Royal protection officers:They are not the nannies of the younger royals!
How will the Royal family be remembered in 2012? For the Queen’s 60th Jubilee? Well I am sure that is how the Queen would have liked 2012 to be remembered, after all, no monarch, since Queen Victoria has celebrated a Diamond Jubilee. But in truth, 2012 will be remembered for three major events involving the younger royals. Harry’s naked Vegas photos, waity’s nudegate photos (when she and willy had decided a sojourn in the South of France was more preferable to carrying out their ‘ambassador’ roles at the Paralympics) and thirdly, Jacintha Saldana’s suicide due to waity’s stay in King Edward VII hospital.
Although two of these events show that all three of the younger royals lack a sense of propriety (willy could easily have been aware of the risks of some pap taking nude shots of waity- he is no fool, he knows the territory) there are also questions to be asked of the royal protection officers or RPO’s. There have been many comments since Harry and waity’s nudegate scandals broke- about the actual role of the RPO’s. Are they really supposed to act like ‘babysitters’ or ‘nannies’ to adults to prevent these type of scandals happening? Or should these young royals (with waity I use that termextremely loosely) have been more aware of the consequences of their actions?
Camilla Tominey of the Daily express recently wrote an article asking whether willy and waity have been let down recently in the prank call scandal which occurred when waity was ‘rushed to hospital’ with morning sickness *roll eyes*
As part of the article she concurred that there was a lot of criticism directed at Harry’s RPO’s after one of the ‘guests’ at one of Harry’s letting off steam parties, took photographs with a mobile and sold them to TMZ.
‘’There was criticism that the Prince’s minders should have taken camera
phones from the revellers and made them leave them at the door of the suite,
but Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said officers were
right not to intrude.
He told the Home Affairs Select Committee in September: “They have to
lead a normal life and we have to strike a balance between intrusion into their
lives and keeping them safe. There is a golden line that cannot be crossed,
which is the social lives of the principals.”
I think this is a fair point……………….The RPO’s are not paid to act as ‘nannies’ to their charges. Could you imagine an RPO trying to stop photos being taken during the party if Harry agreed and seemed happy that the photos were being taken? After all Prince Harry was not a teenager at the time-he was a 27 year old adult.
So what about willy and waity’s RPO’s and their role in the breakdown of security that allowed a pap to take long lens shots of waity topless and naked from a public road close to Lord Linley’s chateau in the South of France?
Waity really is to blame here! There have been reports where she is said to have insisted that willy’s friends ‘behave at all times as they could get papped at any time’.
“Kate is mortified. Since she and William met, she’s constantly been on guard against embarrassment,” the source shared. “When they used to go away with William’s friends, Kate would lecture everyone on what not to do in case there were photographers.” http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/89…ill-Be-Her-Last
Once again, People questioned the RPO’s role in this scandal- one of the most frequently made comments in the DM was questioning how the RPO’s could not have carried out a security check of the perimeter of the property- after all it could have been a sniper and not a pap.How about if waity had just kept her clothes on? Why blame the RPO’s for this lack of decorum? Ken Wharfe (Diana’s ex RPO) recently criticized the King Edward VII hospital for not having protocols up and running, before waity’s stay Princess Diana’s former bodyguard Ken Wharfe said last night that incidents would not have happened in his day,and said there had been a “breakdown in protocol” which allowed the Australian DJs to get through to the hospital:
hotel or anywhere else was to isolate the switchboard,” he said. “You tell the
staff to put any calls through to the detective there.“The royals never ring in to hospitals on an open line. If anyone needed
to speak to Kate they would ring the officer sitting outside her room. All this
should have been explained to the hospital staff, but clearly it wasn’t, which
is the fault of the police and the hospital.”A former aide to Princess Margaret, who was often treated at the King
Edward VII Hospital, revealed last week how every call was treated with
suspicion.“They went first to the police bodyguard, he would put them through to
HRH’s dresser Sandra and she would know instantly who was who. I suspect this
is the downside of William and Kate employing hardly any staff.”Chief Superintendent Dai Davies, former head of royal protection, said
the royal couple’s security should be reviewed.
