Can you be a self-identifying international humanitarian and have a £300,000-plus baby shower held for your already fabulously privileged unborn child?
While children starve across the globe and run barefoot in bombed out war-zones, is this ostentatious display appropriate?
That is what people are asking of the Duchess of Sussex’s five-day New York binge, which featured dinners in expensive Manhattan restaurants, hotel costs of £15,000, luxury gifts and private-jet travel both ways across the Atlantic.
While children starve across the globe and run barefoot in bombed out war-zones, is this ostentatious display appropriate?, writes Jan Moir
This incredible production also starred hostess and grand fame game dame Amal Clooney, who apparently also picked up the flight costs.
Amal takes the art of over-dressing to stratospheric levels and I almost love her for it. ‘She’s so precise,’ said one fashion expert, which is one way of describing a woman who’d wear a ballgown to breakfast if a Vogue photographer was on duty behind the marmalade pot.
But why is she so keen to ingratiate herself with the Royal Family and fund such extraordinary lavishness? One has to wonder what the ulterior motive is, and don’t kid yourself there isn’t one.
Meghan arrived back in the UK yesterday morning by private jet, funded by Amal Clooney
Just like Meghan, Amal is also a millionaire-class international humanitarian, committed to improving the lot of those less fortunate than herself, which by my reckoning is absolutely everyone.
So let me ask again. Can you be a philanthropist in public, while living like a Roman empress in private?
Obviously, Meghan and her gal-pals can — campaigning against poverty by day, then channelling Chanel at night.
Yet is there any point in us being pious or naïve about this? Most high-profile humanitarians are fantastically wealthy — which is why they can afford to indulge in empathy for the dread plight of all mankind.
Think of the Queen, watching all this nonsense unfold on her sitting room television, as she sits by her two bar electric fire in Windsor Castle, nursing a cup of cocoa, writes Jan Moir
The rest of us might care deeply about such issues, run a marathon to raise money for Rwandans, drop a fiver in a church box or spend a gap-year working in a refugee camp.
Yet somehow, we never can make it to the hallowed uplands of global humanitarianism, can we? We are just good people, perhaps a little neighbourly, at best. Get back in your box.
For celebrities and royals such as the Duchess of Sussex, a different set of rules apply. To be fair, Meghan did a lot of charity work before she met Prince Harry; their joint philanthropy was one of the things that bound them together. Yet where are we now?
During the current half-term break, while Meghan was accepting the hospitality and largesse of her wealthy American friends in New York, Kensington Palace officials were nobly tweeting about poor British families who cannot afford to feed their children during the holidays. ‘A gap which is estimated to affect three million children and young people across the UK, and 700,000 in London,’ they said.
Meanwhile, Meghan trotted around NYC in a pair of £800 boots on a trip of rampant ostentation. Let them eat Laduree macarons!
No one is saying she should live a penitent’s life of sackcloth, ashes and Zara cardigans. Indeed, who could deny the seven-month pregnant duchess a scant few days of fun with old friends on her home turf?
Amal Clooney arrived at The Mark Hotel in New York on Tuesday this week to attend Meghan's baby shower
She is an all-American girl; someone who married into the fusty eccentricity of the Royal Family and has been entombed in their institutionalised weirdness ever since.
How she must miss America, and the casual freedoms of her previous life.
Heading out to the Polo Grill on a snowy Manhattan night for cocktails and a burger? Five-star living and non-judgmental room service in one of the best hotels in the city? Flying home on a private jet packed with gifts? What could be lovelier?
Yet from damp and dismal Blighty, such profligacy looks downright terrible. Meghan, with the connivance of Harry, has burned down the Tupperware and patched leather conventions of moderate royals with the blasé indifference of someone lighting a scented candle.
At a time when the country seems to be lurching from political crisis to Brexit death zone, when car factories are closing and a deep unease affects us all, the ostentatious optics from this lavish trip are not good news.
The Duchess of Sussex launched a cookbook last year with a group of women who were displaced by the Grenfell tower fire
Sources insisted that the £300,000 cost was paid by the Duchess of Sussex’s friends, but was it naïve of her to allow herself to be seen as the jewel in this very public crown?
Baby showers were once a modest affair of gifted nappies and bibs, the exchange of good advice, the offer of support in the months to come.
Why didn’t she have a private party in one of her friends’ homes, instead of this grandiose affair?
I have written before about how I admire Meghan’s refusal to play the snide royal game of pretending not to be rich and wealthy. But there are limits — and we have reached them here. Think of the Queen, watching all this nonsense unfold on her sitting room television, as she sits by her two bar electric fire in Windsor Castle, nursing a cup of cocoa.
What must she think of it all? Nothing good.
Forget silly Lily, the real role model is classy Dolly
Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the latest indicators of feminist triumph, but you can depend on the Brits for a few pointers.
This year’s awards ceremony to honour music industry stars was an eye-opener, in more ways than one.
Before the show, Lily Allen shared some bathroom secrets, including photos of the plucky popster plucking hairs from her nipples — thanks for sharing, darling. Your suffering is noble.
