Queen Elizabeth Takes On Paparazzi

9:36 am EST December 6th, 2009 | Media | 10 Comments

Prince William & Kate Middleton

Prince William & Kate Middleton

This is kind of ridiculous.

The Queen’s lawyers have contacted newspapers informing them of privacy obligations under their own code of practice.

The move is thought to have the full support of high-profile members of the Royal family such as The Prince of Wales and his sons Princes William and Harry.

Paddy Harverson, the Prince Charles’s communications secretary, explained: ‘Members of the Royal family feel they have a right to privacy when they are going about everyday, private activities.

‘They recognise there is a public interest in them and what they do, but they do not think this extends to photographing the private activities of them and their friends.’

The British people prop up the royals. Millions of dollars goes into their upkeep, for members of the royal family who aren’t children, I can’t see why the press can’t take a picture of them with their girlfriends or whatever.

Like many American celebrities and politicians it often seems they want the benefits of being rich and famous without the downside.

Background
In Switch From Tradition, Queen Will Pay Taxes

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10 Responses to “Queen Elizabeth Takes On Paparazzi”

  1. jr says:
    December 6, 2009 at 10:15 am

    Elizabeth’s a welfare queen

  2. Mike says:
    December 6, 2009 at 10:42 am

    She contributes more to Britain in terms of tourism and national stability than any of the twits who want a republic will ever understand.

  3. Oliver Willis says:
    December 6, 2009 at 10:49 am

    How does the Queen contribute to national stability? And as far as tourism wouldn’t people (like me) go to England for tourism even if the monarchy was dead?

  4. bryan says:
    December 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm

    Mike, i suggest that all the people who love the monarchy buy shares in the royal family. They will then be the only people who hear about them and they can receive a ‘dividend’ of this money they bring in which we hear about. Other taxpayers pay nothing.
    OW, to be fair, her lawyers were on about the sort of photos where a guy has hidden in a tree on private land for days. Scumbag pap photos in other words. In public, they are fair game IMO.

  5. Matthew Hooper says:
    December 6, 2009 at 10:09 pm

    You need to understand that the Queen is not simply a celebrity. She’s spoken with every single world leader you can possibly think of, knows both current events and what you would think of as modern history (the stuff she’s lived through) extremely well, and is absolutely no one’s fool. At this point she’s an institutional memory of world governance, and she can and does give advice to everyone.

    You also cannot underestimate the presence of the monarchy as a living, breathing spirit of Great Britain. Hitler considered the Queen of England to be a dire enemy during World War II. It wasn’t because she was a celebrity.

    I strongly suspect that the Queen is pushing back at the tabloids because transforming the royals into tabloid fodder diminishes their potential power by frittering it away. Charles has lost a great deal of value as a potential King precisely because of this. When Charles’s son does assume the throne, he has an astonishing amount of power to sway public opinion in his country… assuming the tabloids to try to emasculate him with scandal.

  6. Oliver Willis says:
    December 6, 2009 at 11:53 pm

    tabloid fodder diminishes their potential power by frittering it away
    Isn’t it a) too late and b) partly their fault? they have a tendency to act like better spoken Paris Hiltons…

  7. Burn says:
    December 7, 2009 at 12:00 am

    Watch ‘The Queen’ with Helen Mirren. It can explain alot.

  8. gumby says:
    December 7, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    “Hitler considered the Queen of England to be a dire enemy during World War II. It wasn’t because she was a celebrity.”

    Different Queen. And in a way it was the Queen’s (Queen Mother, post 1953) ability to comfort and rally people that endeared her to the masses. In a way, it was celebrity that made her powerful.

  9. gumby says:
    December 7, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    Now, that’s a tad overstated.

  10. Matthew Hooper says:
    December 7, 2009 at 10:11 pm

    The Queen most certainly does not. Charles has been an embarrassment, but his sons got the memo. And it’s Charles’s sons that this whole thing is trying to protect.