Sarah, Duchess of York current events 13: February-October 2009

[queenofthelight]

The nice photos of Sarah, thank Iceflower!

Turkish police ask Home Office to quiz Sarah over children's welfare film - hellomagazine.com (16/09/2009).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk./news/art...h-orphans.html

[Marsel]

I'm not generally one to defend Sarah but I find this latest development ridiculous at best.

It's not as though she made up something: Sarah only highlight the truth, the plight of vulnerable children. Turkey had better tried to improve the deplorable conditions those children have to live in, rather than try to find conspiracy theories where there are none.

[susan alicia]

very confusing, you are damned if you do and damned if you do not. I keep them on when outside in the winter, try to take them both of when inside before shaking anyone's hand and do not put either of them on when leaving church and going to shake hands with the Minister

I apologize on beforehand to any of the Mods for putting my 10 cents in and going off topic

Originally Posted by Mermaid1962

An interesting bit of ettiquette that I picked up from watching various Royal boards is that Royal ladies (except in Britain) remove the right glove in order to shake hands. It's considered more polite. However, according to North American ettiquette, a lady leaves her gloves on when greeting people. I wonder if it's an instance of the Old World custom surviving in the New World after it's been disguarded in the Old?

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by queenofthelight

Duchess of York may face police quiz over undercover TV documentary highlighting 'plight' of Turkish orphans | Mail Online

Last night it emerged that a request has now been made to the Home Office for Sarah to be formally questioned over the allegations. There is no indication yet as to whether the Queen's grand-daughter would be interviewed as well.
Sources say it is too early to say whether the Duchess would be arrested but confirmed that both the Home Office and Scotland Yard were discussing the issue and may well need to speak to her in due course.

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What did she expect and to think she took HM's grandchildren with her!

[susan alicia]

she is her daughter first I would suppose and she did not involve her in anything dishonorable.

I think Scotland yard and the foreign office are only considering it because of diplomatic protocol.
And what nonsense that this action would be about sabotaging the possible membership in the EU, many east european countries are members and have excactly the same apaling conditions in orphanages etc.

Originally Posted by Skydragon

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What did she expect and to think she took HM's grandchildren with her!

[Emeralds and Opals]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article6836933.ece

"Turkey 'seeks Duchess of York for questioning over TV documentary.'"

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by susan alicia

she is her daughter first I would suppose and she did not involve her in anything dishonorable.

No, they are grandchildren of the Queen and in line to the throne first and foremost. She involved the girls in deception.

Many countries have the same problems so how was the decision made to expose Turkey?

[Marsel]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

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What did she expect and to think she took HM's grandchildren with her!

She was perhaps trying to show the Queen’s granddaughters that there are a lot of disadvantage children around the world living in appalling conditions. As Her Majesty’s grandchildren, Beatrice and Eugenie will have a unique chance to actually change or influence certain things.

I remember a case of an undercover journalists, who explored the pitiful conditions Romanian children lived in, who was universally praised for his work. It also had direct positive results for the children because the Government took steps to take better care of them. I wish Turkish Government had gone the same way, rather than worry about conspiracy theories. At the end of the day, those children are Turkey’s future: they could be a tad more concerned about it.
Why is Sarah's case different? Shouldn't she be praised for drawing attention to the plight of those poor children, whatever her motives for the documentary were (and I, for one, believe it was a genuine desire to help)?

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Marsel

... I remember a case of an undercover journalists, who explored the pitiful conditions Romanian children lived in, who was universally praised for his work. ...
Why is Sarah's case different? Shouldn't she be praised for drawing attention to the plight of those poor children, whatever her motives for the documentary were (and I, for one, believe it was a genuine desire to help)?

As journalists, he/she deserved the praise for doing their job. Sarah is not a journalist, Sarah drew attention here to yet another bungle and she involved HM's grandchildren!

[Odette]

I would be one of the last persons to defend Turkey or the Turkish government, however aren't there any other issues the Duchess could be involved in and make
good use of her time and efforts?
It seems to be a weekly event about one controversy or another. Is the media too
anxious to ridicule her or is she too careless in her choices?

[Mermaid1962]

I doubt very much that Sarah will be extradited. I hope that she tells the truth during her interview with Scotland Yard.

[Wisteria]

Originally Posted by Marsel

She was perhaps trying to show the Queen’s granddaughters that there are a lot of disadvantage children around the world living in appalling conditions. As Her Majesty’s grandchildren, Beatrice and Eugenie will have a unique chance to actually change or influence certain things.

How on earth will Eugenie and Beatrice be able to change or influence things?
They are not members of the Government (thank goodness).
Even the Queen can only advise. What can these two girls do?
If they want to help disadvantaged children perhaps they could start somewhere in their own country instead of embarassing their grandmother and her government.
Their mother has no sense but as she is no longer a member of the royal family it is of no importance what she does unless of course she breaks the law but she should not involve the princesses in her her schemes well intentioned or not.

