The website of clothing retailer H&M is currently featuring an image of Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor wearing H&M clothes.
"A Royal Baby First," says the ad copy. "Archie Mountbatten Windsor wears H&M Baby."
It certainly is a first for the Royal Family, who are generally not celebrity endorsers. In addition to Archie, Prince Harry appears prominently in the photos.
But it's also certainly a first for Most Reverend Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a brave man who helped broker the peaceful transition to a post-apartheid South Africa and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
Is that what the Sussexes' meeting with Desmond Tutu was about? To sell some baby clothes?
And did the elderly Archbishop know this was what he was participating in? Did he get a cut? Or was his family merching out their 87-year-old-patriarch for a payday?
As Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols used to say, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
"A Royal Baby First," says the ad copy. "Archie Mountbatten Windsor wears H&M Baby."
It certainly is a first for the Royal Family, who are generally not celebrity endorsers. In addition to Archie, Prince Harry appears prominently in the photos.
But it's also certainly a first for Most Reverend Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a brave man who helped broker the peaceful transition to a post-apartheid South Africa and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
Is that what the Sussexes' meeting with Desmond Tutu was about? To sell some baby clothes?
And did the elderly Archbishop know this was what he was participating in? Did he get a cut? Or was his family merching out their 87-year-old-patriarch for a payday?
H&M sent the stylist
No wonder Harry looked unusually well-groomed in the photos. H&M must have dressed him, and made sure Meg's hair was done properly as well.As Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols used to say, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
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At any rate, it's time for Charles to take action. And the Queen.
The problem, of course, is that Harry appears to be dealing with a serious depression.
Check out Chris Ship's Tweet: https://twitter.com/chrisshipitv/status/1177161175773130753
He needs to stand up for himself and mend bridges with his family. I think he's too proud to do so. I also think that HM might have told him that after spending 25 million pounds on their wedding, they must be seen to be together for at least a couple of years.
He also must feel trapped in a very unpleasant situation, and perhaps has trouble seeing a way out.
I hope he is being closely watched to prevent him from self-harm.
The only one which might have shocked me more was if Mother Theresa was still around and she was used.
* he can decide by
**equally guilty
This trip would have been a fabulous opportunity to show off African fashion- and show African fashion to the world. My guess is that there are many excellent designers on the continent who are not yet known elsewhere.
I also don't understand what H&M's angle on this is. It'll turn off more people than it turns on. And H&M has been having business difficulties recently. They're not really in a position to take risks.
In addition, more and more young people are becoming conscious of the environmental costs of fast fashion like H&M. Teaming up with the Sussexes brings H&M into the whole controversy about their environmental hypocrisy.
It seems like a terrible business decision. What were they thinking?
Here's a definition.
Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works much better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn't realize how much they've been brainwashed.
This is the rule, she's broken the rule, what happens now? Nothing.
I think a lot of it depends on whether or not Bishop Tutu's family was in on the deal. South Africa is, unfortunately, a very corrupt place, so they probably were.
Men who want to harm themselves often do so by means of an "accident" caused by foolish behavior. Harry is on boats, in helicopters, in vehicles....does anyone remember when George Michael "accidentally" fell out of a vehicle onto a busy highway?
If Archie has been photographed in service of a charity, that might be a different discussion.
I don't see myself as a hater, and previously I kinda tried to protect her from being negatively labeled as "social climber", because I still don't see anything wrong with being social climber, unless you are breaking the law, or moral code (like twisting and straight up preying your "victim").
But this is too much, she really crosses all boundaries, and I hope RF will do something with that. I understand, they don't want another huge public scandal, but she's using a one to the throne, doesn't matter that Archie doesn't have a title, he is in line, he is royal, Queen and RF must do something with that, for this kid at least.
And actually I remember H&M congratulated Harry and Meghan with pregnancy https://twitter.com/hm/status/1052270852291682305?s=19 so it didn't come out from nowhere.
I certainly understand that kids outgrow clothing, but unless that was a newborn onesie, at four months he could probably still get a lot of wear out of it. Either way it was thoughtless to discard a gift, especially one presented to Harry publicly by another Royal Family member.