Sunday December 9,2012 By Camilla Tominey
by DebbieB (formerly known as anonymous)
The job of any hired protection is to protect the wellfare of their employer; wellfare doesn’t just mean their personal saftey, it also means their privacy. And if your employer wants to invite random girls up to their room, you obviously can’t stop them, but it is your job to confiscate the girl’s cell phones and make them sign a confidenitality agreement. Just to be clear, I’m not talking about big burly guys that are just there to stop bullets and crap like celeb have, but the smart protection that calls the hotels and places the celeb will be and make sure everything is set up and safe. Protecting their privavcy is why they make maids and other workers sign confidentiality clauses, to make sure their dirty laundry doesn’t get out, how is this any different? Clearly Harry is an idiot, but that’s why you hire people smarter than you to do this type of job. They should have known to confiscate cell phones and have those women sign waivers and such, it is part of the job. They should have said, “leave your cell at the door, you can get it back when you leave; and if you don’t want to do that, then you don’t get to come inside”, how hard is that? If the RPOs had been doing their job instead of partying (and drinking) with Harry, there would have been no photos.
By the way, if this happened to a celeb, their people would be fired straight away for letting a breach like this happen.
By the way, there is no reason for us to assume that Harry knew better than to let people into his room with their cell phones. I mean, he should know better given who he is, but he may just really be an idiot; which is why his RPOs should have stepped up and done their job. But there is no evidence that Harry knows anyone with a cell phone can and will take photos of famous people to sell them. **this leads into my next part, which will be in a different post since this one is already long**
As far as Kate’s nude photos, if the RPOs did not do a security check of the perimeter, then they are at fault. They should have secured the area. It is their job to secure the house and surrounding area for their client’s safety. However, it is not their job to tell Kate not to get naked outside, just as it was not their job to tell Harry not to get drunk and take his clothes off. It was their job to confiscate cell phones (Harry), and do a perimeter check (Kate); at this, they failed. If they had done frequent perimeter checks, they would have found the paps and could have taken care of it. However, maybe they did to perimeter checks of the house and immediate surrounding areas, but the road a mile away may not have been included.
It was Kate’s job to realize that she maybe shouldn’t be taking her clothes off outside. And the funny thing is, they came out with that story about how she was humiliated and that she always was vigilent about photogs being anywhere, and all that story did was show that she DID know better than to be outside naked, since she KNOWS photogs can be anywhere. That’s the problem with Kate versus Harry: unlike Harry, who may be a total idiot and not know that strangers you invite up to your room can and will take photos of you for profit, there is actual evidence to prove that Kate knew that photogs can be anywhere.
But to defend Kate’s RPOs a bit… at least they weren’t naked on that balcony with her, Harry’s RPOs were partying with him instead of protecting him.
The Jubilee celebrations have long since been forgotten in the wake of the Waity disasters as highlighted in this excellent article. QE must be inwardly seething at how this vacuous women has completely ruined what should have been a memorable and happy year. Whatever possessed Waity to cavort topless and bottomless on that balcony and according to some reports ‘make babies’!!? The PPO’s could not have been far away (as protocol dictates) which compounds the error even further (stripping off in their view?) As reported on another blog there is a very fine line between protecting and interfering in the PPO’s principals social life. As mentioned in this article however and as reported by Ken Wharfe about the tragic Jacintha saga ‘it wouldn’t have happened in his day because of all the protocols put in place by the PPO’s to prevent problems.’. Sadly this irresponsible and selfish attention grabbing the perks Willy and Waity will blunder along causing havoc with every thing they seem to get themselves involved with! No wonder that it was announced that Waity won’t be doing any further tours until 2014!