Omid Scobie’s Endgame includes many stories about the left-behind Windsors’ awkwardness in general, and their specific awkwardness at showing racial sensitivity, empathy or humanity. One minor point is Scobie quoting a “royal source,” who said that Prince Edward is “a massive germaphobe” and that’s why he rarely shakes people’s hands while he’s doing walkabouts or events. This was not something made up out of nowhere by Scobie – there have been conversations for a while about Edward’s refusal to shake hands, including right after his mother’s death, when he refused to shake mourners’ hands on a grief walkabout.

Well, the Windsors are still bizarrely showing that they’re obsessed with Scobie and Endgame, because Edward was out this week and he put on a big show of shaking peasants’ hands. The way the Telegraph’s Victoria Ward framed this specifically with Scobie’s words is so…

It’s the fact that he only shook a few hands and then mostly avoided touching the people of color…? This is also smoothly edited so we don’t see him obsessively using industrial-grade hand sanitizer after he shook a few hands. I mean, I’m not going to shame him for being a germaphobe, but if that’s the case, just own it and have your people say “no handshakes.”

Even if Omid Scobie’s book isn’t selling like hotcakes, it’s clear that Buckingham Palace picked up twenty copies and they’re going to keep doing these kinds of stunts to “push back” on Endgame. Such weird people.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.