Goodbye England's ruse
May you grow up and get a heart
You were the grifter for yourself
Where lives were torn apart
You came out to our country
And you manipulated for your gain
You never belonged here
Nor the stars you like to name
And it seems to me you lived your lies
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https://twitter.com/VerbuntHelen/status/1177167106023948289
I understand depression. I wish I didn’t but what he’s doing isn’t going to fix it. He knows proper protocol and I think half of his problem is that he feels guilty. He has done a 180 degree turn away from the way he was raised. Without going into any personal sob stories I can attest to the difficulty of getting back some semblance of joy and happiness. The first step is you have to want to get out of the fog.
I do not think Desmond Tutu and his family were in on this. This is a separate deal Megs cooked up with her people. Disgusting.
Also, she has no clue how to be a Mother. She looks perplexed amd annoyed when Archie was wiggling around, which is what babies do as they approach 6 months. They want to be crawling and exploring, not be held so tightly. How do they not know that they needed something to wipe his drool?!?!
https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-hm/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-workers-garment-abuse/hm-accused-of-failing-to-ensure-fair-wages-for-global-factory-workers-idUSKCN1M41GR
When there is vision of him interaction with other children, even around that age it is completely different - he is engaged, smiling - even if he isn't hugging random children his body language completely changes. You would think he would be even more connected with a child that is supposed to be his?
Or am I thinking too much?
The US media don't have this - this is in my opinion exactly why MeAgain is making all these arrangements over there - they will pay good money (to go into a discreet account) and will give her positive PR.
Poor Archie will continue to have my best wishes and all my hopes for a happy future, whatever and wherever that is going to be. I only hope it is with more caring and worthwhile adults.
https://www2.hm.com/en_gb/kids.html
It's still up there - just checked. Shameless. Shameless. UK media please cover this soon.
tone down the boobage at the mosque, woman!
And cover your arms!
For the love of God.
*unclutches pearls*
I'm quite familiar with Islamic culture. I can tell you that in certain parts of the world it's okay to enter a mosque without a headscarf, but there's no point in wearing a headscarf (even a loose one that doesn't cover hair) if you don't have your arms/legs covered to the wrist/ankles.
And I live in a part of the world where out-of-wedlock cohabitation and premarital sex is about to be outlawed in an AMENDED penal code.
LOOOOOOOLLLLLLL.
She reminds me of a former employee of my parents' right before she was let go:
1. She stole as much as she could while she could.
2. She went on a smear campaign to spread all these nasty rumours of what a terrible human being I apparently am to the neighbours/other employees.
FFS Meghan I don't even consider myself a "woke person" (if anything I consider myself anti-SJW) and even I don't buy H&M anymore. Like the last time I bought H&M was in 2007 as a broke-as-a-joke grad student. And then I learned all about sweat shops. I'm guessing tons of my other clothes are just as unethical, but the ones who have been called out like H&M, I can't do it anymore. And I'm even one to yap about "ethical products". But yeah keep on sniffing that vegan paint and carry on... 🌱
*Goes back into hiding*
The British Council likes to go into developing countries talking about ethical fashion...
And then a member of their royal family merches SWEAT SHOP BRAND
HAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAGAHHAHAH
I keep thinking back to that remembrance event in the evening last year when Harry and Meghan were gently booed, leaving Harry a little bit shaken. Wasn't Meghan thought to have said to him that they were "a**holes"? Seeing that ad, it feels like this is her saying that to all of us.
https://the-charlatan-duchess.tumblr.com/
.
I really hope LG throws her in the Tower.
How could they.
Its obvious she has been told to it by her team, and this time made to listen. It's also obvious that this time, whoever is incharge is doing a somewhat good job of being at the helm of things. Ine if the reasons for the rewears could be that she needs to prove someway that she actually owns everything she has worn so far. She has been agued by merching rumours from day1. So they want to dispell those rumours, and asked her to wear old clothes. Now, I for one, do think she gets clothes on loan and merches some brands. Her nicer looks have all been courtesy of a stylist (Jessica, is it?). Unfortunately for her, and us, her personal style is horrible. All pukey, poopy, hippy, unpressable atrocities as we can see from the 4 days in SA so far. But those are the only ones she could wear because those are the ones she actually owned. The nicer ones have probably been sold off, hired out or returned to the designer.
