[ad_1]
As the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sat shivering on a bench at Batley Station in West Yorkshire, I’m sure the thought of being home by the fire with their three children must have crossed your mind.
Aside from the biting cold and picturesque conditions aboard the royal train (separate beds, a Formica dining table, and a suspicious amount of plywood), the lead up to Christmas is stressful enough for any parent, as the finale plays, endless fundraisers for the school and teacher gifts to worry about.
Kate is very practical with all those kinds of things. The last thing she, or frankly anyone, needs this time of year is a three-day, 1,250-mile work trip, let alone one where she has to look at a) camera ready at all times and b) absolutely ecstatic to be there.
Yet there she was, beside her husband: elegant, smiling, and unflappable, as always.
Above all, doing your duty.
Taking Station: Wills and Kate tremble on the Batley platform in West Yorkshire during their second day of a three-day tour across the country.
That’s an old-fashioned concept in this day and age, where private needs all too often seem to overshadow public ones. And a reminder that despite all of Kate and William’s commitment to their young brood, they will never shirk their commitment to their wider family, namely the British people.
This pandemic, like all emergencies, really did separate the sheep from the goats. And few public figures have stood out like Kate and William. While other royals have taken a backseat, whether due to circumstance or wish, the Duke and Duchess appear to have redoubled their efforts to connect with the nation at a time of deep crisis.
In their seemingly effortless way, they have quietly become essential.
It has been a masterclass on how royalty can remain relevant in the modern age, and its popularity has rightly increased because of it. All of which probably explains why Nicola Sturgeon has been so grumpy about her trip to Scotland, and why Welsh Minister of Health Vaughan Gething has been equally unpleasant.
Both were cold on the subject of the royal couple traveling during the Covid restrictions, despite the fact that, as Kensington Palace has gone to great lengths to point out, they have adhered to the letter to all the guidelines. And of course, William has already had Covid.
But let’s be honest, it’s not really about the rules, is it?
Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon pictured during a ministerial statement in the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, on the first day of the largest immunization program in UK history.
Kate and William are victims of their own success. Because at a time when both decentralized administrations have seized the opportunities presented by Covid to foster divisions and promote dreams of independence, the Duke and Duchess are a reminder of all that is good about the British Crown and the Union, that Sturgeon is especially interested in dissolving.
Having so successfully fascinated our Celtic cousins with visions of a brave new Scottish dawn, how inconvenient it is for Kate and William to appear, scintillating ambassadors of all the qualities of royalty to raise morale.
It must be especially irritating because until they showed up, things were going very well for the antimonarchists. As well as Prince Andrew’s troubles over the Jeffrey Epstein affair, 2020 has also been the year of Megxit, with arguably the brightest stars in the royal family turning their backs on the UK.
To opponents of royalty, it must have seemed as if all of their Christmases had come at once. But they hadn’t negotiated with Wills and Kate.
Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething gives a press conference on the Covid-19 pandemic at the Welsh government buildings in Cathays Park on October 5 in Cardiff, Wales.
It is about a couple who could easily have spent the pandemic hiding in one of several palaces, eating lime creams and asking lackeys to bring them more quail eggs.
Instead, they have been made available endlessly, and not in a way like Harry and Meghan (who prefer to express their commitment to a nation hit by Covid). from the comfort of his £ 11 million mansion in California), but altruistically and with palpable sincerity.
That two people show such maturity and a strong moral compass at such a relatively young age (both are only 38 years old) shows that whatever may happen to Britain, the long-term future of the monarchy is in good shape. hands.
What a comfort, not just for the Queen, but for the nation as a whole in these uncertain times.
A feathered fiasco
According to one Mumsnet user, having a real Christmas tree makes you a middle-class person, while a plastic one is a sign of more working-class credentials.
However, if you are upper class, all bets are off, as evidenced by the one belonging to the Duchess of Rutland, a Castilian from Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, who is crowned with a giant (artificial) peacock. It’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, and proof that good taste has absolutely nothing to do with so-called parenting.
The demise of the Ikea catalog (the Swedish flat pack chain has announced that this year’s print edition will be its last) is the end of an era.
Oh how I’ll miss perusing its pages, harboring storage box fantasies of space-saving Scandinavian life.
Now I’ll have to settle for shopping online, loading my basket with treats only to find that the only thing I really want is out of stock. Some things, at least, will never change.
After the hellish year, it seems the entire nation needs a vacation, especially the front-line staff. But one man who also deserves a break is Matt Hancock, who broke down in tears yesterday morning on television.
Your job may not be physically exhausting, but the mental pressure is immense. If anyone deserves a round of applause the week Britain launched a vaccine, it’s Hancock.
Show those Spanx? No thanks
If you’re going to show them to the whole world, Katy Perry-style, won’t you defeat the object ?, Sarah Vine writes.
It’s funny, I always thought that the goal of Spanx was to create an illusion of slimness where it doesn’t really exist. If you’re going to show them to the whole world, Katy Perry style, isn’t that more like defeating the object? Or is that the kind of thing only old non-rebuilt positive pre-body bags say like me?
A £ 248,000 robot has just been invented that can cook a meal and then order it. Do you have Christmas dinner? It could be worth it.
I appreciate that break dancing is a physically challenging activity, but an Olympic sport? Whatever is next. . . twerking?
Hurly-Burley for Crown Kay
I was tempted to give Sky News anchor Kay Burley the benefit of the doubt when it comes to celebrating her 60th birthday, where it appears she broke Covid Tier Two rules by dining with colleagues at a London restaurant. .
But then I remembered that she has been no less relaxed about other people’s infractions, notably Dominic Cummings’ trip to County Durham (which, while controversial, was at least for family reasons and not just for a party), and I thought better of it.
Kay Burley pictured attending the British Heart Foundation’s ‘The Beating Hearts Ball’ at the Guildhall on February 20, 2018 in London
After Eltiona Skana, the schizophrenic who stabbed seven-year-old Emily Jones to death, was sentenced to life in prison, let’s not forget Jonty Bravery, another sick person who threw a six-year-old boy from an observation deck on the Tate Modern in London.
In both cases, the authorities were aware of their criminal tendencies. Skana had stabbed her own mother, so how could she buy the craft knife she used to kill Emily?
It is not just attackers who must answer for their actions, but a system that identifies them as a danger and fails to prevent them from carrying out their terrible crimes.
I made a terrible mistake on Monday night. I watched the new series of The Vicar Of Dibley. God, it was depressing, especially since so many of the original cast are no longer with us, but mostly because neither is Dawn French’s great talent.
But that’s what happens when comedy is combined with political correctness: grim, restless mediocrity. I’d rather see Mrs. Brown’s boys. And that’s saying something.
Dawn French depicted as the Reverend Geraldine Granger in The Vicar of Dibley in Lockdown
Yesterday was Founder’s Day at Eton, described as’ traditionally a day of. . . mischief’. It was also the day that Will Knowland, the teacher fired for refusing to remove a provocative lecture in defense of masculinity from YouTube, attended a hearing challenging his dismissal.
The outcome of the appeal has yet to be decided. But if mischief is a fundamental tenet of life at Eton, surely Mr. Knowland, and the debate he has generated about feminism and free speech, should be tolerated.
