The Sussex game show continued on 5 March, 2020 and the duo as usual didn’t disappoint with a few stunts here and there. What we got was a staged pap shot, an inappropriate out of season outfit, a rent-a-crowd cheer, MM pushing in front of Harry and signing the visitor’s book first, Harry fluffing his lines (this time so badly he had to start over), MM’s visible underwear lines, a few boos, the usual inappropriate PDAs, the awkward and clashed greetings in a line up, Harry desperately using his ‘military career’ to attempt some kind of bond with the audience, MM claiming they were working hard in Canada watching videos of the nominees, a couple of excited sugary Royal Reporters who can’t tell the difference between a jeer or a cheer, and to top it all as the duo departed they were serenaded by a derogatory drunken chat.
It’s a lot to cover, yet the media focused on the one semi-decent photo on the covers of the papers and that was only a split second if you actually watch the video. So, in the interests of simple WYSIWYG, and a dose of reality, let’s look at what actually happened on the day MM was forced back into the UK to ensure she still got some of the funding that the duo have relied upon for the last few years.
The tabloid tease of a front cover, only to be stabbed upfront as soon as you open up the paper!
Lunch at The Goring
The day began with some staged paparazzi shots of the duo leaving separately from The Goring, after allegedly having had a private lunch there. Both beamed for the cameras and didn’t seemed surprised to see them either. Obviously MM snuck back into the UK the night before, but why sneak back in if you really ‘are glad to be back’, which we know is an utter fib as she fled the UK as soon as she could. There would have been no warm welcome or cheers upon her arrival, and apparently the duo are staying at Frogmore Cottage (which they say is still their UK residence). I don’t doubt that this is obvious, but if they knew they were coming back, why let go of all the staff immediately back in January? It would have made more sense to keep them on until the middle of March.
Then one must question, why only one outlet (The Sun) had the story, and who were tipped off it seems too? Was it a quid pro quo and part of the deal to show the duo happy and smiling after The Sun broke the story of the Sussexes stepping down as working members of the RF? It would account for the lackluster ‘story’ of the alleged meeting The Queen had with Harry on Sunday that The Sun felt was so important it made the headlines despite the coronavirus emergency in the UK.
Both of the duo seemed quite happy for the photographers to snap away, neither seemed to be distressed that their privacy had been breached (as in a private lunch), and seemed to pose for the photos too. Paparazzi do not hang around hotels on the off chance of taking photos, so they were told ahead that the duo would be there, and the duo probably waited until the paparazzi arrived before they staged their departure. If they wanted to sneak out, they could have always used the staff or back entrance!
The secret trip to The National
Apparently after the visit at The Goring, MM met her own private photographer Chris Allerton for a secret squirrel rendezvous at The National. It appears she is clinging to the one decent patronage she has with claws of steel, but surely as a royal patronage it’s up to The Queen to decide if she keeps it? How can she remain as a patron when a) she doesn’t even live in the UK, and b) as the patronage represents The Queen and MM will no longer represent The Queen come 1 April, 2020, that contradicts itself.
It appears ‘Sussex Royal’ is being dropped and being replaced by ‘Duke and Duchess of Sussex’ which is all fine and dandy as long as Harry doesn’t get stripped of his dukedom, I mean stranger things have happened. As for the use of Allerton for taking private images, he seems to be a bit of a bargain after looking at his accounts as the Sussexes don’t appear to be paying him that much, unless it’s off the books.
The idea of a patron is to help publicize a charity with public events, so the last two ‘secret squirrel visits’ belie the actual purpose of a patronage. That is unless the visits were merely used as private photo opportunities dressed as a patronage visit. Either way, MM has sullied and tarnished the image of The National, and I say that with a heavy heart as a supporter since my teenage years watching Shakespeare there for my A’ levels, and as an adult watching friends perform there. The sooner she is dispatched, more people will return to The National. MM is only using the theatre for its prestigious status, and any village idiot can see that.
The Daily Mail comments on the story are amusing because everyone can see through the charade. What do you expect when you take your own privately paid and cheap photographer to a secret visit, even though a patronage is supposed to entail public visits as in to gain publicity? MM is doing is the opposite of what a patronage is supposed to be. Visits that are made secretly are usually due to security issues, but here there weren’t any, and it was pure and cheap publicity at the expense of The National.