At the moment we are experiencing some technical issues at hm.com. We are working hard to fix this and we thank you for your patience!
So, a lot like Meghan.
-Life Lessons from Scandi
This is obviously crossing the line, and not allowed. The brand has to be utterly stupid though. Almost every year they do something ridiculous, especially with their baby range. And each time they have to pull the ad down. Their sales don't suffer though, so for them any publicity is a good publicity.
Also explains why the press, camera entourage accompanying the Sussexes is so big. The marketing/PR/merchin opportunities to have been well thought of and planned in advance.
toward the end that states legally they cannot do this. But as Nutty stated, even though there are rules in place Megladon has broken them. Please LG, throw her in the tower.
One of these spiritualists is psychic. She predicts Canada will separate "from The Crown" describing it as independence (not sure what that means since I don't know how this Commonwealth thing works, but I'm guessing it means Canadians will no longer have to cutesy to the monarchy).
Thought that was an interesting tidbit.
The private jet thing is only outrageous because it's so inaccessible to most people. Not everyone can afford to piss the plebs off that way.
But wearing an unethical brand when you can afford something reasonable (and by reasonable I'm not saying like something pretentious like 100% vegan and some gimmicky brown-paper label that says "eco-this/that 🍃) is a choice everyday people like us make.
I always say don't promote "ethical" brands and make people who honest-to-God can't afford something labelled "ethical" feel bad about themselves for being too poor to afford "ethical".
But then how can these people who can afford a better option just... do this? It's like they live in extremes.
I'm telling you this is probably a form of revenge. It's like, "oh you want to cut my wardrobe budget?! Fine! Watch me act so broke I play in the mud with a fast-fashion brand with a sweat shop problem to make you all look REAAAALLLLLL bad!" MESSY.
Anyway "Charade" is probably the second best Audrey Hepburn film after BaT. 🖤
The Tutus, unfortunately, were Markled. And they can't do anything about it. The SA govt heads don't really care about that and wouldn't feel obligated to take a stand on their behalf.
Okay I'll stop commenting on this now. Enough attention for you, Meghan! Putting a cap on the amount of attention I allow myself to give her.
Toodles all.
That's not a direct quote, but what I understood was- the media accompanying the Sussexes were not told before hand they would be bringing the baby along, and in case they did, there is an embargo in effect. The media cant talk about it or publish the pictures of the baby if they bring him out. And so the video was only in the Sussex IG first. So Emily was kinda pissed about that and directed her audience towards the Sussex IG to see the baby oics because she couldn't write about or post pics. They wantedd exclusivity for any pics and had their own photographer for this engagement.
In wake of what's happened since, it makes sense. Also explains why the media hasn't said anything about it in the UK all these months. Maybe there is an embargo in effect about baby Archie (and the Sussexes) in the UK.
What is next, push up "nursing" bras?
Butt padded girdles?
Harry looks happy. Perhaps he should spend more time in Botswana.
If Harry is not terribly smart and can't find a way out, I do worry what could happen. Meanwhile, that utter whore of a wife of his is doing a smash-and-grab of ghastly and global proportions.
Dear Kate, if you're reading here, please, it's time for HMTQ, Chas, or (if possible) William to do something. So, let's talk. I would love a Contemptini. We can have cocktails, dish, watch Louis roll large in his bumper, and draw buttoned blouses on that harlot of a SIL you have. Cheers, elle.
Also, good read: https://howardfeldman.co.za/duke-and-duchess-of-sussex-on-tour-south-africa/
https://blindgossip.com/god-save-the-overlap/#more-99289
Time and again MMs downfall has been her own hubris. She is self confident and self assured to the pint of being cocky. She is brazen about traditions and customs and bulldozes through her duties as if she owns the place. And it's this superiority complex that has envitably led her to cock up over time. So it was only a matter of time that she would screw up and do irrevocable damage to her whatever reputation on this tour.
