The British right-wing political operatives have been grooming Prince William for kingship for years now. I have believed for some time that the Tories really put together a long-term plan to groom William into the useful idiot king of their dreams, and he’s simply too stupid to understand that it looks dangerously political for Kensington Palace and Downing Street staffers to have a revolving door. Even Charles, with all of his “political meddling,” never surrounded himself with that many political operatives on either side. In any case, it’s clear that William has gone off-message this week with his statement about the Israel-Palestine conflict/disaster. You can tell that there’s panic all around because the right-wing media is currently struggling to figure out a way to call out William while still being on “his side.”
From what I can see, Downing Street isn’t publicly upset with William but government officials are making it perfectly clear that they did not write William’s statement nor did they officially sign off on it – they were merely “informed” that William was going to dive peg-first into one of the most sensitive political situations in the world. Likewise, Buckingham Palace is not helping William – they’re making it clear that they were not informed of any of this and the king did not sign off on it. William’s media allies are coming very close to calling him out and KP has been doing damage control for the past 24 hours. Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast also got “sources close to William” to say that William is committed to making a political ass out of himself in the future too:
Interventions on global issues close to Prince William’s heart, like his dramatic statement calling for an end to the war in Gaza Tuesday, are likely to be an ongoing feature of his tenure as Prince of Wales, with sources saying the prince will continue to speak out on issues that he believes matter.
In a clear suggestion that Tuesday’s statement—which called for an “end to fighting,” even though Israel remains implacably opposed to calls for a ceasefire—was a template for future interventions rather than a one-off, a palace source told The Daily Beast that William would likely make further comments on issues of global importance, saying, “When he feels the need to say something, he will.”
Another royal source said that William would have been less likely to make such an unambiguous statement if he were king, but said that his father King Charles had created a model whereby the heir to the throne could “speak out” on issues that mattered to them.
The Daily Beast has been previously told by friends of the king that even when he was Prince of Wales he would sometimes stop himself while talking about a pet subject such as organic farming, and make a gesture miming his hands being handcuffed in front of him. William, by contrast, threw those handcuffs off today in what has been seen as an attempt to cast himself as a global statesman. One palace source speaking to the Times of London called it by way of a curtain-raiser, pre-publication, as “punchy,” adding it was “a significant intervention by [HRH] on an important topic that is close to his heart.”
Yeah, we’ll see if William’s Tory handlers allow him to run around, blatantly forcing his way into the political fray half-cocked. Even Richard Kay at the Daily Mail – one of William’s strongest media allies – wrote a pretty harsh column about this whole debacle. Kay quoted unnamed critics who said sh-t like “We elect government to run the country. He should shut up and look after the children” and “Hamas must be dancing in glee that this dimwit has stuck his oar in and become part of their mouthpiece.” A message is being sent. The Tory press is desperate to force William to STFU, lest the whole scam come crashing down.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.