Again I say, I was not referring to the staff of Prince Charles.
I have had to close down whole organisations, make people redundant and sack people in my career. Not fun. But me being in tears would do B-all for the people concerned, far better to approach it professionally with a clear eye about doing the best one can for them.
That goes without saying, but timing and communications are key elements of any restructuring programme. I just believe PoW Ltd has screwed up, by my standards anyway.
This is a good piece for those of us who can only look on from a distance:
How do we know? We are only getting the angle of one newspaper which is anti-royal. Certainly when Iâve been in companies where redundancies are taking place behind the scenes informal discussions have been taking place long before the formal notices go out, not least to gauge the appetite for voluntary redundancy and retirement and some excellent packages have been put together.
IMHO, even making the announcement at this stage qualifies as a screw-up Sue.
If you mean The Guardian Sue youâre completely wrong - The Guardian is very pro-royal.
Talking to OH who reads much more deeply and widely than I do, if I understand him correctly, those who are managing this are between a rock and a hard place. The contracts of staff continue for six months after the death of the person they serve. Every day that passes without communication and certainty is another day closer to the end of their contract. By knowing where they stand there is a chance to investigate whether they retire, get redundancy, or are transferred. When is the âright timeâ to do something like this?
Reading between the lines here, perhaps we could offer at least some compassion for the 73 year old king, who has had barely a moment to grieve in silence between back to back events following the death of his mother.
Supported all the while by his wife soldiering on with a broken toe. No spring chicken either one. Youâll notice that most ceremonies involve much standing. So, if patience gives out momentarily, we might be able to understand and perhaps sympathise.
Now to the Clarence House issueâŠ
We are only getting our info from the media who doubtless has its own ace to grind. To quote The Guardian article, âOne source said: âEverybody is absolutely lividâ. An unnamed source. Everybody? That may well be only the disgruntled unnamed source. And anyway, isnât it a bit weasely speaking to the press before the ink is dried or anything finite has been announced? The only thing decided is that Clarence House will not be used by the new PoW and will subsequently be closed.
Work notices were sent via the Kingâs top aide, Sir Clive Alderton, who is certainly no âlackeyâ but comparable to the MD of The Firm division of Clarence House. This would be the household staff âbossâ and who would be expected to act in such circumstances. There are legal conventions regarding timing for such things although I grant you it does feel rather rushed. Let us hope this will not be just a first sign of the times ahead for all in the UK.
What concerns me more at this time is the vitriol that stirs up surrounding media reports of the monarchy. Media has its owners and they have their own agendas. The readers are informed and influenced by what they read. Blaming and shaming is clearly the name of the game.
To put it in the vernacular, sheâs not even buried and the Royal Family done this.
(EDITED to avoid whataboutery (see below) on the poor taste the Royal Family have shown to allow their representatives to basically give notice of mass sackings in a Royal Household at this time. Was it too much to wait at least a week or two?)
Do you mean stabbing her son with a thousand cuts?
of Clarence House:
I should think the King and Queen Consort would probably prefer to have Clarence House as their London home but as Churchill insisted when it came up before, Buck Place, lofty, draughty and florrid as it is, is the monarchâs abode in the capital and thatâs irrefutable. 
On a somewhat different tack, I gather that coins minted for Hong Kong before 1997 featuring the Queenâs head are going for 10 times their face value. Time to break open the 
banks!
Apologies! 100 times, not merely 10.
My digits have a mind of their own today 
In the days when I owned a construction company it was a case of âbetter get your toolbox tidy cause youâre down the road on Fridayâ and that was on a Thursday afternoon!
Hereâs the Media Lens assessment:
Anyone still harbouring illusions that the Guardian might offer a modicum of republican scepticism would have been disabused by the acres of royal-friendly coverage on display. The day after her death, the print edition of the paper led with fully 19 pages on the Queen plus a 20-page supplement. By painful contrast, a news piece titled, âWorld on brink of five âdisastrousâ climate tipping points â studyâ, was buried on page 25. The following day, the Guardian published a 40-page special supplement on the Queen. That paired example captures exactly the imposed insanity of the âmainstreamâ media that are leading us to disaster.
Well frankly Susannah as far as broken toes go all I can say is noblesse oblige 
I think we agree that the timing was a mistake. It was an insensitive gaff and not an positive indicator of things to come.
As for the Press, I donât think the Guardian is particularly anti monarchy nor inclined to a reporting in a style that generates vitriolic responses, so perhaps we must agree to differ on that. As for the organs that do, well everyone in the public eye has to cope with that.
However as I explained, I do believe that the good will afforded the Windsors has been derived from a very strong and well deserved affection for Elizabeth. I donât think Charles has a hope of keeping up the momentum on that. Plus I also think his âloose cannonâ approach may actually cause problems.
Now, no matter what side of the NI debate one might be on, should Charles be âinterferingâ in such affairs?
And this is only week one 
I wonder if pro Elizabeth and pro monarchy are being somewhat conflated across the board. Time will tell.
Good clip Graham.