Prince Andrew BACK in the royal fold

[tatalan]

How do you feel about this development?

He swore to his mum and family he was telling the truth

I don't see how they can rehabilitate Andrew into public life other than allowing him to attend some major events as a family member on an agreement he slips off into the shadows. The public aren't surely going to accept him

As with so much else about the monarchy the public have no damn choice - or rather they do in theory, but too high a % still cleave to it all

FWIW even I could just about stand Andrew being included in purely family occasions - after all that's their own business - but this is about as far from a private family occasion as it's possible to get

Never mind though; with Charles being little more than a stop gap we might just see a change when it's William's turn unless Andrew has anything on him too

If Charles gets soft with Andrew then he's an absolute bloody fool.

And what exactly do you mean by this?

How many times can Charles get it wrong.
How many? I guess he only met these people relativey briefly.

But it's one after the other after the other esp between him and Andrew??

How many have they befriended between them?

I’m still reading about this horrible bishop Peter Ball, the inquiry was revealing! Charles!

Bobbie Cheema QC, prosecuting, said: “The police report that accompanied the papers sent to the CPS in 1993 after the police had done their work stated they had received telephone calls supportive of Peter Ball ‘from many dozens of people – including MPs, former public school headmasters, JPs and even a lord chief justice’”.
She said there were many more letters of support, including from cabinet ministers and a member of the royal family.
After accepting the caution, Ball resigned and rented a cottage on the Prince of Wales’s Duchy of Cornwall estate.

Court case

What I find odd is... the men of the family (don't know about William, I mean Charles and Andrew) are so so easily influenced. Charles with his friendships with Saville and Ball.... and Andrew was summed up very well by Libby Purves about 8 years ago...

"Prince Andrew dazzles easily when confronted with immense wealth and apparent power. He has fallen for 'friendships' with bad, corrupt and clever men, not only in the US but in Libya, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, wherever."

I think it shows how protected members of the RF are and when it comes to making judgements about character of anyone they meet or associate with... they honestly haven't got a clue.
Rather worrying.

Roussette
I've wondered that too.

I sometimes wonder if it's because they've been told from a young age that they're something special so if someone comes in reinforcing their specialness, they're perhaps less suspicious than other people.

There's some large blind spots and although Andrew denies having sex with anyone at Epstein's parties, it's deeply concerning that he might have genuinely thought teenage girls would want to give full, informed and enthusiastic consent to sleep with the men at these parties. He doesn't seem to have questioned it at all, either because he knows the truth and didn't care or he's so arrogant that he didn't see what was right in front of his eyes.

The Sun said he was "set to be invited"

But the Court Circular said he was not there.

I think The Sun is running with "gosh, they're bringing him back" but this is too flimsy to be evidence of that.

RVO was a good one to choose though as a peg for that angle, because it's much more a family order.

I doubt very much that he's going to be rehabilitated beyond private contact with his family (which will occasionally be papped and published as "gosh how awful, they must be bringing him back) and appearances at the really big events, but after the Coronation, there won't be more of those for quite a while (unless the grim reaper comes early for someone). And nothing else. Because he shows no signs of having the character for a genuine reformation (leading to rehabilitation like say Profumo)

But the "set to be" and "expected to" stories will probably continue - because the beauty of them is that it doesn't matter if there was ever any truth whatsoever - if it did happen "we were right", if it didn't "we made them come to their senses". The option "we invented this bollocks in the first place and don't really care where it lands" is routinely overlooked. Tabloid tactics are so often so grubby

it's deeply concerning that he might have genuinely thought teenage girls would want to give full, informed and enthusiastic consent to sleep with the men at these parties.

Yes. I’ve read other peoples shocked accounts of Epstein parties full of very young women who made them wonder about age and appropriateness. We should be very suspicious of anyone who frequented his parties regularly.

I sometimes wonder if it's because they've been told from a young age that they're something special so if someone comes in reinforcing their specialness, they're perhaps less suspicious than other people

LolaSmiles So agree with this. And it just opens the door for those with an Agenda to do big suck up to a Royal. Which of course was Andrew's downfall, not just with Epstein but with all the oligarchs, arms dealers and rich ME royalty who made a beeline for him. He was a loose cannon, he used to tell his PPOs and Aides to fuck off, he'll see who he wants, and said he was only answerable to the Queen. Which of course was hopeless being favourite son.

