2005: A Turning Point for the House of Windsor?

[Jenee]

The Royalist, written by Brenda Ralph Lewis

Ok, now... I love The Royalist, and up until now have loved the articles that have been posted on that site... This one however, not so much.

Its possible that I find this article so horrible simply because I'm too young to remember what the media/RF was like in the 90's compared to what it is like today. Either way, here we go...

The criticism was misplaced. The real troublemakers had been the glamorous Princess of Wales and the feisty Duchess of York, who joined the Royal Family to excited forecasts that they were going to ginger up their staid and starchy in-laws.

This was where the Princess and the Duchess, aided and abetted by the media, made such a big mistake. They managed to circumvent the safeguards provided by constitutional monarchy and were in danger of turning Royal Family life into a soap opera when divorce and Diana's untimely death intervened.

So are we really to believe that the POW and DOY were the wicked witches of the east and west? That their husbands and the way that they had to live their lives had nothing to do with anything that happened prior to their divorces?? You can play the "they should have known what they were getting into" card all you want, but I truely believe that you can't adjust to a life like that until you actually experience it. And from my understanding of the ways of the RF, I doubt they had much help.

Every now and then, Prince Harry gets himself into trouble with his youthful high jinks.

"Youthful high jinks" :rolleyes: Please. drugs, drinking, bright pink thongs... these are not "youthful high jinks." Youthful high jinks would be Kate Middleton's mooning the boys out of her dorm window, not Harry getting high in the basement of daddy's house.  I find it very interesting that Miss Brenda Ralph Lewis is so quick to brush off all of Harry's indiscretions as "youthful high jinks" when she is being so hard on his mother and aunt.

After the Queen's two colourful daughters-in-law disappeared from the scene, there were no more juicy stories, no more shock revelations and no more banner headlines.

HARRY, THE NAZI
WILLS FINALLY GETS A GIRL

^^honestly, between the two of them, I could go on and on, but I think you get the point

The Queen and her family aren't sensational front page news any more, and the royal watchers and royal correspondents who once filled newspaper columns and TV air time with tales of goings-on at the palace have moved on to pastures new.

Like I said, I don't remember what royal media was like in the 90's, but I definetly don't think that the RF has been left alone at all!!  They are in the tabloids practically on a daily basis!! We've seen pictures of Harry kissing his girlfriend on private property, Kate's flat in London... I think all these things easily prove that the media has not remotely bored of the RF and their goings on as yet.



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on the flip side of it, there was a nice seciton about the Countess of Wessex as well as royal visits :)

[Wombat]

I think that since Dianas death there's been far more public sympathy towards the royals and the fact they have to live within the fishbowl of public and media scrutiny.

I disagree wholeheartedly when the article blames Diana and Fergie for  being heralded as the ones to change the stiff and starchy royals..that was not their fault.  The media were the ones to build these girls up.  And to a lesser extnt the royal family themselves should take some of the blame.  They weren't  so opposed to Fergie and Diana getting a great amount of media attention when it suited the family. 

I have read that the royals, pre-Diana were fast becoming an ancient nusiance to most Brits.  Most people before Diana came on the scene didn't really care what the royals got up to.  Which suited the royals privately but that also meant their public images were also damaged.  They were more often than not ridiculed and made fun of by the media. 

But Diana came along and things changed.  People were once again interested in then again.  It was also at this time that people started tuning back into the Queens speech....watching events where royals attended etc etc.

I thin what everyone has to remember, and particulary the woman who wrote this article, is that royals are human.  They can, like Diana and Fergie, make huge mistakes and errors of judgement (Charles not marrying Camilla...Harry and his Nazi costume.....PPhilips slitty eyes comment...etc etc).  Noone is fallible...no one can claim to be right all the time. 

It's just that the media set Diana and Fergie up for a giagantic fall.  They built these two up to impossible standards that no one, not even the Queen could live up to.  No woonder when they fell they fell hard.  And now they're doing it to William, Harry & their girlfriends.  What else can we expect but for all four to fall just as hard. <_<

[TheRoyalist]

Hi there.

Glad to see you liked the article by Brenda Ralph Lewis, Jenee  :P

Seriously, this was more an opinion piece by a writer who was around during the early years of Diana. Please, though, do feel free to leave your thoughts, argue your point, about the piece on the comments page as they're more than welcome. We're just trying to offer a variety of pieces from a variety of people of varying ages.

Cheerio!  :wavey:

Joanne

[Wombat]

Argh! My grammer/spelling is atrocious :ugh: