Forum Topic

duchesses of Cambridge & Sussex clothes bill

In answer to John Hawkes OTT  post.(17th sept ) re Megan's,to my mind, profligate spending on clothes . I was accused of my comments being adhominem vituperative insults...disgusting travesty.Apparently the D of Sussex spent £427.942 in 2018.  This did not include her wedding dress made by givinchey as it was custom designed and therefore not retail.The D of Cambridge spent £71.825..Hence perhaps my rather obscure and unnecessary comment re the 0's. i.e. the difference between thousands and hundred thousands.Interestingly  Megan tops the list of Royals expenditure despite not long being a Royal. ( this figure does not include travel or accommodation expenses)  Well at least we are at the top for something in Europe!.Source. Royal fashion expertsUnidentified Fashion Object (UFO) No More

Barbara Shillabeer ● 2612d24 Comments

As far as I have read, in many different papers, Prince Charles pays for the two girls' clothing.

Bunny Payne ● 2612d

Yes.  Apparently he does give them an allowance. Can't recall exact amount.  My point was that someone who spends freely on not necessarily environmental good choices, should not tell me to make sacrifices.  It was only because I was asked to justify my figures, that I did so.  I, like many people of my generation, were 'woke' before the word became trendy.  I have been 'woke' for longer than Megan has existed.  It was a way of life ,to reuse and recycle and take care of the environment without being aware necessarily of the importance of the issues..I quite frankly could not care at all how much  money Megan has or what she does with it. I am not in the slightest bit interested in money. I just abhor being preached at by someone who does not do what they advocate but expect me do so.

Barbara Shillabeer ● 2612d

Unfortunately not enough of the younger generation have been taught by their parents or by their schools how to look after their clothes and how to cook etc.  I used to work with a chap who threw away his shirts once they had lost a button.  Kingston Transition sewing group was started after someone of an older generation discovered that mothers could not sew the buttons back onto their children's school shirts.  Something so important but now missing from many people's lives.  Once upon a time the duchesses would probably have worn a completely different outfit each and every time they were seen out.https://e-voice.org.uk/ttkingston/ttk-groups-and-projects/skill-sharing/

Philippa Bond ● 2612d

Philippa Bond writes, “Unfortunately not enough of the younger generation have been taught by their parents or by their schools how to look after their clothes and how to cook etc”. In the early 1940s I attended St. Mary’s School before it was badly damaged in an Air Raid.I was taught, together with other boys and girls, by the hawk-eyed Miss Richards, elementary arithmetic, English, poetry, handwriting, painting, singing and some history and geography.    We were also taught the simple way to knit (casting on a small piece of plain knitting and casting off), darning a hole in a sock, sewing two pieces of material together and sewing on a button. As a qualifying test piece, I successfully knitted a narrow necktie!I have forgotten many things that I was taught at school, but have never forgotten Miss Richard’s guidance on how to make small repairs to clothing.Jim, Melbourne.

James Slade ● 2611d

I was also taught to sew at school, not at primary but at secondary.  The girls did needlework and housecraft/domestic science, whilst the boys did carpentry, metalwork and technical drawing.  I think such skills should be brought back into schools.  obviously times have changed and girls should be able to do carpentry, etc and boys sewing, etc.  I think learning these basic skills has helped me and my husband in life.

Martine Guy ● 2611d

I agree Martine - First cooking lesson was how to make a Christmas pudding lol Both  girls and boys (or  whatever they call themselves now) should be taught basic skills like these and how to manage money.

Lucille Grant ● 2611d

Hurray, we agree on something!  Some children don’t have a parent who is able to teach them basic life skills and I am all for schools teaching such thing.s. Yes, money management too.Primary school was a very long time ago for me, and I now seem to remember boys and girls being taught the basics of sewing.  We made a Gonk!  Anyone remember those?

Martine Guy ● 2611d

I remember doing sewing at school!

Matt Palmer ● 2611d

Me too, and basic cookery. Still enjoy sewing but hate cooking.

Sue Hammond ● 2611d

Interesting. In the 1960s my school, like Martine's, had options for needlework, domestic science, carpentry, metalwork and technical drawing.  However, my headmaster was quite progressive for the times and all options were open to all regardless of sex. In practice most selected according to the convention at Martine's school although a few girls did woodwork or metalwork (much to the annoyance of the not so enlightened metalwork teacher), and a couple of boys did domestic science (mainly cooking); tech drawing was mixed although was mainly boys as it was timetabled with sciences - most boys went for science options and girls for arts, something we seem to have regressed to again? Anyway, before I went to university my mother gave me a crash course on the basics of sewing on buttons, etc. Must say the one skill I've never used was tech drawing; now totally superseded by IT CAD and other drawing applications! (Cooking and sewing would have been a lot more useful than that).) 

Michael Ixer ● 2611d

Maybe, Life Skills should be taught in every school.  A good time at primary might after the SATS, when the children look forward to moving onto secondary.  Anyway these minor skills I learnt at school have never been forgotten.

Martine Guy ● 2611d

@Martine. Yes, sounds a sensible idea.

Michael Ixer ● 2611d

That's an impressive list of optional subjects Michael.  Such a pity that schools are so obsessed now with league tables these interesting and useful subjects have been dropped. If kids were able to learn these at school now they could progress them at a technical college and hopefully get worthwhile jobs later on. Not all children are academically inclined and I value a plumber over a philosopher any day. The plumber would probably have a much more lucrative career as well.

Sue Hammond ● 2611d

Ivonne recently recommended her  (excellent) electrician to me. He is British born, lived in Putney  most of his life until he moved to Morden and  over the past year or so has seen his (independent) business falter simply because of Brexit: people aren't moving homes nor are they extending or spending money on them because they  re unsure of what is going to happen so can't make decisions. His work comes from developers and  emergencies/maintenance for his regular clients and isn't 'lucrative', as you call it Sue. Will check with my builder/decorator when he  visits tomorrow if he's finding the same.While I agree that apprenticeships are valuable and should never have been discontinued in the way they were, the  problems my electrician has faced/is facing, applies to plumbers and anyone else who relies on this type of work to make their living.

Lucille Grant ● 2611d

Lucille, the property bubble has burst.  The ones who were snapping up every property were buy-to-let landlords and tax changes in the form of stamp duty and Section 24 have killed that particular market.  Add into the mix, clamping down on money laundering and controls on foreign investment, plus more stringent affordability checks for mortgage applicants.  Brexit will be the scapegoat.  As regards jobs, I believe there is a shortage of lorry drivers and train drivers at the moment.

Martine Guy ● 2611d

@LucilleI meant that a plumber would probably have a more lucrative career than a philosopher. So many youngsters take this Mickey Mouse course at uni and basically it's a waste of time.

Sue Hammond ● 2611d

@Sue. Yes, after I'd finished a postgrad diploma in Telecoms and Networks in 1992 and the early 90s recession wasn't entirely finished I did wonder if I'd have been better off doing a plumbing course - but long term probably not, it's a bit cold and wet in winter. I'm told the reason there were so many Polish plumbers, etc in the UK was because the communist system put youngsrers through intensive courses and they were trained to very high standards meaning they were better than many British ones who just learnt informally on the job - prepared to be corrected on that if I've been mislead. Yes, there should be more courses for those that don't want to follow an academic path. When one's pipes are leaking or the circuit's fused such people are invaluable and should be well paid but "trades" do seem to have got a poor reputation in the UK both from a career and a consumer point of view. But don't knock philosophy too hard. I know a professor of philosophy at Oxford.  His specialilty is formal logic and one of his topics was vagueness. (I'd love to be able to say I was professor of vagueness!) That is actually a serious subject, its closely related to mathematics and I covered it in an OU maths course I did as a refresher for interest (fun?) about ten years ago. It's the sort of thing that's needed for AI. We should have a range of opportunities to meet everyone's abilities, intrests, aspirations and needs to make a living.

Michael Ixer ● 2611d

What Michael said

Lucille Grant ● 2611d

As Karl Marx wrote in 1845:-"Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." ("it" being the washer on the hot tap, of course).

David Ainsworth ● 2611d

"When one's pipes are leaking or the circuit's fused such people are invaluable and should be well paid but "trades" do seem to have got a poor reputation in the UK both from a career and a consumer point of view."Our British Gas repair man a year or two ago had skills in plumbing, gas boiler work, electronics and also brickwork. Impressive.

David Ainsworth ● 2611d

David. That's impressive,  BG have obviously improved. I once had to study the manual for our old central heating programmer (since replaced) and explain to two BG chaps how to wire it up. They were great on pipes - gas and water - but not so good on the wires 🙂 But that was 20 or so years ago ...

Michael Ixer ● 2611d

I was at school in South Africa as a child. Our Headmistress instituted a Domestic Science programme in which we learned basic housework, cooking, caring for clothes and so on. The parents were horrified as none of the girls would ever have to use these skills as, of course, everyone had servants. It stood me in good stead though when we returned to a servantless England.

Caroline Whitehead ● 2611d

Hello Caroline,That was a reality, rightly or wrongly, of those times.  I am not too sure I would call them servants, in my case, the home helper was not a servant but a person working at home to help run the household; very much in the same way we have cleaners at home here today.  Do you call them servants?It may seem a trivial difference but the helper did not live at home, she had a salary or wage and most definitely she did not work for more than 8 hours a day during the working week. Very different times, very different worlds!

Ivonne Holliday ● 2611d

Unfortunately we still have an entrenched class system here.In the past even professionals and trades people did not mix...Funny how we now value those with technical trade skills and how underskilled so many in our workforce are.There are plenty of unfilled jobs in the NHS  -  and as carers calling on those who are housebound and need someone to help them take their medication (training required when working for an agency) and make a sandwich and a cup of tea at teatime etc.  Sadly this latter job is often done by teenagers who not only have no qualifications but because of their younger age are paid an even lesser minimum wage.  They very often fail because they can neither make a sandwich nor a decent cup of tea.I completely agree about too much attention being required to be paid to the league tables and not enough to the practicalities of life.  How wonderful it would be to have someone who can cook and can alter the elastic on your waistband with ease as well as have a good conversation!

Philippa Bond ● 2610d