Andrew. Again.

[MrsLeonFarrell]

BBC News - Questions over Andrew's judgement and finances raised again
www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx26q9d42g1o

At this point I think we really have to ask when he has ever displayed good judgement. Thank goodness he isn't a working royal anymore.

Completely agree with this!

This. Does anyone think we would have heard anything about Andrew if he hadn't disgraced himself with the Epstein business? His terrible behaviour and treatment of staff and ridiculous teddy bear demands were covered up for years, and only came out once he had been disgraced. Same with Harry. Now he's out of the fold, he's awful, selfish, lazy, thick grabby, consorts with dodgy people, entitled, shoots and plays Polo. But the rest of them do exactly the same. They just have better PR. Andrew and Harry are not outliers.They are exactly what their family has made them.

Since none of them live in the real world and never have done, they don't understand the concept of hard graft and integrity IMV.

I would sy that there is not a single one of them that I would trust. We have no idea what goes on amongst them and their courtiers and hangers on. None. No one will dare ask, and therein lies their ultimate power really. I am referring to all of them from the King down.

They are shielded from scrutiny, unlike us who must account for ourselves, be that at work, at home, in our tax returns, in our dealings with Government Bodies and Departments. Try and get a benefit to tide you over, or a box of food from a food bank, etc. and you will see that it is not easy. The RF has none of those concerns and never will.

But they never seem to have enough money do they? Always grab, grab, grab. And even when it is semi exposed like the Duchys and the land leased to the NHS and so on, the "establishment" media won't touch it.

A plague on all their houses. I trust none of them. Andrew just happens to be in the spotlight right now. Which might take the heat off the rest of them in the background.

How could the departure of H&M been any different?
They led the way in what they wanted to do, released public statements before any agreements had been made.

I agree more should have been done by the Queen and KC about Andrew but they were limited in their control over H&M. H&M did as they saw fit and scarpered.

Yep, first post nails it.

Would only add, aledgedly criminal, too.

Andrew is all the digusting things you’ve said but it’s interesting that of the Epstein ‘list’, Andrew is the only male to have received any heat.

So this idea of a cover up is BS. There are names out there that we know haven’t been investigated by police at all!

Those connected to the Trump admin are threatening to release it. I don’t know if that’s true or not but Andrew is the only one so far has faced any consequences at all.

That's an excellent point @Sunblessed. The big names linked to Epstein have so far (aside from Andrew) hidden behind powerful friends and super injunctions and god only knows what. But Andrew is the tip of the iceberg. There are some really influential and rich men out there who stand to be unmasked if that list of names from Epstein's little black book is ever released. It's high time it was!

I agree but when you've got his chief Aide saying this... what hope is there...

"I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal (Prince Andrew) and indeed his family.
"You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship… Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on. "

And Chinese spy says... "Under your guidance, we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor.”

This Aide Dominic Hampshire was sole director of a trust fund for Beatrice and Eugenie that had to be disbanded because of the nature of it, and said this when he set up a travel company 20 years ago..
“We literally hold the keys to the castle, and our connections allow for visits to otherwise private castles, golf clubs, after-hours private tours of museums with the curators, those kinds of things.”

What a surprise (not) he's Andrew's closest aide and has been for decades

I'd be interested to know who hired that aide @Extiainoiapeial, because I agree with you that that letter or email or whatever it was is absolutely shocking!

Absolutely agree.

Charmless has been allowed to take centre stage in countless events since his disgrace all smoothly explained away on the basis they're private family events.

He's gone shooting with Anne and Edward and attended coronation dinners in full view of the press.

Willy has had him riding shotgun at least twice knowing the paps were out.

All of them support him. All of them enable him.

Same two fingers to the plebs his mother was waving when she was seen with him immediately after Newsnight.

Very good point, but 🤮

His daughters seem to have been visiting the Gulf States a few times recently. Not to difficult to imagine where his money to help keep Royal Lodge might come from is it? Unless I’m being unfair and Eug is selling them some artworks or enlisting their help in anti slavery campaigns….oh wait…

His daughters seem to have been visiting the Gulf States a few times recently

Only to be expected I'm afraid, @angstridden2, and as non working RF they can hardly pretend to be benefiting anyone but themselves

Comment was quite rightly avoided when they were growing up, but I'd now be interested to know more about their activities too

Another interesting thing is the image of near-perfection William and Kate have built, and I have to wonder how much of this reflects reality and how much is down to the RF realising that the rest are so rotten they've got to have someone to present an acceptable face

Didn't the King come back from some trip in the ME with a bag full of CASH!

I think they are all a bit on the dim side myself. But it hasn't stopped them getting very very rich though. Far from it!

(I think the wads of cash were for charity, but honestly why cash? How many hands could have creamed some off the top!)

Fortnum and Mason carrier bags I'll have you know! That makes it all OK. It was passed by the Charity Commission, well it would be wouldn't it...

Now that his daughters are older and have their own families, I don't think he would do a tell all. Beatrice and Eugenie are generally viewed positively by the public, despite their parents and 'gifts' from Andrews 'friends. Sarah is somehow managing to claw back some semblance of a positive reputation, I think any tell all could destroy all of them. It didn't work out too well for Harry, his reputation has been anniliahed for most people. , although Andrew has no reputation left to destroy, his daughters and grandkids would have to bear the brunt of the fallout. .

I vaguely remember from Wikileaks, the US ambassadors emails were absolutely disparaging of Andrew in his trade envoy role. the US ambassador to Kazakstan was particularly scathing in her private emails which were leaked., A few months after that meeting with the Kazaks on his trade envoy imission, Andrews house was purchased for more than it was worth by the son in law of the Kazak president, then left to rot into the ground.