The Endeavour Trust Awards
The duo arrived around 7 p.m., and it was cold and wet as you’d expect in March. Only last week we even had snow, so one wonders why MM was wearing a short sleeved summer dress with no jacket or coat. I was out also at the same time and it was bitter, and the only reason someone wouldn’t wear a coat to go out is because they don’t own one, or in this case they wanted to be photographed in an outfit for a reason. She must have been freezing, and a photographer captured a split second where the duo smiled at each other as they walked in, and this is the image that the media decided to use to encapsulate the event. It was a far cry from the reality of the event though, so what game are the media playing? People are confused and have questioned why the media are being two faced, and if you aren’t British you may not get it, which has left many Americans baffled. The tabloid media in the UK are not to be toyed with, they can big you up and then take you down, but like a rattlesnake they will play with their prey.
There were no big surprises with MM going ahead to sign the visitor’s book first even though she looked at Harry who let her go ahead. Theoretically it should be Harry first as protocol dictates, but then MM sat down and rather than just sign her name she began writing a mini essay. Her outfit was the wrong season and didn’t fit as it rode up, and she had to pull it back down (it’s like getting a wedgie in public), the waistline was bunched up, and she had visible undergarment lines which is a huge faux pas. She didn’t have to wear the dress, so there was obviously a reason why she chose to wear an ill fitting dress that she clearly wasn’t comfortable in. Has she heard of spanx, or that Marks & Spencers do a range of smooth silhouette underwear?
We then had the usual word salad speech where MM claimed to be glad to be back in the UK, despite having fled the country as soon as she could in January. Then she made out that she and Harry had been working hard in Canada watching videos to decide who should win the awards! One can only roll the eyes at such arrogance and audacity.
We were also treated to a close up of her makeup for the evening which looked as if a 5 year-old was playing with makeup. Apparently she did have a makeup artist, but would someone really want that image in their portfolio?
Next up was Harry fluffing his lines so badly that he couldn’t save it and had to start again. At times he said the wrong thing and tried to cover it up (trying to explain how the Endeavour Fund began, and he got that wrong too), and then his ‘piste de resistance’ was resurrected–– his time as Captain Wales during his ‘military career’. This was to bond him to the audience, and he claimed to have their back and he theirs too, but more like a stabbed back methinks.
Again, there were no surprises with the gratuitous PDAs and then the awkward shuffling back and forth as they got in the way of each other while shaking hands and greeting people. It’s cringeworthy, and that’s why they aren’t fit to represent the nation, but if The Queen thinks that’s acceptable then she has lost her marbles. The People are uncomfortable watching the public groping, and it isn’t romantic or sweet but contrived and rude.
The night ended as they left just before 9.30 p.m., where they were seen off by a what sounded like a drunken crowd, but they were probably quite sober chanting a tongue in cheek derogatory song of ‘Come on Eileen’ but substituted with Harry. It was a jeer and not a cheer and a mocking one at that. As I have said, they should expect this to be a regular occurrence, and the jeering during daylight hours will be less subtle.
The deluded, and desperate sugar Royal Reporters
As the duo arrived there was a pause for the cue of the rent-a-crowd cheer. You can tell they wait for their cue because they don’t shout out until the cameras are rolling. I doubt it was necessary to pay for the booing, yet it’s clear it was a boo for the duo as it was a closed off area, but Chris Ship wished to give the aforesaid booing the benefit of the doubt. What is this middle aged man who used to interview intelligent people in politics afraid of?
It’s as plain as day and night the boo was for them, just as the cheers were, but were the cheers for them because they were leaving finally? I actually watched a clip of Shippy on the news as he was drumming up the excitement of their arrival and trying to convince the viewers of how significant the visit was. It wasn’t though, and through shivering teeth he did his best to convince himself of that calling their appearance a ‘farewell tour’! It’s not a tour Shippy, it’s a countdown to the showdown, and these are events that had been planned months ago. I would say it’s more of a ‘good riddance show’ and don’t look back when you leave.
There then comes the discussion over what was chanted by the rowdy crowd when they departed. Richard Palmer was diplomatic calling it ‘raucous’, when the reality was it was a small mob who were laughing at Harry. Basically when you hear any drunken chanting you can assume is going to be derogatory, for it was a voice of support it would be cheers of hooray, or ‘we love you’, and this was not. Rebecca English needs to get out more because the poor lass thought the jeering was cheering, and it was far from cheerful. I was laughing as soon as I saw it as was just about everyone else in the UK. Harry was being dissed via an old 80s hit. At least Palmer who usually sits on the fence could tell the difference between an obvious jeer and a cheer.
