Andrew returning to public life

[antelopevalley]

"Prince Andrew — who recently paid a multimillion-pound settlement to Virginia Giuffre to keep her allegations of sexual abuse, which he denies, out of court — is set to make a controversial return to public life on Monday.

As a member of the Order of the Garter, this country’s oldest and most senior order of chivalry, Andrew, 62, will appear alongside senior members of the royal family at the Garter Day service at Windsor Castle."

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/palace-to-support-andrew-in-rebuilding-his-life-as-poison-prince-makes-surprise-return-to-public-duty-r6jskx9b3

Thx raspberry

🙂

No LaMarschallin it was a generic rhetorical question. I use the word nonce mainly as shorthand as I can't find a better word to convey my contempt for these people and the minimizers. After all, it derives from Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise, so take the "yard" off and it's perfect. (Court as in royal court).

Never knew that @FoiledByTheInsect you learn something new every day!

I don’t think anyone would disagree with you

I certainly don’t. I think it’s fair to say that PA was definitely “groomed” by Epstein because he saw the value that someone like Andrew could bring to him in terms of a veneer of respectability (he was striking up friendships with some of the Norwegian royals for presumably similar ends). Obviously Andrew wasn’t vulnerable, however, so he’s not someone we need to have sympathy for when he becomes a victim of his own stupidity. He was a grown adult who you might have expected would have developed the tools to see through the flatterers and those who were looking to use him for their own purposes. Sadly for Andrew, he clearly had not an ounce of self-awareness and blundered along in the utterly deluded belief that he was valued for his personal qualities rather than his position.

(As for whether he would have listened to his PPOs - this is the man who drove through the Palace gates rather than do as requested by the security detail and drive down the road to the ones that were open. I don’t think he’s much in the habit of listening to anyone…)

FoiledByTheInsect

After all, it derives from Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise, so take the "yard" off and it's perfect. (Court as in royal court).

That's interesting! I always like to learn new things, especially about language.
Thanks for the info
I'll probably still refrain from using it, though.

The major issue for me is that I strongly suspect the only reason they are keeping him out of the public eye is due to public opinion not because they think he has done anything wrong

They have let this be known via several well-placed journalistic pieces.

None of them has one shred of decency or integrity including the Queen, I don’t understand the National idolisation

There is definitely some of that but, mostly, I wonder if it's just resignation. If we cast the net even a little wider, we can see that top politicians, and religious leaders, are just as bad. So, what else is there? Who is going to lead us who is also decent? Might need some of LaMarschallin's Freudian therapy.

Hope this works (first time I've tried adding a photo to a post since the <hem hem> improvements.
This was in Celebrity Watch on the Times (can't do a link due to paywall) and amused me

Coo! It worked

😂

Brilliant. Thanks for posting. Sadly, all we can do is laugh.

Isn't Charles another one who is happy to sell access, to himself in this case, to the highest bidder?

Constantly, if reports are to be believed - only Charles's taste seems to run to gulf arabs rather than those from the Russian satellites, and until the recent Canadian tour he'd hardly visited the Commonwealth since 2019

Strange, really, when he was so desperate to be their next Head that mummy had to ask them to give him the job, but there you go

MaulPerton

Brilliant. Thanks for posting. Sadly, all we can do is laugh.

I know. Although, not being taken seriously is something he'd hate.
Probably too dim to really get how lampooned he is, sadly.

The major issue for me is that I strongly suspect the only reason they are keeping him out of the public eye is due to public opinion not because they think he has done anything wrong

Oh 100% this. They have zero morals and it’s only because it damages their image. They have known about his friendship with Epstein for years and years and it bothered them not a jot.
None or them have much of a moral compass. Freely having extramarital affairs (yes, including PW, if it was untrue he would have sued quicker than anything), consorting with criminals and rubbing their extreme wealth in people’s faces. It’s amazing that we want to be led by (and finance) a pretty thick man, famous for telling his mistress that he wished he was a tampon 🤢

famous for telling his mistress that he wished he was a tampon

I actually felt a bit sorry for Charles (and Camilla) after that.
I'm not sure everything I've said - or had said to me - during pillow talk or in private phone conversations with lovers would look good in the cold light of day, plastered over the newspapers.
Iirc, he was (albeit very clumsily) expressing his desire to be as close to her as possible.