[Iluvbertie]

The very fact that they are the granddaughters of Her Majesty The Queen means that if they do something to highlight an issue it will get press in the same way that things the Queen's daughter does highlights problems for children.

Sarah took her daughters to help highlight a situation - if the girls weren't there and she wasn't their mother do you really think that the publicity would have been as great, or that the Turkish government would be taking this sort of action. They are embarassed because the granddaughters of the British Queen were involved thus highlighting the very reason that Beatrice and Eugenie could highlight these sorts of issues - they are HM granddaughters.

For most of the 20th C the British royals concerned themselves with the Empire and its issues but as the Empire broke up they (particularly Diana) got more and more involved in issues on a world-wide scale thus doing good in raising profiles of bad situations but also increasing the chances of making things difficult for Britain diplomatically.

[Iluvbertie]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

No, they are grandchildren of the Queen and in line to the throne first and foremost. She involved the girls in deception.

Many countries have the same problems so how was the decision made to expose Turkey?

I must disagree.

Sarah carried them and gave birth to them.

They are first and foremost her daughters.

They are also the Queen's granddaughters but they are her daughters first and foremost and the Queen's granddaughters second.

[Russophile]

Sorry Iluvbertie, though I respect your opinions a lot, they (the granddaughters) are property of the Empire and Crown, first and foremost. And that is where Sarah got into trouble as this makes relations for GB and Turkey strained.

[Mermaid1962]

This is one thing I don't understand. If it's true that members of the Royal Family need permission to travel abroad (from the Queen or the Foreign Office, I'm not sure which), Sarah must have been deceptive about why the York women were going to Turkey. Perhaps the "powers that be" thought that they were going as tourists. IF Sarah intended to visit the orphanage all along, that means that she lied to the people who granted permission for Eugenie and Beatrice to leave the UK.

[Iluvbertie]

Originally Posted by Mermaid1962

This is one thing I don't understand. If it's true that members of the Royal Family need permission to travel abroad (from the Queen or the Foreign Office, I'm not sure which), Sarah must have been deceptive about why the York women were going to Turkey. Perhaps the "powers that be" thought that they were going as tourists. IF Sarah intended to visit the orphanage all along, that means that she lied to the people who granted permission for Eugenie and Beatrice to leave the UK.

Or that the Queen and Foreign Office knew and approved.

[Iluvbertie]

Originally Posted by Russophile

Sorry Iluvbertie, though I respect your opinions a lot, they (the granddaughters) are property of the Empire and Crown, first and foremost. And that is where Sarah got into trouble as this makes relations for GB and Turkey strained.

As there is no Empire they don't belong to an extinct organisation

They are not the property of anyone but themselves.

Their mother has first claim on any allegiance not a grandmother who happens to be the Queen. She gave them birth and it is clear that even the Queen acknowledges the fact that Sarah has the first call, over the Queen on the daughters based on the fact that Sarah is able to take them where she wants.

There have been no reports of the Queen saying 'No' to Sarah over her involvement with the girls but the opposite e.g. Beatrice asking Sarah to be invited to some things and her consequent visit to Balmoral a couple of years ago.

As the girls enter royal duties Sarah will increasingly be associated with them as she is their mother and the person to whom they go for guidance.

A mother takes precedence of a grandmother - to you and I she might be the Queen but first and foremost to them she is 'granny' not 'mummy'.

[rmay286]

I guess I'm of two minds about whether or not Sarah should have brought Beatrice and Eugenie into Turkey. I don't think Sarah herself did anything wrong, disguise notwithstanding, because she is no longer a member of the royal family. The line gets blurrier when it comes to Beatrice and Eugenie. I honestly don't know to what extent the royals should be involved in politics or politically charged situations. They are supposed to be apolitical, but that hasn't stopped many of the royals--eg. Prince Philip, Prince Charles--from expressing their opinions about controversial topics.

Nevertheless, I don't think that the trip to the Turkish orphanages should be so controversial within Britain. Yes, the British government has to respect other governments, but not at the expense of human rights. The EU was skeptical about admitting Turkey because of issues like the treatment of the children in orphanages, and Sarah's documentary simply helped show that there was a basis for that skepticism.

Turkey was obviously "caught redhanded", and knows it, and is now striking back at Sarah. And yes, in the short-term her documentary might have damaged Turkish-British relations. But sometimes a cooling in the relationship between two countries is inevitable or even necessary. Britain should try to be on good terms with Turkey, but not at the expense of its own principles.

And yet I'm still on the fence about Beatrice and Eugenie's involvement, because their presence could make Turkey feel as though the British government itself (represented by the royal princesses) was directly "spying" on them. I do believe that the royal family should try to stay apolitical as much as possible...but then again, sometimes staying completely apolitical isn't possible even for a royal--or right.

[ada]

Just one more embarassing incident involving Sarah