It was ‘Come on Harry (Eileen)’ a song by Dexys Midnight Runners, a hit back in 1982. What do the lyrics mean though, and why did they decide to chant that song? It’s open to interpretation, but rather than read into the lyrics, watch the original video where it’s clear it’s a song that mocks a girl who has grown up and who has forgotten her roots, and later there is a ‘mob’ mentality crying out for her to ‘get real’ hence the ‘come on’ chant. It’s a working class song that was very popular in the day for people to remember where they came from when they get too big for their boots, or if they move out of their council house into a posh one. Around the time it was the ‘yuppie’ era and many working class people were able to better themselves, and some managed to buy their council houses too. Thus the song has many social connotations, and was a theme for many of the working class people to remind others to stay grounded. Perhaps that’s the message they were chanting to Harry, as in ‘don’t forget where you came from and who has funded you’ because he does need reminding. That’s my take on it, but you’d have to ask those who chanted why they chose that song.
It’s clear that the itinerary for 5 March, 2020, had been well planned from The Goring pap shots (to show a united and happy front) where they could expense a meal no doubt, to the ‘secret’ patronage visit to The National with Allerton probably booked a couple of months ago, to assembling the outfit which wasn’t suitable for the UK winter for the awards evening. What was evident is the sheer desperation of the Sussex duo in their blatant attempts to fool the public that they are glad to be back in the UK (obviously they aren’t), and they don’t intend to stay any longer than necessary (hence no ‘Archie’ with them as an excuse to leave), and Harry is going to milk his title of Captain Wales whenever he can because that’s all he has ever done or achieved.
What irked me was the actions of some of the reporters who chose to leave the last day of the Cambridge’s Irish tour that was an official engagement to cover the 2.5 hour awards evening with the Sussexes that isn’t even an official patronage. Given that the Cambridge’s tour was important for the ongoing relationship between the countries since Brexit, their presence and work was of far more importance to the nation as it affects all. I considered it rude and a judgement of error for the reporters to effectively ‘dump’ the future monarchs on an official engagement for a show of PDAs, fake smiles and laughs, boos and jeers, fluffed speeches, and a woman squashed into a summer dress in winter (with no jacket) with smudged makeup.
Sussex Royal will eventually be extinct, but the duo have plans that they have already hinted at, and they will fight and claw for everything they can get from the RF and the public purse before they unleash their plans. Why are the media enabling them? I assume that the sugary reporters are hoping to jump aboard the Sussex rowing boat (rickety and with leaks in it), and by ingratiating themselves with positive tweets it will curry favour with the duo. Those tweets didn’t garner many likes or comments so clearly they are wasting their time, but ambition and common sense don’t always go hand in hand. As for the ‘engagement’ today where Harry visited Silverstone to ‘open’ the Silverstone Experience’ with Lewis Hamilton (6.5.20), it was a bit of a non-event as it’s been open since 21 October, 2019. Meanwhile, MM visited a school in Dagenham for what reason, who knows except a photo op?
With three more days left of shenanigans, one can hardly wait until 10 March when their last official engagement will be over and done with, and hopefully the duo will be on a plane out of the UK. Expect a few more secret visits and staged pap shots, more cringeworthy PDAs, and come 9 March, we’ll see all the members of the RF with their best poker face smiles, but what we must remember is that the Sussex duo aren’t relevant or newsworthy and that the current coronavirus is a real issue that affects us all. Let’s face it, what the duo decide to pull won’t affect us (only the UK taxpayers if they are forced to cough up for the security bill), but what was most dissatisfactory was that the media chose to put the Sussex duo on the cover of some papers along with the first death from coronavirus in the UK. The two stories are not on a par––one is news that affects the lives of all, and the other is just unwelcome, rude noise that is a waste of time and space. The media outlets need to get a grip and ignore the wastrels and focus on news that the public need to know. Sussex Royal and the duo will be history soon, and their faces in the papers will be in a pile, useful perhaps for the cat litter tray or to wipe the mud off your boots.
Harry Markle ~ Traditional British Pro-monarchy Satire! 
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