Prince Andrew has bolted to Balmoral

[Viviennemary]

This according to guess who. The DM of course. To avoid getting papers served says the article. Maybe he's just gone for a nice break. Accompanied by Fergie.

Is no-one advising them on this?

I'm quite sure they'll have platoons of "advisors", PR professionals and various legal bods chipping in - after all, using our money they can afford it

Whether they're prepared to say anything the RF would rather not hear - and whether the RF would listen if they did - is something else again, but personally I'm just wondering when the "illness" will arrive so that Andrew can avoid dealing with anything at all

don't get how the Queen is 'shielding' Prince Andrew. She has said nothing publicly

Riding out with him in a relatively public part of the Great Park and having him in her car on the way to church in Scotland, so that photos of the two would appear the first few times PA hit the headlines is HM's equivalent to making a public statement.

I'm sorry, I've admired much of what she has done but feel this is ill advised, likely against the advice of people she usually trusts.

Just like in the day, when pictures of Diana's LBD which knocked Charles' speech off the front pages.

I don’t think the Queen is shielding him. She is 95, recently widowed and highly unlikely to want to take any part in the legal shenanigans that are going on. Andrew is a big boy with hot shot lawyers, she will be leaving it to him/them to sort out. In the meantime Andrew does what Andrew does best which is to come and goes as he pleases.

They should have clamped down on bad behaviour decades ago. Pricess Margaret's behaviour was pretty scandalous back in the day. She was a rude obnoxious entitled brat. And treated folk like dirt. Its all very well to say oh the Queen never puts a foot wrong. But the rest of them need to be brought into line. Or abolished altogether.

Maybe 'shielding' is the wrong word. The Queen has shown her support of him though. When it wasn't necessary to do so, and no one would've been any the wiser

I don't get how the Queen is 'shielding' Prince Andrew. She has said nothing publicly

She doesn't have to speak publicly. Her actions say it all including awarding him gongs and honours even as controversy swirled round his continued association with Epstein after his conviction.

She was a rude obnoxious entitled brat. And treated folk like dirt.

That particularly trait has, unfortunately, been passed down through the generations and is very much alive and kicking today. It’s the old Nature/Nurture debate.

@Plumtree391

The Royal Family are masters at PR, QE2 is head of that family. They know that the perception of them is what counts, regardless of the truth.

After his car crash TV interview, he went to church with her, if that's not a statement of support, I don't know what is.

He is evading being served with legal papers while holidaying where his mother is in residence, again what does that tell you.

I hope the British media start exposing the whole lot of them. The PA issue has shown how bad the media really were to M&H. I'm not fan, I find M&H farcical to be honest but the media hold a very obvious double standard of reporting towards them compared to PA and the rest of the family.

Maybe VG’s team could have found PA in Pizza Express?!

Seriously though, it’s all such a mess. It looks like they’re finally going to get somewhere now though and he’s going to have to accept the service of papers at least. How embarrassing that the High Court has had to step in…..

I hope the British media start exposing the whole lot of them. The PA issue has shown how bad the media really were to M&H. I'm not fan, I find M&H farcical to be honest but the media hold a very obvious double standard of reporting towards them compared to PA and the rest of the family

^^ This 100%.

The media might well be reporting on him now, but he has had an easy ride in the past compared to M&H.

I honestly think that there will be a lot of people... from officers in the military, to palace staff who he's treated with disdain, to those who worked with him when he was a 'Trade Envoy' who will be thinking... you are now getting your dues. Good.
There is very little - if any - sympathy for him out there.

After watching Jeffrey Epstein Filthy Rich on Netflix and PA BBC interview, I hope VG destroys him.

The queen hasn't always been 95 and recently widowed! She's enabled a lot of PA's behaviour over the years.

I hope the British media start exposing the whole lot of them

Give them time
As we've seen before, the media gather a lot of info but often sit on stories until the time's right, probably using them as a bargaining chip in the meantime - so if the RF can't halt the downward slide it's likely more will come out

Its all very well to say oh the Queen never puts a foot wrong. But the rest of them need to be brought into line. Or abolished altogether

It's clear most of us agree with the first part, if not the second, but who's going to do it?
Obviously the Queen isn't going to change tack at 95, and Charles can hardly start cracking the whip as he has no moral authority left. It's not William's "turn" yet and anyway his main job is to keep his nose clean, the rest seem just there for the ride/goodies and advisors can be ignored or sacked

So again, who's left to "bring them into line" if they lack the sense themselves to see how they're coming across?

Without having to actively do anything, surely the first steps towards ending this enforced servility and regaining a bit of pride would be for people to stop fawning and toadying, not organise royal visits at all and let the RF see hospitals and schools in the raw, take the queen photos down from public buildings, and most of all, give up with the honours list pantomime.

Church
As IF any of that will happen! We're hard wired to defer to them and spoon fed an endless diet of glossy twaddle about them in the media.
They have a symbiotic relationship with the press that suits the media and the RF and even this shitshow of a Government had ministers doing interviews from their homes with massive portraits of Q in the background hung on their walls!

It's a stranglehold. The only way things will change is when the flag waving royal tea towel brigade dies off, the Q is gone, and a younger more questioning generation takes over.

I cannot recommend the book below highly enough. It's written by a highly respected MP and member of the Privy Council and is a total eye opener. Many MPs have tried to question certain practices only to be shot down on flames.
here

Well someone somewhere is doing something judging by the billboars across England and Wales with negative messages about the royals!

I probably should feel bad for being happy to see that but not really

Oh gosh dream I'm off to look that up!

In the daily mail

Thanks, off to read

Interesting - things could get complicated if this starts to be linked to break up of U.K.

I know, Roussette, but my sparkly pink unicorn from Cloud 9 says it's going to happen & I choose to believe him, not PA

The billboards are the Republic campaign, glad to see it finally getting its act together (if they stopped asking for money all the time I'd rejoin).

CHURCH, agreed, and it would be nice to see some well-known figures taking a moral stand and returning their honours. Eg Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen etc. Giving up the titles. It would be a bit of a sacrifice for them, but they'd probably gain even more kudos for doing it. Do you think anybody will?

Other counties seem to manage fine without titles.

but they'd probably gain even more kudos for doing it. at Judi Dench and Ian McKellen needing more kudos.

Michael Sheen the actor apparently gave his OBE back, after researching what England did to Wales.

Riding out with him in a relatively public part of the Great Park and having him in her car on the way to church in Scotland, so that photos of the two would appear the first few times PA hit the headlines is HM's equivalent to making a public statement

Interesting to see how the latter of these two actions plays out so differently depending on the observer. In many parts of the world (the US is the obvious example, but by no means the only one) a mother taking her publicly embarrassed son to church would be seen as indicating he is penitent and possibly even chastened, even if only under her influence. The Queen is said to be deeply religious, so I wonder if that was how she saw the action?

Anyway, to the heavily secular UK society, it clearly reads more as her taking him with her on an outing, with no other nuance attached.