Someone just called Prince William “the Crisis King” and I’m seriously still chuckling. He’s gone from The Other Brother to Scooter King and, now, the Crisis King. Over the weekend, the Mail reported that William hired a crisis manager named Liza Ravenscroft. It’s become one of the royal stories of the week, as people try to figure out why he suddenly needs a crisis manager, and/or why he hired a crisis-management expert to work in a “non-crisis role” on his comms team. When the Telegraph wrote about all of this, their royal sources said that Ravenscroft will be “a grown-up and a safe pair of hands,” which speaks volumes about William’s childishness and how he surrounds himself with idiots, sycophants and clowns. While many believe that hiring Ravenscroft is more about the Wales marriage, I tend to believe it’s more about King Charles being sick of William’s “I’m gonna be king soon” keenery. But there’s another option too: this is purely about Prince Harry and Meghan, obviously. From Richard Eden’s latest Mail column:
William and Catherine are more respected than ever and regularly top opinion polls as the most popular members of the Royal Family. So, surely, the last person they need is a crisis manager? Here is what I’ve been told about Ms Ravenscroft’s appointment – and I found it absolutely fascinating.
Her CV stresses that she has told companies ‘how to get past an issue as quickly as possible with minimum dents….It’s often front-page stuff: from boycott campaigns to sexual allegations to serious safety issues, geopolitical and ethical risks’. However, everyone at Kensington Palace is desperately keen to emphasise that she has been hired for her general abilities as a communications expert and not just because of her experience at dealing with crises.
‘Liza is joining in a non-crisis role based in the KP press office, working on the day-to-day Press interaction Kensington Palace has,’ a source said. ‘People who work in communications for the Royal Household come from an array of backgrounds.’
However, William and Catherine know that there may be trouble ahead, and it’s likely to come from a familiar source – Prince Harry and Meghan. The Establishment ‘plot’ to bring the Duke and Duchess of Sussex back to Britain is gathering pace, with a decision expected within the next couple of weeks on the reinstatement of the couple’s automatic armed police protection – paid for by British taxpayers – when they make return visits to this country.
Over the past few days we have seen gushing front-page stories in red-top newspapers from ‘sources close to the Sussexes’. One was about how Meghan could visit Britain this summer, bringing her children, Prince Archie, aged six, and Princess Lilibet, four, to see their grandfather, the King, for the first time in four years. Another was about Harry inviting his father to open the forthcoming Invictus Games, his event for injured and sick former soldiers, which is due to be held in Birmingham next summer.
Both these stories, and other similar ones, serve to put pressure on the King and the rest of the Royal Family to roll out the red carpet for the Sussexes, even though the California-based couple have never apologised for their disgraceful attacks on their relations in television interviews, Harry’s tawdry memoirs and in their Netflix ‘docu-series’.
This PR offensive is all part of the Establishment ‘plot’ I have reported on over recent months which aims to restore the Sussexes to the affections of the British public. The plot is known as ‘Project Thaw’ because the aim is to ‘warm up’ the duke’s and duchess’s frosty relationships with the rest of the Royal Family and with the British people. As I wrote last September: ‘Worryingly, King Charles has been drawn into this, aided by some key figures of the Establishment behind the scenes.’
These are disturbing developments for William and Catherine, who are carefully and quietly establishing themselves as King and Queen in waiting. Harry and Meghan returning to set up their ‘rival’ royal court at the same time as trying to make a fortune for themselves has the makings of a future crisis for the monarchy.
So, while Liza Ravenscroft’s new role at Kensington Palace may be a ‘non-crisis’ one for now, it might not be long before she needs all the skills she acquired while dealing with disasters in the corporate world.
Here’s the thing I don’t understand about Eden’s explanation. For argument’s sake, let’s say he’s right and the Establishment wants to ease the Sussexes’ way into visiting on a regular basis, and that Charles is being advised to welcome the Sussexes, all for political and PR reasons. Let’s even say that there are a number of powerful people who would welcome “a Sussex royal court” in the UK. Why wouldn’t William and Kate simply get with the program as supposedly apolitical public servants? Why wouldn’t they eat their pride and vanity and say “okay, well, if that’s what everyone wants, so be it.” Instead, Eden is positioning William and Kate as running their own anti-Sussex agenda, an agenda which openly defies what senior government officials want? Eden has William and Kate, two of the laziest people I’ve ever seen in my entire life, preparing for “war” by hiring a crisis manager to scream 24-7 about how William hates his brother? To send William out of town every single time Harry crosses the Atlantic?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·