For the first couple of days she was so by the books, towing the lime, almost goading the sceptics with her goody two shoes act. And there was a considerable amount of "she did well" pat on the back for her. It's interesting that this H&M debacle happens the moment Harry leaves for Botswana. I'm assuming that the important official staff (the unspellable named lady), palace coordinators, even the senior media persons probably left with Harry's entourage, and MM was left with minimal staff except for say Sara L, Danial insta poster, the wig-comber, nanny, some personal PR liason persons. We talk about the timiyof things here a lot, and the timing of this alleged merch deal is alos to be noted.
It would take a referendum before said country could formally sever that link and then parliament would have to vote on it, such an act would also mean re-writing quite a few laws within each country as well.
Basically at the moment the Queen is still officially the ultimate head of state in Commonwealth countries (even if it is just a figure-head). There have been very good reasons to stay in the Commonwealth up to now (the assured British security umbrella for one) especially for the smaller less affluent nations, but the larger Countries such as Canada , Australia, India, NZ, SA are very much on the edge of leaving the Commonwealth. Any Royal shenanigans just keep adding weights to the scales on the side of Republicanism.
From my observation, we can speculate and throw up all sorts of theories about these two, but what is so so so obvious is that they still have the immense support of the palace and the media and that's why they get away with doing things that even William and Kate don't get away with. Just imagine for a second that Will and Kate are merching for H and M. The US media would have been the first to report it.
Speaking of entitlements, this landed in my email a couple of days ago: https://www.quora.com/Does-Prince-Harry-have-a-prenup-with-Meghan-Markle
BEST SCENE: https://youtu.be/Qgsst15iI2k
They don't make dialogue like that anymore.
Hell they don't make humans like that anymore.
There's no point in taking this big risk and then hiding him at the bottom of a website.
If Palace PR were smart, they'd exchange a prominient interview with Dara Huang to promote her career - like the Telegraph one they set up for Edo - in exchange for a few kind words about how she and Edo had already parted ways before he started dating Beatrice.
Not sure if it's true or not, but it hardly matters by this point. No need to have all that bad juju surrounding an upcoming wedding, and I'm sure Dara would enjoy the boost to her business profile.
I have to say that I'm surprised at the blatant commercialism of this move, I think we all expected a Hello magazine style intro to Archie, and not something as crass as this.
And to sound like a broken record, the fascinating thing is that there appears to be no way of stopping MM/Harry from doing any of this. Where are the control mechanisms? Or have there never actually been any at all, and the whole system relied on forelock tugging and people voluntarily toeing the line? Fergie always acquiesced to the RF (well, sometimes!) , so maybe this all shows that the idea of some sort of 'ruling mechanism' is simply incorrect. I don't think (but it is pure speculation) that the RF are simply allowing MM enough rope with which to hang herself (an unfortunate phrase). She can do far too much longterm damage to the entire brand before she is somehow stopped/excommunicated/whatever.
Wow. Just....wow.
I wonder how her sugars will spin this? Previously they could say 'Well you've no proof she's being paid to wear that dress'' or "Maybe she paid for it with her own vast personal fortune" etc. But now? This is blatant corporate sponsorship. There is absolutely no way H&M could use their image, and that of their child, without their approval. She is merching her baby. Fact.
My guess is that they will ignore it. And the palace will too.
So Meghan is even worse than Diana, in loose cannon terms. I never thought I'd see that kind of thing again in my lifetime. I thought that Diana was a one-off and that the BRF would exercise the greatest caution in future. And that if they were to be so unlucky to experience it again, they'd deal with it quickly and expeditiously this time, instead of letting it fester in public.
Yet what do we see? Nothing. In public anyway. I'm getting more than tired of making allowances and saying that of course they're sorting it out quietly, unbeknown to us. She has to be stopped, and stopped now. Every day counts with Meghan. Every day she remains in the BRF strengthens her hand for her life after the BRF.
Thinking of re-wearing clothes, in the '80s Cary Grant was still wearing his shirts from the '30s. From Jermyn Street. As perfect as ever. He's always fascinated me. How was he real? The only time I saw him on film looking a bit less assured was when he was talking to Elvis backstage (Elvis still at his best). But Elvis felt the same meeting Cary Grant so that's OK.