P. Andrew has not been convicted of anything.
I heard the so called 'memoir' was only meant to be about his military life (Falklands War, etc).

He might not have been convicted of anything, but he was a frequent visitor at parties with a lot of teenage girls and older men. It raises questions about his judgement.

Given he's no longer a senior royal and has done very little to take responsibility for his actions, the fact he's trying to push his way back into public life is concerning.

If he does publish a memoir, I would hope it gives the servicemen and women who served with him the opportunity to publicly offer their own memories of Andrew and his behaviour, his character and the details of his deployments. If Andrew goes public, others will feel free to also do so, and to counter his narrative where necessary.

I suspect that recollections may vary.

I've wondered about the Court Circular. With Andrew no longer being a working royal would he be mentioned if he was there or could they choose to omit him?

Whilst we are talking about the seedy side of this awful family, lets not forget Laurens van der Post, often described as Charles' 'guru'. The term rapist or paedophile (or both) is probably more accurate bearing in mind, whilst in his 40s, a 14 year old girl became pregnant by him.

LvdP was also a serial liar and adulterer. Oh and William's godfather.

Yuk. And of course his beloved Lord Mountbatten.

Why doesn't he just do the decent thing and step back from public life. Yes he has to be there at big occasions, but shut up Andrew and retire. His close family may want to believe him (you normally would believe a family member) but he was lying through his teeth and that's obvious to see. Just show some dignity.

You claimed below @purpledalmation that he swore to his family that he was telling the truth

I have no idea what you mean by that - perhaps you could explain

Clearly the queen and Charles belived Andrew was guilty as they removed all his 'titles'
It was announced that he would no longer 'work' as a 'royal'

And NO he does NOT have to be at any of the 'state' occasions

Excuses were made when he was walking publicly at the queens funeral- he could have gone ahead to the church - he didn't , he wanted to parade

Excuses were made when he was front and centre at Easter -'private family event ' the minimising royalists said .

Now excuses made when he appears at the coronation

Charles has as many pedophile friends as Andrew - more for all we know !
Mountbatten court case ongoing

And the 'royals ' wil do exactly as they like

Decent people are disgusted and no longer want the Windows around

Well we know when a boy is called a little Emperor what that implies (spoilt over indulged brat) - well they literally are (well almost name wise!) . Andrew no doubt considered young women most who threw themselves at him as candy to be consumed and thrown away, and no doubt saw Epstein's groomed girls in the same light. I can see the rest of the RF in private being sympathetic to hapless Andrew who was a bit of a cad and has got turned over by common little 'sluts' being their way of thinking.

I think Andrew had such an inflated sense of his own self-importance, that he will have imagined they were all gagging for it. Him being a prince an' all

I find him abhorrent,.he's always been on the make and abused his position and the Queen allowed it. Years before he 'broke up' with Epstein there were numerous newspaper articles saying the queen was 'concerned' about his relationship with Epstein and his role as a trade envoy. Well, she didn't do anything about it did she? Epstein, Weinstein and Maxwell infiltrated the inner echelons of the monarchy at parties and shooting etc

The Queen was very weak as far as he was concerned'

@Novella4 He apparently said this to the queen. I read it in one of the books by a royal correspondent. It's obvious even without that. He's sworn in a TV interview he did nothing wrong, so he'd hardly confess the truth to his family.

Whether they believe him or not is irrelevant. He had his titles removed, not because he was proven guilty (nothing was ever tested in court) but because of the damage to the reputation of the RF.

He was clearly lying and something very shady went on. the only people who know the truth are the ones who were there. I don't know.

He also swore in a tv interview that he'd help the FBI in any way he could

We are still waiting .

I find the lack of public outrage that the Royal Family; a tax funded institution that is marketed as the symbol of Britain can an undisclosed amount to protect one of their own really astounding.

No journalist has even bothered to investigate how much was paid and more importantly where the money came from.

Andrew still lives in a tax funded mansion, has undisclosed amounts of inheritance (no confirmation if he’s paid tax on) and security. The lack of scrutiny while simultaneously telling us plebs how lucky we are to having these deviants is so jarring.

And then you have Camilla swanning about and heralded as the protector of women and lecturing about domestic abuse.