out before the media for better or for worse. Not like I really expected them to take my ideas on board or invite me over for tea and a brainstorm, but I thought their letter would be a bit more… responsive. Instead, I got the old brush-off. Queen Noor’s people were a lot more friendly!!

Oh well… at least I’m not going to be on the royal blacklist for an article entitled “Wills must get a job or he’ll end up like Charles”. You mean the same Charles who has the Prince’s Trust, Duchy Originals, etc. etc.? Yeah, please don’t end up successful, William!

Thanks to The Monarchist
The Daily Mail Article in full

Prince Charles hates bland, and does his best to ensure that his organic products - and the method with which they are created - are unique and environmentally friendly. Mass production and chains horrify His Royal Highness.

Charles predicts with glaring terror that small farmers may be “driven off their land [by global conglomerates] into unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness”.

With that mouthful, the Prince proclaims that “If that is the future, then count me out.”

For more, click here for the Telegraph’s article.

HRH The Princess Royal was both chastised and praised for wearing a dress that was last seen at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

The still-slender Princess Anne was even wearing the same hat she wore at her brother’s wedding! Naturally the newspapers picked up on this immediately. HRH simply responded that the Queen had brought her up not to be wasteful.

“A good suit goes on forever. If it is properly made and has a classic look you can go on wearing it ad infinitum. Economy is bred into me. My parents believe that things are not to be wasted. That lesson does last.”

Which, along with being able to still fit into a 27-year-old dress, does deserve kudos. I’m finding it hard to fit into things that I wore last year, so I can’t even begin to imagine 27 years. Good on her, I say. It’s not as if the Princess has worn it the last five weddings. Let her live!

Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, has also been noted to wear ‘recycled’ outfits. The dual HRHs are very much aware, I’m sure, that the action of wearing the same outfit, even twice, is a double-edged sword. They are being cost-effective yet fashion declares a new outfit for a different occasion! Either they’re dowdy or they’re spending too much money, down with the monarchy! Boo hiss, etc.

Anyway, Kate Middleton caused another distraction with her pretty outfit and lack of royal boyfriend. Will they be engaged soon? God I hope so. This speculation is killing me.

Whoo, boy. I didn’t realize that Peter Phillips’ wedding would cause such a ruckus.

First, the Catholics have a fit because Autumn changed her religion from Catholic to Anglican (Church of England). Then there was the Hello! Magazine deal about their relationship and wedding.

A commercial deal in the royal family is looked upon with derision by many. Take the Countess of Wessex’s problems concerning her former PR firm several years ago. Some of the public began to wonder if she was cashing in on royal titles and connections. ITN states that this particular deal struck with Hello! will instead “damage any future claims to privacy” by Autumn and Peter.

That I can’t agree with, unfortunately. Even if they weren’t splashed across the pages of Hello!, they will still be viewed as glamorous, modern young royals and will be placed in the arena of publicity with Kate, Chelsy, Beatrice, etc. Peter has always been a private person, just as Princess Anne had planned, but nowadays I think that privacy is hard to find for anyone in a public family, especially when they have a beautiful royal wedding!

Princess Letizia of Spain’s sister recently discovered this the hard way: the publicity shy Telma Ortiz brought a restraining order against the media in an effort to retain her privacy. The courts felt differently, and ruled that since Telma Ortiz is the sister-in-law to the Spanish Crown Prince she is, by default, a public figure. The order was declined and the media will now, I’m sure, be on her like beans on toast while declaring a ‘freedom of the press’ victory.

Of course, we can’t forget about the religious issue concerning the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Phillips. Father Raymond J. de Souza is outraged, saying that Autumn’s conversion to the Church of England was ‘cavalier’ and that she should be ashamed for stating that the C of E and Rome are pretty much “the same religion”. It does seem fairly unnecessary to me that she should convert, as Peter will never take the throne, but lesser royal figures have had to give up their place for marrying Catholic. Maybe Autumn felt guilty that she would be playing ‘politics’ - inadvertently - with the line of succession.

There have been many debates about rescinding the Act of Settlement barring Catholics from the throne. People say the Act goes against human rights, and they also ridicule it for barring Catholics but not, say, Scientologists. People also note that the Duchess of Kent, a senior royal, converted to Catholicism yet the Duke of Kent keeps his place in the line. How do you explain that?

I have to say that this Act is a bit out of date, but if it is repealed, what happens? Will Prince Michael regain his position in the line of succession, for instance? Would Autumn reconvert? Who knows… it’s all so interesting yet it could be potentially very chaotic. For now, however, the only chaos is the war of words in the media.

Rachel Johnson comments on the insanity that is the obsession with Diana, even after death. Diana’s Dead, Get Over It

When we look at some of the names of European royals, we don’t always know how to pronounce them. Below, Nina Berglund of Aftenposten Multimedia gives me the correct ways of pronouncing the names of Norway’s royal family:

Mette-Marit: “METT-eh MAR-it” (accent on the first syllables.)

Haakon: “HO-cone” (definitely NOT “Hawk-en!”)

Mãrtha Louise: “MARE-tuh Luh-VEE-she” (Swedish pronounciation… NOT “Martha”)

Sonja: “SO-nya”

Harald: “HA-rald” (”Ha” like “rah”)

Thanks Nina!

[Have a pronunciation question? Email me here]

A PAINTING ridiculing the Royal Family has sparked outrage among monarchists.

The picture, that is currently showing as part of an exhibition at a gallery in Amsterdam, depicts Prince Harry as a Nazi and the late Princess Diana as Christ.

Tory MP David Ruffley said: “This seems to be a pathetic and tasteless attempt at art by a man with no talent.

“People on the continent are just jealous of our Royal Family and the Queen being a beacon of decency for the Western World.”

[more]

The royal editor of the News of the World has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages.

Clive Goodman, 48, from London, was arrested after claims by the Prince of Wales’s household of security breaches.

Glenn Mulcaire, 35, admitted the same charge and five counts of intercepting messages on the mobile phones of the likes of publicist Max Clifford.

[More ]