Hard to believe none of that was investigated at the time, them Epstein, Rowland and a frigging Chinese spy now, god only knows what else has gone on in the meantime. He should move to Switzerland where a lot of dodgy characters can continue to live in luxury and go about their dastardly deeds in private.

I doubt the lid will come off their shenanigans any time soon.

Too many hands in the greasy till methinks.

I get a sense that more and more little titbits are being revealed though, is that just me? So hope it snowballs.

I suppose W and K have the position and know they’ll get the money too when he becomes King so there’s no need for grifting or trying to maintain status in the hierarchy. I just wonder what happened to the QM’s fortune which apparently was left to gcs and ggcs. The Queen must have left £Ms too, she was supposed to have a huge personal fortune so why is Andrew grubbing around?

I have no time for Sarah or the daughters, they have been happy to accept diamonds and wads of cash from dodgy people, the three of them were named in a High court fraud case accepting money from Selman Turk.

Between the four of them, they don't seem to have an ounce of sense. Unofficial Cultural Ambassadors for the UK in the middle east, multiple trips to Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi, why would they imagine that doesn't look dodgy when their Father suddenly can manage to pay Royal Lodge upkeep costs, given his history with the ME and backhanders right left and centre.
Honestly, they must be thick. The daughters have married relatively wealthy husbands, why do this sort of thing?

Everyone agrees that Andrew is an utter twat

I think you are right in terms of how stupid it would be to do a tell all given the liklihood that it would splash back on his own family but then we would have to be able to be confident that he has some sense and so far there is no evidence of that at all.

Because is is a stupid useful idiot who thought he was more important on the international stage than he was. The other people involved with Epstein are disgusting, but they also knoew that they needed to have some way of covering up wrongdoing. Andrew thought 'Im a Prince' was enough, because in this country it seems, it is. Why do the courts and governments agree to give Royals exemptions from legislation? Why are they allowing wills and documents to be sealed for 100 years? Why are Andrews dealings being covered up when he was representing the UK as Trade envoy? Because in the UK, the establishment fall over themselves to protect the Royals. Its when they go out on the International stage that they realise they don't have as much protection and they aren't as revered and above the law as they are here.

I have repeatedly said that had HM taken steps to remove their titles , things might have been different .
I agree it’s extremely unlikely but I think Andrew and H and M should have all titles removed .

I think the central question about this scandal relates, unsurprisingly, to the money.

Andrew Lownie, a well respected author who has been writing a book on Prince Andrew has been saying for a few years now that

“Government departments are doing "anything to avoid" sharing information about Prince Andrew's past business dealings.”

Apparently, he submitted over a hundred requests to Whitehall departments only to find that the information "has vanished".

He said to Sky News that he used to write about the intelligence services, and found that was a lot easier, a lot more open and transparent than the Royal Family.

He went on to say;
"I have tried, through the Freedom Information Act, to get access to any of the paperwork for Andrew, a special representative between 2001 and 2011 when he was taxpayer-funded, a public servant", but explaining how his requests have been rejected he said "this stuff has vanished".

If that’s true and he’s found it easier to glean information about spies than on Prince Andrew, and Whitehall have been deliberately hiding this information, then I think it’s reasonable to ask why, how and on who’s request?

If his ten-year contact with this Chinese spy started through official channels then there has to be some accountability surely?

And secondly, as Matt Frei said just now on LBC, are we allowed to know where Andrew is getting his money now, if Prince Charles has cut him off financially?

How is he heating Royal Lodge, for example, which has thirty bedrooms?

And if Prince Andrew has been such a liability for so many years, it has to be asked, why didn’t the late Queen pay him a decent amount so he wouldn’t be? It’s not as if they didn’t have the money! She eventually had to settle his case with Virginia Robert’s Giuffre out of court with what The Telegraph estimated to be £12 million. So why not fund him properly in the first place?

It’s not as if they didn’t know he was a liability because Prince Andrew post-divorce sold his home Sunninghall Park in Ascot to a Kazakh oligarch in 2007 who, according to The Tatler, rather curiously paid Prince Andrew £3 million more than the asking price of £12 million;

“A surprising amount given the house had been on the market for five years and had been rather unfavourably compared to a Tesco superstore.”

Even more surprising, when following the purchase, no one lived there, and it fell in to disrepair and was eventually knocked down!

“It was later reported that the Duke of York had been acting as a fixer in Mr Kulibayev's business deals. Andrew – who is close to the tycoon's father-in-law, enjoying goose-hunting trips with him – denied any impropriety.”

Why wasn’t any of this investigated properly at the time? Or if it was, why was it allowed to be hushed up, and why were Prince Andrew’s wider dealings not investigated too?

Could it be that as the Queen’s favourite son, no one wanted to rock the boat?

The protection the Royal Family are afforded in the UK is utterly mind-blowing imho.

If an ordinary army officer had been hob- knobbing with a Chinese spy for ten years. they would be facing Court and prison, surely?

And who is following the money? If Prince Andrew was acting as a trade envoy, a public role, while this was going on, then there should be some public accountability.

Or will it all be hushed up again as with all the previous occasions?

I kind of wonder if removing Andrew's title might not make him worse. He'd be even more desperate. It's blatantly obvious to anyone watching that the relationships and RF access would still be there, and the title wouldn't affect that.

This middle ground might be the worst of all worlds. Wings sufficiently clipped to make him feel desperate, but not enough to keep him properly on the leash. He hasn't been made to behave, and nor has he had his mouth stuffed with enough gold to remove the desire for embarrassing panhandling.