On Monday, I covered the photos from the VE Day military procession in London, but the photos of the Buckingham Palace balcony flyover came out too late to cover before the Met Gala blew a hole in our schedule! All of which to say, here are some of the palace balcony pics from Monday. All of the royals wore the same clothes from the earlier military procession, and the Wales kids were the only children allowed on the balcony. The balcony just looked sad, old, all-white and creaking. All of the hopes for the future are being pinned onto Prince George, Charlotte and Louis. It feels like all of the older royals don’t even have any hope in Prince William anymore.
I’ve also seen some evidence on social media that the VE Day commemoration events on Monday were pretty poorly attended, especially compared to similar events when QEII was alive. Apparently – and I have not been able to double-check this – but the Mail had to recycle some old QEII-era photos of The Mall to make it look like Monday’s events were well-attended. I’ve seen some aerial shots of the Mall during the flyover too – while there was absolutely a crowd, it was nowhere near as well-attended as these kinds of events used to be.
All of which to say, the British press finds themselves in a pickle, one which they helped create. The left-behinds are stale, dry, and astoundingly rizz-free. The press has also been ordered by the palace to do the most to lie and obfuscate about all things Prince Harry, but the palace also wanted no mention of Harry during the VE Day events. So, the press’s solution was to poke the proverbial bear (or in this case, a tampon king). The Daily Mirror’s headline: “King Charles sends ‘timely message’ to Prince Harry with Palace balcony ‘power move’.” That power move was… being a dogsh-t father. The Times was even more shady: “Royals lead VE Day celebrations and forget Prince Harry for a day.” This dig was included in the piece:
However, military events seem to highlight the absence of the duke more than any other time. As the slimmed-down royal family took to the balcony of Buckingham Palace to commemorate the victory of Britain and her allies, the two members of the royal family to have served on the front line in recent conflicts were absent.
The Duke of York, who served in the Royal Navy during the Falklands War, will forever be tarnished by his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Duke of Sussex, who served not one but two tours of duty in Afghanistan, has quit his royal role. His comment in last week’s interview that he “doesn’t know how long” his father has left to live is aggravating for the palace.
I’m old enough to remember Charles and William BOTH throwing hissy fits at the idea of Harry and Meghan ever being included on that fakakta balcony ever again. William and Charles were both convinced that Harry and Meghan needed to be put in their place… so that more people would pay attention to the real heroes in their honorary uniforms and unearned medals. All I’ll say is that this has all played out like some kind of Brothers Grimm folk tale. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
