Unfiltered

Keeping it in The Family

One revelation from the current brouhaha over Mr Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest by Mr Plod is that the BBC has added yet more royal correspondents to its roster. In addition to the Hon. Sean Coughlan and the Hon. Daniela Relph we have the Hon. Noor Nanji, and the Hon. Jonny Dymond.

Those of you with long memories will recognise Nanji as an erstwhile culture reporter with a distinctly no shits given [cough] liberal approach to reporting. Clearly she's been moved to new duties in recognition of an elevation in her social status, perhaps through marriage within the peerage.

I conclude that the BBC must be currying favour with The Firm by employing its relatives of lower stature who don't get to sponge off the nation and who cannot obtain gainful employment elsewhere. How long can it be before Mr Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor himself is added to its stable of TV licence fee liggers?

Royal vs royalty

Just putting it here for reference. Royal, as an adjective or noun, refers to a member of a royal family, their status, staff, chattels, and deeds etc. Royalty may refer to royals in general, en masse as it were.

It stands, therefore, that a royal correspondent is a royal personage who corresponds, or someone who corresponds with such a person. A more mundane journalist who reports about royalty would be a royalty correspondent.

That's the way I see it, anyway.

royal | ˈrɔɪəl |
adjective
having the status of a king or queen or a member of their family: contributors included members of the royal family
  • belonging to, carried out, or exercised by a king or queen: the royal palace | the coalition obtained royal approval for the appointment
  • in the service or under the patronage of a king or queen: a royal maid
  • of a quality or size suitable for a king or queen; splendid: she received a royal welcome
  • [attributive] British informal real; utter (used for emphasis): she's a right royal pain in the behind
noun
  1. informal a member of the royal family: the royals are coming under the TV microscope
  2. short for royal sail or royal mast
  3. short for royal stag
  4. (in full metric royal) [mass noun] a paper size, 636 × 480 mm
    • (in full royal octavo) a book size, 234 × 156 mm
    • (in full royal quarto) a book size, 312 × 237 mm
  5. Bell-ringing a system of change-ringing using ten bells
royalty | ˈrɔɪəlti |
noun (plural royalties)
  1. [mass noun] people of royal blood or status: diplomats, heads of state, and royalty shared tables at the banquet
    • a member of a royal family: she swept by as if she were royalty
    • the status or power of a king or queen: the brilliance of her clothes, her jewels, all revealed her royalty
    • the most successful, famous, or highly regarded members of a particular group: it's not often you meet real Hollywood royalty, let alone chat to Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman in one day
  2. a sum paid to a patentee for the use of a patent or to an author or composer for each copy of a book sold or for each public performance of a work: the royalties paid to writers for recorded music
  3. a royal right (now especially over minerals) granted by the sovereign to an individual or corporation
    • a payment made by a producer of minerals, oil, or natural gas to the owner of the site or of the mineral rights over it