bitchy | Prince William’s Homewards is not a ‘PR stunt’, it’s a desperate bid for relevancy

Some people wondered if the past few weeks of coordinated attacks on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s American business were some kind of move by Prince William, ahead of his “big announcement.” Not so much – William can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, and I just have trouble believing that he could arrange any or all of this. I believe the coordination against the Sussexes is something else entirely. Another reason why I don’t think William is behind it is because he couldn’t even manage the rollout of his new program, Homewards, a £3 million scheme to… put some Royal Foundation money into halfway houses for homeless peeps. That’s it – he’s putting a relatively paltry sum of money into a relatively small solution. People probably would have praised the program if William and his team hadn’t gone completely overboard by lavishing praise on Peg for his “authenticity” and envious “ability to relate” to peasants. William’s staff have blanketed the media with talking points about how Peg will “end homelessness,” and then when people ask how or they criticize his little project, those same staffers get very huffy:

Prince William will also face challenges about how someone with such wealth and extensive property holdings can make such calls over homelessness.

“The last thing we need is for William to get involved in this issue, a man who has three huge homes and a vast estate gifted to him by the state,” says Graham Smith, of the anti-monarchy group, Republic. He says homelessness is about government policy and investment and will not be “resolved by charity or royal patronage”, accusing Prince William of being “hypocritical”.

But a Kensington Palace spokesman said it was about the prince using his public platform to make a positive difference.

“This isn’t about a PR stunt. This is about trying to change the way that we as a society think about homelessness,” said the spokesman.

[From BBC]

On the very first day of the rollout, within hours of the big launch, KP staffers had to huffily declare to the BBC and a dozen royal reporters “This isn’t about a PR stunt!” I beg to differ. Speaking of, the BBC also ran another critical about William’s Homewards: “Can Prince William navigate politics and privilege to cut homelessness?” Ouch.

Being accused of meddling in politics is an occupational hazard for any Prince of Wales. And any involvement in addressing a shortage of affordable housing is inescapably political, not least when there is so much anxiety about rising rents and mortgage costs.

But being accused of being a bit too political might not actually be a bad thing, according to royal author Prof Pauline Maclaran, particularly for a younger generation.

“The real risk is being irrelevant,” says Prof Maclaran. “Prince William needs to resonate with young people. He has to do more than cut ribbons and smile and wave. He needs to give back to the public,” she says.

In that respect, being seen as pushing the boundaries and fighting a cause will be seen as a positive benefit, says Prof Maclaran of Royal Holloway, University of London. Prince Harry has his own public cause in taking on the tabloid press, so now Prince William will be out there fighting homelessness.

But Prof Maclaran says a key to its credibility will be showing that he has made a personal contribution. The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales is initially providing £3m – with £500,000 seed funding for initiatives in six locations.

[From BBC]

Yikes. Oddly, it feels like people were really prepared to criticize William’s latest big keen project. It sort of felt that way several months ago when Kate re-launched her stupid f–king Early Years thing with the “Shaping Us” rebrand. People have known that there’s no there there for years, but now that William and Kate have the Wales titles, suddenly there’s more criticism, more cynicism, an attempt to really point out how desperate William and Kate are. Desperate to be relevant, desperate to “compete” with the Montecito royals, desperate to be seen doing something.

PS… He invited Ginger Spice to one of the launch events. He’s just doing this to hang out with celebrities, yet again.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.