"I grew up in Chatsworth House, and I have seen many manors falling into disrepair or even being abandoned. Even Chatsworth House has experienced the dilemma of lack of funds for maintenance. Therefore, as a noble, I have an even greater responsibility to contribute to those treasures of England, those beautiful manors deeply rooted in our collective memory. To protect them is to protect our home. I would also like to take this opportunity to call on everyone to put more love and care into these fallen heritages of England..."
After Barron's speech, there was warm applause from the audience. He smiled and maintained an elegant demeanor, welcoming the flashes from all directions...
Of course, the reason for this effect is that in addition to his generous donation of 500,000 pounds to the Trust Fund for the Protection of British Historic Sites initiated by the royal family, he has also become a hot topic in the media recently...
"Barron, thank you so much for your contribution to preserving this British treasure."
"Your Highness, compared to the efforts you have made, my contribution is insignificant. Hello, Your Highness, it's a pleasure to see you again..."
In such charity fundraising, especially for a fund initiated by the royal family, the royal "model worker" Prince of Wales is naturally indispensable - according to statistics, at most times, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can appear in more than 500 various activities a year.
Of course, because it is summer vacation at university, the Crown Prince also brought Prince William out today to increase exposure.
In fact, whether it is the Prince of Wales, the crown prince living under the shadow of the "long-serving" Queen, or most of the British aristocracy at this time, they most often appear in public at charity fundraising events.
After all, the political rights of the British aristocracy have been declining, and the best way to reflect their sense of responsibility to Britain is their appeals and contributions to charity.
"Barron, do you really want to buy The Independent?"
It seems that the Prince of Wales is also very concerned about this incident which has been widely reported recently.
Yes, after PwC approached INM Group, the owner of The Independent, on behalf of Barron, and proposed the acquisition of the newspaper, the matter began to appear in news reports and was hotly discussed by the public.
The reason for this situation is that such information is difficult to keep confidential, and even if the INM Group intends to sell The Independent, it does not mind using this opportunity to attract other bidders.
And although the sales of The Independent have always been at the bottom among national newspapers and its financial situation is not good, it is well-known after all. Moreover, the person who is going to acquire the newspaper is the youngest duke in England at that time. The combination of the two makes it easy to arouse the interest of the public.
"Yes, Your Highness, I have indeed made an offer for The Independent and am very interested in it."
Hearing Barron's words, the Crown Prince said with some worry:
"But I read in the reports that this newspaper is still in huge debt, and its current operating conditions are not ideal."
"In fact, none of this is important to me. Your Highness, don't you think that the British media has lost more and more diverse voices? Especially after certain capitals bought too many of our media... The Times, the News of the World, and The Sun... I don't want others to mention Britain and say that every major decision we make needs to consider the opinions of three people - the Queen, the Prime Minister, and Murdoch..."
After he said this, the Crown Prince's expression immediately became a little serious. He nodded and said to Barron,
"You are right, our Duke. The voice of the media cannot be controlled by a few people. I support you on this point. If you need any help, you can come to me directly."
"Thank you, Your Highness. Your words are enough. As for the funds, I have made a fortune from securities investment recently, so I will not have any financial difficulties for the time being."
After hearing Barron talk about this, Prince William, who was beside the Crown Prince, became curious:
"Mr. Barron, the securities investment you are talking about, is it the capital game on Wall Street? Can you tell me more about it?"
"That's no problem, but it's a long story, and I'm afraid today isn't the right time to do it. When are you free? I can invite you to my investment company to take a look at our operations..."
"That's great. I'm on vacation right now, so I don't have much to do..."
So Barron exchanged mobile phone numbers with William and agreed to invite him to visit DS Capital some other day.
As the future King of England, Prince William is also a relationship that Barron needs to establish in advance. The reason why I said that I am not talking about capital investment now is because Barron saw the Crown Prince give him a wink.
Then, the Crown Prince took Barron to a place to talk. He patted Barron on the shoulder, acting like an elder, and said to him,
"I have also been following the London Star case and have been in contact with Scotland Yard."
"Is there any progress on that case, Your Highness?"
"This case is a bit complicated..."
The Crown Prince looked around casually, lowered his voice slightly, and said to Barron,
"I think you should know this news, but it is not appropriate to spread it before it is finalized."
"I understand, Your Highness."
"Now this case is not only investigated by Scotland Yard, but MI6 has also intervened..."
"MI6?"
Barron was a little surprised. Speaking of Britain's intelligence agencies, MI5 and MI6 are the most famous. In short, MI5 mainly focuses on domestic affairs, while MI6 mainly focuses on foreign affairs. Now he heard the Prince of Wales say that MI6 was also involved in this case, so he was naturally very surprised.
After all, it was just a fraud case, so why would it attract an intelligence agency like MI6?
"If the London Star was just a simple fraud, then with the intelligence capabilities of the UK and our allies, we would not have let them get away. But during the investigation, we found that their capital flow was intertwined with the funds of certain terrorist organizations. From the intelligence we have now, including Scotland Yard, they all suspect that the gang that planned this fraud case may have some connection with Al-Qaeda..."
"Is this a suspicion from Scotland Yard or a suspicion from MI6?"
Seeing Barron's "out of control" expression, the Crown Prince seemed a little embarrassed:
"MI6 believes that they are linked to certain illegal organizations, including terrorist organizations; however, Scotland Yard believes that they are peripheral members of al-Qaeda, or that they are providing funding for them..."
Hearing what the Crown Prince said, Barron couldn't help himself:
"F**K, those good-for-nothings in Scotland Yard, even if they want to shirk their incompetence, they should at least come up with a reliable reason, saying that those people are connected with Al-Qaeda? Your Highness, if this word really gets out, I'm afraid it will be our Great Britain that will be embarrassed. I believe you when you say that those mobs can ram buildings and blow up subways, but you say that they sent people to London to commit financial fraud? Everyone knows that their financial backers are those oil nouveau riche..."
"Calm down, Barron. I know this does sound outrageous, so I am more inclined to the conclusion of MI6. After all, those people are not simple. Believe me, we will find them sooner or later."