It's no love poem, but:
"The libido is an awfully bad judge of literature" as the great writer said.

By which I mean, of course, Jilly Cooper.

That's true, of course, but it will always remain a stick to beat him with because of everything else associated with him.

Until the recent Canadian tour he'd hardly visited the Commonwealth since 2019

Fairness compels me to point out that he visited New Zealand, India and the Solomon Islands in late November 2019 and then the pandemic did intervene - I can’t imagine you’re calling for him to have breached travel rules just to show that he cares about the Commonwealth! He went then to Barbados in late 2021 for their Independence ceremonies.

His overseas visits are also determined by the Foriegn Office, not him personally.

Freely having extramarital affairs (yes, including PW, if it was untrue he would have sued quicker than anything)

Apart from the fact that extramarital affairs are pretty common at all levels of society, and so not something I find particularly bothersome as a stick to beat those in the public eye with - unless they lie about it, like Clinton/Boris etc - who exactly could PW have sued? No newspaper has published a story saying he’s having an affair.

A couple of newspapers published a “what would be behind this story we’ve heard??” piece - you can’t sue on that though. As I understand it Prince William then sent those publications letter saying that there was no story and if you publish you’ll be sued (Put Up or Shut Up, essentially) they all decided to shut up. This will have been because they had no evidence of anything going on, and no source that they could rely on. The discussion of it has all been on social media, and you can’t sue anonymous posters on message boards or social media platforms.

I felt a tiny bit sorry for Charles for tampongate if only because it was SO CRINGEY. I mean...yes I've had some v personal hot stuff said to me in my time but that was just so awful and not the slightest bit sexy or passionate!

It was like a toff's idea of red hot sexy. And blimey was it not!

It was like a toff's idea of red hot sexy. And blimey was it not!

I suppose that's the trouble; it was the idea of a man of a different generation and class from most of us.
And it didn't seem a turn off for Camila.
If it worked for them, I suppose that's okay as long as it stayed between them.
Which it didn't, of course.

Are you really saying posh men if that age would find that kind of talk a turn-on?
Bloody hell I am glad my DH is common as muck.

Hehe me too!
A tampon is a ummmm tampon and it doesn't conjure up anything sexy for me!
Each to their own I spose!

don't the royals have bodyguards with them on these trips and surely advisors to say 'probably best not to go to some secluded weird property in the middle of a desert'?

Given the oafish PA is reported to have bellowed at his PPO's to 'fcking well pick that up when he dropped some papers, alongside telling BP security 'it's my home and I go where I f*cking well like in it' when sparking a security alert visiting Mummy late at night it wouldn't be surprising if they shrugged their shoulders and let him get on with it.

As for the advisors, he reportedly tells anyone telling him something he doesn't want to hear to 'fck off out of my office

There can surely be only so many times they'll want to stick their neck out knowing the response they'll get.

Having read the transcript, I can clarify that though some of their conversation was definitely “sexy talk” (and yeah, as grim as it always is when written down and read in the cold light of day! 😩) the bit about the tampon was a joke - there were lots of references on the transcript to them laughing as they spoke about it and Camilla follows it by saying to Charles that he’s an absolute idiot as she laughs.

Ha! No idea why the cussing's bolded itself. Maybe it's a homage to his dulcet tones

Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying.
All posh men of that age talk about being tampons; didn't you know?

Meanwhile, back in the real world:
No. That's absolutely not what I was saying.
I said that a lot of intimate talk between two people in a sexual relationship would look cringey and possibly make you 🤢 if it was written out in a transcript.
People may say all sorts of things and find it sexy if they're aroused.

As I said, he was clumsily saying that he wished she was with him and wanted to be close to her as possible. And he made a joke.
At least he was treating her as a grown woman and wasn't afraid to mention the fact she had periods.
No "paedo" action there.

But if you can't see any nuance in what I've written and think that by "It was the idea of a man of a different generation and class from us" I'm not referring to just one specific person in one specific situation, but saying all posh men of that age would have said that, well I don't think I can explain it any more clearly.

*different from most of us.

Managed to misquote myself and there's going to be some "toff" in their 70s reading that thinking, "Bloody cheek saying Charles is a different age and class from me!".
Because things can be taken very literally here