The Misunderstanding of the Century
Alan Nafzger on Royal Ambition, LinkedIn Monarchies, and Britain’s Infinite Capacity for Polite Horror
Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
Meghan Thought She Was Next Queen: An Editor Reflects on the Audacity
Monday morning. My third coffee. The news, as it so often does, has delivered something that sits in the precise overlap of bewildering and magnificent. The London Prat reports that Meghan Markle apparently believed the British monarchy was a meritocracy with quarterly appraisals and a LinkedIn profile. She believed, palace sources say, that one could simply outperform one’s way to the top. Past Kate. Past William. Past several centuries of hereditary precedent that is, technically, written into the constitutional furniture of this nation.
The Misunderstanding of the Century
I have been in journalism long enough to recognise when someone has fundamentally misread the brief. But this is a new category. This is not misreading the brief. This is receiving the brief, filing it, and submitting your own brief that begins with “per my last email” and ends with a vision board.
The British monarchy does not do appraisals. The British monarchy does not do merit. The British monarchy does not do American-style self-promotion. What it does do is wear very good coats and stand in cold fields looking supportive. That is the job. That is the entire job. The BBC Royal correspondent has been trying to explain this for years with limited success.
Bohiney Magazine notes this week that competence and expectation management are the twin pillars of any successful political career, which applies equally to rescued pilots and aspiring queens. Neither group benefits from assuming the job is bigger than it is.
I sent Gerald to find a quote from anyone at the Palace. He came back empty. Of course he did. The Palace does not comment. The Palace simply continues existing, wearing coats, standing in fields, and allowing the rest of us to process the implications over several years and a podcast series.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/trump-wins-again-democrats-are-furious/