Prince William and the Air Ambulance

Leticia, I lay far more blame at their PR machine , they go in for the overkill. William if he likes it or not has a career , a life long career

Anyway- can't waste any more time on this pointless conversation!

I shall disappear from it unless you can tell me what Prince William can do with his life that you would actually like! I doubt there is anything at all.

Of course he has a life long career. The rest of us are very fortunate not to be in his position. In the meantime he needs a serious occupation. He has found one.

You have spent quite some time on a pointless conversation Leticia

Oh please don't stop now! This could be a record length for a thread about not much at all.

I quite like a pointless conversation.
It all seems to hinge on the fact that Anniebach thinks people think he is a hero which isn't something that I have heard him called. I didn't know that helicopter pilots were - it just seems a sensible next step -and one that he can do with the minimum of fuss.
Having said that I admire helicopter pilots flying skills. I saw one doing a rescue off the cliffs in Cornwall and that was very tricky.

Some have hailed him as a hero - saving lives , giving his wages to charity etc , all I have said is there are charities which need him more, but not in his country home I suppose , he would have to move back to his London home for that. What irritates me is some look on him taking this part time job as part of his duty to the country and it is not

Who are these 'some' that are going around thinking things? We're never all going to agree. Most of us are glad PW is going to be doing something useful. That's all. Full stop!

People

Exactly Jane10.

The logistics of him doing charity work on the streets of London would be a security nightmare. The only place that he could be would be in an office at a desk and people who join RAF don't join it to be at desks. This is a natural progression.
It is a skill - not like a bus driver. He will be out all weathers in all terrains.

The fact that he is 'only' the pilot and not seeing lots of blood ( which appears to be better in some people's eyes!) doesn't mean that he is not a valuable part of the team.

I am sure that any worker in emergency services would be embarrassed to be called a hero.

The air ambulances are charities. Which charities need him more? What skills could he offer them ( other than his name which he gives to 22 already) and what jobs could he do that wouldn't cost a fortune in security measures?

I always give to our county air ambulance service and have raised quite a lot of money for them. I think it very worthwhile.

Does anyone know where they are going to put his police detective? I gather the emergency helicopters are very small inside, no room for a spare person, just two pilots, one patient and a doctor.

Will they strap the policeman/woman outside? A special seat under the wheels or rotor? Sure as God made little apples they are not going to let William out without one.

Are you Anniebach 's gran by any chance?

Since he has started the job I think we can rest assured that security is sorted and not something we need to worry about.

I can only assume that some people think the air ambulance service is government funded and don't realise they are all charities.

It seems madness to say that he should go and work for a charity in London, in an unspecified way with no training, when he can work for an excellent charity, convenient for home and have a definite skill- a skill that it cost £800,000 to give him. It seems a great way to give something back.

I can't see why other charities are more important- many people owe their lives to the air ambulances. It is a charity that I always choose to support.

At the risk of prolonging this painfully boring discussion I wonder if anyone knows how much it costs in security for PW to carry out his "charity work" ? I mean it does seem a bit of a vanity project on his behalf if he is playing at flying his chopper and costing the tax payer thousands in extra security doesn't it? Just saying.

In fact I wonder how much the royals cost in security full stop.

He is going to have to have security if he spends his days in a playboy existence- it will cost the same so he might as well do a useful job for the money!

He didn't have bodyguards when he was on active service and neither did Harry. Why would he need it in a helicopter? The royals don't have nearly as much protection as Tony Blair and no one has as much as POTUS. There was one police officer with Princess Anne when someone tried to kidnap her and one with Diana in the car crash. No-one (apparently) with the Queen when someone got into her bedroom.

Princess Diana refused to have police bodyguards so the chap with her in Paris was supplied by the al-Fayeds. However, a bodyguard is not much use when a speeding car crashes into a concrete pillar.

The failure to protect the Queen when somebody (two of them at different times?) broke into her bedroom was a failure of the peripheral and quite substantial protective corps. One [sic] would hardly expect them to be inside her bedroom.

The attack on Princess Anne was decades go; things may or may not have changed about her security. Any changes/improvements are hardly likely to be mdd public.

John Major has bodyguards as well as Tony Blair; they accompany him on his many trips to Lords. I don't know about Gordon Brown but ex-PMs usually have them. Northern Ireland Secretaries and ex-Secretaries used to have them appointed too because during the "troubles" they were at very high risk. Mo Mowlem refused.

The bodyguard who was protecting Ann the night of the attempted kidnap was Ian Ball or Bell,

Diana refused bodyguards but Fayed supplied several, Trevor Rees Jones being one who was in the car plus Kez Wingfield following in his vehicle

Harry was under guard of the Gurkhas

The air ambulance charity who employs William did put in a bid for a larger Helecopter think the sum quoted was 1.7 or 8 million, larger to have room for one relative of the injured and for Williams bodyguard

I doubt the queen was comfortable with bodyguards in her bedroom

We are not allowed to know the amount spent on royal protection for the windsors and ALL their homes we just have to pay for it .

Jane, neither of my Grandma's post here, both dead before I was born, unless this forum uses a Ouija Board within it's coven

Sorry, forgot to mention - when Harry was on training exercises in this country a room in the army camp was reserved for his bodyguards , rather amusing because the camp is under heavy guard 365 days of the year plus the extra day of leap year

As far as I know all the Royals have body guards who accompany them everywhere. Princess Beatrice or Eugenie (never can remember which is which) certainly had one when she was at Uni in Newcastle. One wonders how many members of the family are involved and the cost of it all. Seems a bit ironic that PW should donate his salary to charity why shouldn't they all pay for their own security instead?

trisha, we not only pay for protection for the whole family we also pay for protection of over seventeen properties owned by this family , we even pay for security for Camilla's family home which it seems she needs to have some quiet time, we even paid for a new building on that estate to house the protection squad , we also provide security for a property Charles owns in Wales which is used as holiday homes - but not by Charles , his reason for buying it was to finally have a home in Wales, he stays here five days every summer, he still stays in Powys Castle when up North and with the Legge-Bourke's when in the South

We do the same for previous PMs. The Queen pays for a significant amount of the security, doesn't she? TB doesn't and has numerous homes in different countries and travels constantly pursuing his own business, not as the Queen does on state business.

Do the Welsh Nats still go around torching holiday homes?

#justwondering

no Merlotgran, they no longer burn english holiday homes or blow up reservoirs which provide water to parts of England, and England has stopped flooding welsh valleys, people's homes and churches and farms and telling us to either dig up and rebury the remains of our deceased loved ones or have them cemented over before the flooding starts. Losing a holiday home is sad,losing a house or farm your family have lived in for generations is heartbreaking

The same happened in England. My uncle lost a farm that his family had had for generations - it went under a reservoir to serve Manchester. It wasn't a peculiarly Welsh problem.