1) Harry left and she did it when he wasn't around to control her.
2) Harry left and she did it when he wasn't there in order for him to be able to claim plausible deniability.
3) They both were in on it as it's too big a thing to hide from each other and the timing is just a coincidence.
I lean towards 3) as I don't think there's a massive conspiracy but we'll never know will we!
deference.' Perhaps the Queen/RF has relied on this for years, therefore it is possible that there are no mechanisms in place at all.
Either way it's fascinating to see it unfold.
I don't see this happening any time soon. It is almost never even discussed.
I guess the real breakdown started with Princess Margaret in the '60s. Watching the documentary about her on BBCi made me realise how spending time with celebrities, hippies and hangers-on as she did was breaking something down that had stood for centuries. As if the BRF were in one cell, and celebrities in another, and Princess Margaret slowly broke down the cell walls until they started merging. The Queen and 'proper royals' hung back, in the furthest reaches of their cell, but Diana pushed further in and now Meghan is reaching them. They don't have much space left.
Interesting I feel I have to write 'Princess Margaret' but can refer to Diana and Meghan with their first names ...
Yet I hope people start to look quite a bit harder, now that a two-bit supporting cable actress/Instagram influencer and her dimwitted husband are given the platforms to fundraise money and elevate their own status, when in the real world, she would fade away into irrelevance when her looks faded and he probably would be consumed with worries about daily finances instead of his ridiculous cosplaying a global thought-leader because he sure as heck couldn't hack his way up into such a position on his own merits. Nepotism and abuse of privilege at its worst.
By the way, did you all see that BAE Systems will be the presenting partner for the 2020 Invictus Games in the Hague? They manufacture things like arms and weapons systems. I imagine they were chosen, though, because they have much deeper pockets (they receive contracts from not only the UK but Saudi Arabia and the rather hawkish US as well). And who knows how much they donated to the Sussex Foundation as well? So, who's next, the primary manufacturers of the AK47, i.e. the Kalashnikov Concern? The superrich seem to live by another sense of decency.
It will be interesting to see if the H&M news comes out once Harry has had his time in the headlines.
But I agree with you: it looked contrived.
Shocking that such "woke environmentalist" who care so deeply about humanity would have ANYTHING to do with H&M. This goes way beyond the hypocrisy of flying private.
Outrageous! And to drag Desmond Tutu and his family into it.
@Ava,
I wouldn't lose sleep over failing to show deference to Murky. A British newspaper article I read the other day referred to "Prince Harry and *the American* being on their African tour. That was it . . no further elaboration. She was not even named as "Meghan". Just 'the American."
Oh . . .Snap!
Apart from the heartless merching of an innocent child, the thing that burns me the most about Smeaghan is that she is ruining the reputation of all American women by association for the British people from the monarchy on down. They read the fawning American press and Meghan's bought celeb 'friends' and assume that we are all for her over her.
If only they would come to Nutty's blog, they could see that she is in fact reviled. How do we get this across? We've had our differences with the mother country in the past and had to assert our rights to run away from home, but we've patched things up and our Special Relationship is worth nurturing.
Then along comes Meghan to blow it up with hand grenades . . .
What a loser.
I know this because I have a family member who was posted in Angola with a UN peace mission a while back. He is in the army, and the army also helps in this kind of work. Another family member is a doctor who works with UN, they travel to Angola to perform emergency surgeries and suppy med aid to areas where landmine related blasts and injuries are happening everyday.
But yes, Harry just seemed like he was walking for no other purpose than photo ops. In Diana's time this work was different, the work of clearing the mines was still looked upon with fear and infact deemed not important enough. People dies daily, and that the reason what she did was considered brave. It helped shine a light on this work. Harry the dummy basically played the Diana card and just seemed to be taking a stroll.
I think of it this way:
Rach is truly deceitful and heinous. She has the integrity of Bernie Madoff and the heart and soul of a hyena (they rip their own siblings apart at birth). She cannot be trusted and she has access to Harry, Archie, and the BRF, in part.