Lily Allen, pictured here arriving at the Vype Event at Menagerie Bar, Manchester, recently shared some bathroom secrets including her plucking hair from her nipples
Then, singer Jess Glynne was hailed as a super-feminist for taking off her make-up onstage. ‘So brave,’ gasped one fan.
Honestly, I despair. When did women become so self-obsessed and feeble? Thank goodness for Dolly Parton, the redoubtable 73-year-old who would probably rather die than admit to beauty shortcomings, or appear in public without her slap and elaborate wigs.
Jess Glynne was hailed as a super-feminist at last night's Brit awards, writes Jan Moir, for taking off her make-up on stage
‘It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,’ she once said, and she meant it. Dolly was one of 12 children raised in a dirt-poor family, who grew up in a Tennessee cabin.
In a recent swipe at #MeToo, she said she was hit on a lot by predatory men when she was young, but never slept with anyone she didn’t want to. She is my idea of what a feminist looks like. Responsible for herself. And always a class act.
The things that go bump on the red carpet
What on earth has Meghan started? Pregnant model Abbey Clancy was photographed clinging onto her baby bump on the Brits red carpet, as if she were clutching an imaginary glass fridge full of ice sculptures. Soap star Gemma Atkinson did the same thing, while partner Gorka Marquez gurned alongside.
Pregnant model Abbey Clancy was photographed clinging onto her baby bump on the Brits red carpet, writes Jan Moir
This ostentatious bump-hugging never used to happen. However, a friend told me: ‘It’s nothing new. I did it without realising I was doing it because it is just a mother’s reaction to let baby know you are there. Especially if it is kicking.’
Hmm. However, is it an entirely natural response while posing sexily on the red carpet in a thigh-high, split, sequinned dress? Abbey seems to think so. Some babies do have ’em!
No cheese in a cheese shop? That really takes the biscuit
A new cheese shop has opened in South London, but it doesn’t sell cheese. La Fauxmagerie has non-dairy cheese-like products, which is a bit like trying to sell an egg-free omelette.
The cheeses are made from plant-based alternatives, such as cashew and almond milk and they are every bit as grim as they sound.
In any case, how do you milk a nut? I’m not sure I want to know, but I sympathise with the dairy industry, who are most unhappy with these imposters calling their products cheese.
La Fauxmagerie has non-dairy cheese-like products, which is a bit like trying to sell an egg-free omelette. The cheeses are made from plant-based alternatives, such as almonds and cashews
The shop sells vegan camembert, halloumi and cheddar among others
Why vegans insist on eating meat-free or dairy-free copies of foods they purport to hate is one of the mysteries of the age. Why not just stick with tofu, if you are that way inclined?
La Fauxmagerie was opened by sisters Rachel and Charlotte Stevens (right), who say they are ‘not dissing cheese’, just providing an alternative.
With the success of Greggs’ vegan sausage rolls and even vegan kebabs, there’s clearly a market for these faux foods, but where is it all going? They’ll be making butter from peanuts next, mark my words.
Why brilliant Jack is the host with the most jokes
Please can Jack Whitehall be our official UK entry for all awards ceremonies from now on?
After two years of hosting the Brits, the posh comedian has shown he has the irreverence and the jokes to pull off this most difficult of gigs, writes Jan Moir
After two years of hosting the Brits, the posh comedian has shown he has the irreverence and the jokes to pull off this most difficult of gigs. Of course, anything would be better than Joanna Lumley or Stephen Fry hosing down the luvvies with gush oil.
Here are three of Jack’s best jokes:
- Referring to pop group Little Mix, he said: ‘Their old boss Simon Cowell will be asking his surgeon to put a brave face on him if they win tonight . . .’
- Introducing the best group category: ‘It’s been a year of reunions. First the Spice Girls, then Bros, and then Westlife announced they were back in the studio. Suddenly, a hard border with Ireland doesn’t sound so bad.’
- And after global mega-seller Ed Sheeran accepted an award, Whitehall quipped: ‘Give that man a knighthood, preferably Sir Philip Green’s.’
Hard to think of anyone else who would dare to be so funny.
Jan Moir was stopped in her tracks by a bronze sculpture
In Manchester this week, I was stopped in my tracks by the Victory Over Blindness bronze sculpture outside the city’s Piccadilly railway station.
Commissioned by the charity Blind Veterans UK, it depicts seven blinded soldiers from World War I marching in a line, each with a hand on the shoulder of the man in front. The young men are beautiful, but their eyes are swathed in bandages, their sightless gaze forever cast downwards.
Commissioned by the charity Blind Veterans UK, the statue at Manchester Piccadilly depicts seven blinded soldiers from World War I marching in a line, each with a hand on the shoulder of the man in front, writes Jan Moir
Haunting and affecting, it seems to be the very best of public art, in that it is not just a memorial to sacrifice and a testament to the power of comradeship, but a reminder that even those who survive conflict can still have ruined lives and much to endure.
photo link
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/jan-moir-what-can-our-tupperware-queen-make-of-meghans-trip/
News Photo JAN MOIR: What CAN our Tupperware Queen make of Meghan's trip?
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