You’d think, after the public relations mess of Prince William and Catherine Cambridge’s tour last week of Belize, Jamaica, and The Bahamas, that the British royals would be trying to pivot this week and avoid any more negative headlines, especially on the occasion of the late Prince Philip’s memorial service yesterday. Especially since the British monarchy specialises in these kinds of events – ritual, tradition, ceremony.

Well, you would be wrong.

Rewind a few days though, because we still have some catching up to do from the Oscars, so we had to push back Prince William’s unprecedented statement released to mark the end of the Cambridges’ tour.

Much has been made about William’s comments on the Commonwealth and whether or not he’ll ever be the head of it. However you read it though there is no doubt here that this is an acknowledgement by William that the tour was not a success – and remember, where the British royals are concerned, it takes a lot for them to admit when they flop. This, though, is pretty much an official concession, the closest these people have come to recognising that… yup, we flopped. William has been humbled.

这不一定是一个不好的外观。威廉（William）履行这种领导力，从英国皇室成员通常如何忽略和避免的行为中，这是一种行为的突破。当然，有选择地。在这种情况下，有了这一声明，威廉说，这次巡回演出确实是一次巨大的失败，并试图说服人们他有能力倾听。但是学习呢？

Because the ink wasn’t even dry on that statement before the Daily Mail came out with an exclusive, quoting royal insiders – so basically a sanctioned leak – talking about how William will no longer be observing the long-held royal motto, “never explain, never complain”。不必要的后续行动，因为他的陈述足以自行陈述，也不是完全正确的。他们确实解释和抱怨 - 但是，他们再次挑选了他们抱怨的sh-t挑选。就像一些整形外科医生建议凯特完成工作的时间吗？这种抱怨和解释迅速降低了真正的f-cking。当其他家庭成员遭到小报无情攻击时，他们阻止了他们的抱怨和解释。

With William’s statement, though, and then the Oscars, Will and Kate’s problematic tour receded from the headlines and royal watchers looked ahead to yesterday’s memorial. Heads of state and dignitaries came to pay their respects. It was the biggest gathering of British royals assembled in two years since the start of the pandemic. It was an opportunity for them to move past the criticism and the negative headlines and remember their patriarch. Especially since the Queen would be there in person after weeks of speculation about whether or not she’d be well enough to attend.

But then…

The Queen was seen heading to the service accompanied by Prince Andrew, her disgraced second son who just weeks ago agreed to pay a substantial settlement to Virginia Roberts Giuffre who sued him for raping her when she was a teenager and having to acknowledge in a statement that Virginia “has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks”.

他们可能会在这些单词中获得合法的sh-t法律，但我们都知道它们的含义。

现在……已经六个星期了，只有六个星期……他不仅和母亲一起去威斯敏斯特大教堂，还护送她里面，这意味着他昨天很杰出，非常杰出。他在阳光下度过了片刻。片刻回到阳光下。这个男人在最多的日子里，在他身上散发着所有的臭味，随着相机广播和全世界的观看，他是君主受到青睐的人。

看起来不好。而且，在加勒比海一周的不良外观之后，绝对不是您想在那里放置的外观 - 这些人不应该擅长品牌管理和图像维护吗？

皇家sources are now saying thatAndrew “strong-armed” the Queeninto escorting her to her seat. Supposedly it was supposed to be the Abbey’s Dean who had the responsibility. And Princes Charles and William are now trying to distance themselves from the decision, letting it be known that they were firmly against it going down like that.

显然是女王不能对她最喜欢的儿子说不。如果是这样，那不是一个问题吗？在如此重要的一天中，家庭耻辱对君主具有这种影响？

But then on the flipside, if that’s not the look at the Queen and her supporters want us to have, and yesterday with Andrew was 100% her decision, what she wanted, well then that’s another conundrum. Because we all know that these people operate on symbolism – embedding meaning into everything from brooches to gestures. Which means that this gesture, this choice of who would accompany her, was a signal for something. As Robert Jobson put it,via PEOPLE:

"It shows she wholeheartedly loves and believes her son. As she did when she made a statement about Camilla being Queen's Consort, many people will now accept the Queen's word and judgment."

Ummmmm… “accept the Queen’s word and judgement”? We’re talking about a person here who has been accused of sexual assault with a minor while consorting with convicted sex traffickers and had to settle out of court!!!!!!!!!!

And the goal is for people to “accept the Queen’s word and judgement” that he’s innocent?

所以……等等……她在这次同情的一天，在这一刻通过她的F-CKING冠军为他保证吗？！这是在这一天的刻意播放，以打开安德鲁重返公共生活的道路，并希望人们能看着她全都又庄重，不受批评的人？充其量是误导的。最糟糕的是？这是操纵性的。