She can make a lot of trouble if the situation isn't handled correctly because of her ability to lie and create sympathy and destroy the BRF's case. They cannot act publicly or prematurely. The BRF must maintain a dignified public profile and cannot be seen to be in league with this person, but cannot attack her directly, either, so they must wait in relative silence.
It is imperative that she be caught full on, no chance for escape, no chance to explain it away -- she must be completely culpable for despicable actions.
What does the BRF do?
Well, they do a lot of things to document the situation, block potential escape routes (financial, physical, and otherwise), and all the while move to corner Rach without letting her know their plan. They do not confront her publicly - yet. They must remain as silent as possible and wait and either set the trap or let her enter a trap of her own design.
...... I do think it is possible that the BRF and Lord G are playing this long game and letting her destroy her own self. The DM is rabid this a.m. apparently. She's crossed a line that makes it difficult even for her "friends" to defend her (they cannot simultaneously attack others for benefiting financially by merching a public office and then cheer Rach for doing the same. Skeeziness is skeeziness regardless of party, race, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, etc. )
This merching move and the Tutu play really reveals Rach for who she is: a scheming emotional and intellectual whore who will do anything for money and fame. It's what drives her. The worst that can happen to her is for her to become a societal pariah, the desperate, grasping, clawing social climber shunned at the bottom of her greasy pole. And so, they let her go to it.
I could be wrong, of course. Perhaps HMTQ and Chas are just cheering the SoHo and making calls to do their own merching deals. But I doubt it. I think that it was no coincidence that Wills and Chas and HMTQ were doing the hang in Balmoral, chatting it up after the Eucharist.
When I saw the H&M post my first thought was that it is probably a joke and would be taken down within the first 2 hrs. (Remember the surrogate admission on the Kensington handle upon Archie's birth that was taken down)
When it wasn't taken down, my mind went to Wills, chas and HM at Balmoral and how we were all speculating about the timing being just before the Africa tour starts.
Letting Me get over confident is a good move, because it doesn't take much to get MM cocky. And the first two days of tour led her to believe she has won the world over. She soon got so over confident and smug, got caught in her own game.
https://theroyalweekly.com/post/187982230367/the-duke-of-sussex-sits-alone-beneath-the-diana
Over the years he has worked on many of her projects - Landmines, AIDS, Homeless shelters etc... He has also interacted with the very people she has helped and worked with. So I still say this particular move, while important to him in some ways obviously, has been very carefully planned by his PR people/Meg. To get maximum sympathy. By playing the Diana card.
Let's not forget that over the past year, while his wife has proved to be an insuferable self selrving idiot, Harry too has lost a lot of goodwill and is not so well.liked by the public. So rehabilitating his image is also important for brand Sussex .
(Unimportant in the grand scheme of MM though he might be).
For MM and her machiavellian plan, it's important to reiterate the idea of Harry the heart broken 12 yr old prince who lost his mother.
He could make a name for himself doing a lot of other very important things. William is doing just that. But they want to make sure he is known to us as Diana's lost little boy. Hence the photo ops. This was planned PR.
That could be Harry's SOS move... Hehehe
It is in today’s blind items for Sept. 27, 2019.
Blind Item #2 — This alliterate former actress earned herself $250K by having a 30 minute lunch with a group of people who each paid 5 figures to attend.
This would explain why Charles has gone silent on H&M’s gauche behavior and why he supposedly adores Meghan. She has introduced a new business model into the RF that’s easily adaptable in this age of social media, keeps the Royals relevant in the age of Brexit, and, most importantly, gets ALL of the tier-2 grandchildren, nieces and nephews off of his payroll. A huge cost savings for him. Look at Beatrice’s engagement photo in DM; the dress is tagged and available for purchase—straight out of Meghan’s playbook. Ka-ching! Harry’s Apple TV deal with Oprah, another offshoot of the Sussex master plan.
The most important factor going forward is keeping Charles & William as far away from this blatant commodification as it is beneath their station. That’s why you will never see William speaking to Meghan in public or even acknowledging her presence because, although he loathes what she has done to the RF, he understands why she is necessary.
No one wants to live through that again.
!!!
He is just as shameless as she is.