Kate Middleton breathes in, Kate Middleton breathes out

I read an article yesterday in, predictably, the Daily Mail about Kate Middleton and Prince William on an engagement in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the couple are idolised in doing even the simplest task of flipping a pancake on Pancake Day.
“both Prince William and Kate attempted the difficult flip for a charity fundraiser to mark Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day. William tossed his pancake with aplomb leaving Kate under pressure to perform. The future princess mastered the art of the flip with a flick of the wrist and a little giggle, impressing the crowds - and Prince William - with her culinary trick.”

Nor does the article spare us the minutest details. We are even treated to:
“Relaxed Kate slipped into black boots and stood under an umbrella when their official visit took them to the countryside. She also poured herself a glass of water during a welcome break”.Gosh. Kate both flipped a pancake and poured herself a glass of water afterwards to relieve her of the strain. Such onerous tasks!

It begs the question as to whether what the royal family actually do all day can actually be classed as work. Normal people get up early, are in work by nine (if they are not working intensive shifts), work until lunch, which sometimes can last no more than half an hour, and then it’s back to the grindstone right up till 5 ... or in many, many cases, much later. And you can guarantee that your average worker will not come home to be greeted and pampered by a household of staff in a residence paid for by the British State. Most people come home, exhausted, and collapse into a chair to rest after a hard day’s work.
Not for this golden couple. For them, it’s a relaxed descent into a town of choice to walk around at leisure and perhaps exert themselves by flipping a pancake or two. Then perhaps some more strolling around, exchanging pleasantries, shaking hands, kissing the odd newborn baby on the forehead before being invited into an elegant dinner by the Lord Mayor and presented with a gift or three (in this case a book), then stopping to examine some flowers.

It beggars belief as to how any of this can be called work, which is the label given to it by hard-core monarchists (such as the one that wrote this article). None of it is strenuous, demanding or arduous. And the paycheque of the family of which they are part is enormous. Kate wore a £650 coat – a figure nearing some people’s monthly salary. William might well be a pilot in the RAF but I doubt he survives on that salary alone – it is more probably he receives money from his father Charles, who derives his mammoth £17m income from the Duchy of Cornwall (not owned by him – it’s ultimately State property). But as usual the media is all smiles with no awkward questions to mar the moment. It is perhaps a bit like entering Disneyland and forgetting that at the end of the day there is serious money behind the magic.

The Palace PR machine is in overdrive, because hopes of the monarchy surviving rest on William and in turn Kate. Times are-a-changing, and while polls indicate a majority support the monarchy, less and less people are enthused by the activities, or lack of, that this family do to justify the enormous wealth the receive courtesy of the tax-payer and ultimately State owned duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. Granted, there is interest in this couple, but with the passing of time more and more questions are raised as to the relevance of a system that has its origins in the way of thinking of a thousand years ago. Monarchists often point to this thousand year history as a badge of pride, but it is with good reason that the majority of society has changed for the better since then - the monarchy being one of the very few last bastions of that society, of belief that bloodline counts for more than anything else.

My advice to the couple would be to pull their thumb out and do some real work for a change. Yes, it’s all lovely seeing a fluffy-bunny scene of them laughing and joking whilst enjoying such capers as tossing pancakes and making small-talk with the people who turned out to see them, but behind it all is a very serious issue of money and morals relevant to the twenty-first century. It’s all very well to sweeten the image up until it has the substance of candyfloss, but it’s Joe Public who is paying a lot of money for this couple to flounce around at whim indulging in such flights of fancy.