On Tuesday, Prince William wanted credit for making his first big speech as Prince of Wales. He went to the United for Wildlife Global Summit (??) at the Science Museum in London. Kate didn’t go with him – she rarely attends events about conservation or wildlife. She’s either not keen on those subjects or William prefers to do those events alone and he tells her to stay home. These events would get much more attention if he brought Kate, though. I’m just saying. This summit is being hosted by Lord Hague, the Tory politician turned Tory svengali for William, who is a Tory stooge. Lord Hague currently works as the chair of The Royal Foundation, which means that this whole thing was just a comfortable in-house thing, everything stage-managed perfectly for William, all he had to do was show up and read the speech someone wrote for him (probably Lord Hague). Tellingly, Kensington Palace gave copies of the speech out to media outlets:

Too many lives are being destroyed and too many species driven to the brink of extinction because of the “heinous crime” of illegal wildlife trading, the Prince of Wales will say today. In his first set-piece speech since he was given the title, William will address the United for Wildlife global summit at the Science Museum in London.

William, 40, will use his keynote address to highlight the serious and organised nature of wildlife crime and its damaging impact on global biodiversity and communities.

He is expected to say: “There are still too many criminals who believe they can act with impunity, too many lives being destroyed and too many species on the brink of extinction due to this heinous crime. [United for Wildlife] set out to ensure that those involved in wildlife crime face an international response as powerful and co-ordinated as any other serious and organised crime. [And] to bring their sinister operations out of the shadows and to ensure that communities are equipped, empowered and supported to protect themselves and their natural world.”

The prince set up the United for Wildlife (UfW) umbrella organisation in 2014 to tackle the illegal trade in animal products. He has long campaigned on the subject and has called for a commitment to end the “abhorrent crime”, which includes the poaching of elephants for ivory and tigers for their skins.

[From The Times]

Sure, that’s fine, I guess. It seems kind of anticlimactic to just hand his speech to the Times before he even showed up at the event though? The larger point is that this is considered a politically safe issue for William – no one in the Conservative Party wants to see their favorite stooge, the useful idiot they’ve carefully groomed for years, bite off more than he can chew. They keep it very simple: poaching is bad, criminals are bad, anti-poaching programs are good. Easy peasy.

Also: William, like King Charles, was ordered to stay home during this year’s COP27 conference in Egypt. Charles briefed the Times that Liz Truss had ordered him not to travel or attend the conference in person. Charles isn’t allowed to send William in his place either, which suits Peggington just fine. Why would he want to go to an international conference which cannot be stage-managed perfectly by his Tory handlers?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.