2022 Derf - News & Events

[Maria]

I agree with Hester. There’s little evidence Fred is bright, especially compared to Henrik and even Marge. He can hardly say the simplest sentence in Danish (!) without making a mess of it and that is not an exaggeration. I have seen speculation that he speaks Danish as if he thinks in French and that’s possibly an explanation but the main point is that he is IMO too lazy to be bothered with anything he doesn’t find interesting. He is only really into sports and adventure, I feel. The rest he just sort of skates through.

The contrast to Joachim who diligently does his duty could not be more stark.

So he isn’t „bright“ - so what?! There are many people who aren’t and I don’t think you have to be only because your mother happens to be queen. Of course he had access to the best education, but that still doesn’t mean that he has to be an intellectual. Though I agree that a certain level of education is desirable and it certainly gives you more options if you bring home good grades, I‘d rather have people not judged only by their academic performance. There are many brilliant minds who are complete sociopaths, and I‘d rather have a king who is empathic than brainy, if you have to choose. As I’ve said before, I’ve dealt with quite some royals, and both Fred and Mary have been nothing but kind to „us inferiors“, much more than the oh-so-intelligent Maxima, who wouldn’t even say thank you.

Me issue with Fred is that he’s incredibly lazy and selfish in his interests and work. He’s not up to snuff, primarily because he doesn’t put in the work. He might be mostly friendly when he meets people - I would seriously hope he is! - but his future position isn’t about being friendly. It’s a job with tasks and official functions which he seemingly has little interest in preparing for. He could have stepped down. Instead he seems to want the perks without the work.

[Hester]

If people think Fred is bright, it raises the question, why is he the only one of his generation of royals who never appears nor speaks at a serious forum? Just sport?

[fairy]

I always side eye those "speeches at forums". We have seen in numerous cases, that those "interests" have been set up by spin doctors as to what seemed a fitting interest of the royal in question. Fitting in terms of: what is a current topic, what is already taken by somebody else and what seems something that the general public might buy as a genuine attention. For many royals we actually believe they wrote their speeches themselves or had at least some input. Frankly I presume that most speeches are written with very little input by the holder of the speech.
We also tend to believe far too much that those royals have an expertise in those subjects.
Subjects like Maxima's micro-finance: she might have a better understanding of this than your average Piet and Grets, but surely not a better one than all those experts that attend the conferences she is talking too. Those people live and breathe those issues, they are their life work, not one of many other time consuming work areas.
So in a way, I do rather support the idea that Fred does not even pretend to be an expert on something, he clearly can't be.
For example Philipp of Belgium doesn't either, and he IMO is a great role model for a modern monarch.

[ralf103]

I agree in many ways. As much as I don’t like Maxima she no doubt has a better understanding of microfinance than me. But her role should be highlighting the issue without acting like an expert and deferring to those experts for more. She certainly should play a role in the conversation but more as a moderator and keeping the  conversation on the radar of the public and press but not shaping it herself.
Too often now royals are seen as experts in things they don’t have any experience of themselves. I had a full on row with a friend recently because i disagreed with them on something they said about early childhood education. But, they insisted, the Duchess of Cambridge says…. Yes never mind my 4 year early education degree or 15 years experience doing it everyday lets defer to the Duchess of Cambridge. I like Catherine but I don’t believe she knows more than me, she just gets to speak to more important people. Again her role should be raising the issue to the national stage not forming opinions.
As for Fred he really can only be considered well enough informed to speak about drinking beer and playing on yachts IMO, and then certainly not as an expert. 

[getafix]

I agree in many ways. As much as I don’t like Maxima she no doubt has a better understanding of microfinance than me. But her role should be highlighting the issue without acting like an expert and deferring to those experts for more. She certainly should play a role in the conversation but more as a moderator and keeping the  conversation on the radar of the public and press but not shaping it herself.
Too often now royals are seen as experts in things they don’t have any experience of themselves. I had a full on row with a friend recently because i disagreed with them on something they said about early childhood education. But, they insisted, the Duchess of Cambridge says…. Yes never mind my 4 year early education degree or 15 years experience doing it everyday lets defer to the Duchess of Cambridge. I like Catherine but I don’t believe she knows more than me, she just gets to speak to more important people. Again her role should be raising the issue to the national stage not forming opinions.
As for Fred he really can only be considered well enough informed to speak about drinking beer and playing on yachts IMO, and then certainly not as an expert. 

ralf, as usual, brilliant 

G