After arriving in Dublin yesterday and then meeting with President Michael D Higgins, Prince William and Catherine had an evening engagement at Guinness Storehouse. Kate stayed with the green theme in a dress by The Vampire’s Wife. She hit pause on the green style vibes today as they toured through Jigsaw, a mental health support program for young people, and Extern, an organisation advocating for social justice. At some point in the afternoon they’re expected at County Meath where they’ll learn about sustaining farming.
But did you hear about Will’s coronavirus joke? Not if you checked the Daily Mail which I just did. Their headline about Will and Kate is how they’re the “king and queen of hearts”:
Other people, however, are wondering whether or not William’s crack about coronavirus, made last night while he and Kate were at the pub engagement, and just as news broke that coronavirus cases had doubled in the UK, was offside:
Prince William was heard speaking about coronavirus to emergency workers during a visit to Dublin's Guinness Brewery with wife Kate.
— NBC News World (@NBCNewsWorld) March 4, 2020
"I bet everyone's like, 'I've got coronavirus, I'm dying,' and you're like, 'no, you've just got a cough'," he said. pic.twitter.com/bLN7ztXEIw
Here’s the thing, whether or not you find it personally offensive – two things actually:
First, you know that certain British outlets and British royal media would have dragged Prince Harry and Meghan Markle right now if they’d done the same. Should we look forward to several think-pieces tomorrow about William’s comments? Because, as this is the second complementary point, even if you don’t think the joke was all that bad, he’s there on assignment on behalf of the crown on official business as a diplomat, a statesman. And we’ve been told that House Cambridge is ready, primed, the best, most elegant and sophisticated, most well-behaved and level-headed and responsible young representatives of the institution.
So the question is: was making a joke like that appropriate for a statesman in his position?
I don’t think we need to spend all that much time on it and flog him for days but it’s worth considering, for all the sh-t that’s been out there the last couple of months about who knows best and who does best and how one brother has been favoured above the other, what happens when the “perfect” one does something that’s maybe not all that perfect? How is that covered in comparison?
