I have pre-ordered Andrew Lownie's Book (out I think 14th August) A thread for those interested in "Entitled"

[BasiliskStare]

So for those interested in this book about the Yorks. I will read it and interested to hear from others who have or to give an opinion.

No spitting , no gouging 😂

I totally agree with you @Puzzledandpissedoff- “……..what kind of woman would want someone else’s fiancè….” and one with whom he had a very young child.
☹️

It's all "reportedly" again, but i'll always remember someone's post that in more elegant days a gentleman in Andrew's position would have retired to his study with a gun and a bottle of whisky and done the decent thing
The fly in the ointment here is that he'd have the least idea of what the decent thing is

There's a claim in the book that Andrew lost his virginity aged 11 to a hooker hired by a friend's father

Of course, if it was anyone but Andrew, most people would be horrified by the concept of
-encouraging suicide
-sexual abuse of a child by a friend's father
-publishing that abuse in a book without the consent of the victim

I have consistently been clear that I believe Andrew should face justice (assuming evidence sufficient to prosecute, convict and sentence in an appropriate court) so I am not defending him.
I am, however, bemused at behaviour that people will find acceptable in the pursuit of someone they dislike.

Will Andrew Lownie go to bed on New Year's Eve with a big smile on his face? Will he be richer in money than he was on 1st Jan 2025?

I believe Andrew Lownie has done a service to the country by exposing the behaviour of AMW, SF and the royal family in general.

He was blocked from his FOI requests at every turn yet still delivered this devastating exposé.

I hope he wakes up grinning from ear to ear.

Well it won’t be because he makes the NY Honours list!

upinaballoon · Today 21:12
Will Andrew Lownie go to bed on New Year's Eve with a big smile on his face? Will he be richer in money than he was on 1st Jan 2025?*

I hope he does go to bed with a big smile on his face! He has done a sterling job!

I think it’s more likely to be an exhausted face though as he has worked damned hard and earned every penny from the proceeds of his book!

Also, I think Lownie has genuinely done all of us a favour by exposing the current state of an institution that many people assumed to be above criticism and is in fact hiding behind a wall of secrecy because it has failed to keep its own house in order and is neither financially accountable or transparent. Indeed it appears to have covered up quite significant alleged corruption by AMW when he was acting as trade envoy and being funded by the British taxpayer.

Above all, Lownie has gone a long way to bringing all of the evidence of Andrew’s wrongdoings that was already out there, in to one place; including horrible sexual exploitation of trafficked minors and has given further credibility to the voice of Virginia Giuffre RIP.

Monarchists don’t like Lownie but imho I think they should be grateful to him because without significant change, the institution will be finished!

As it happens though, as we have learnt even today, the RF and the establishment are still protecting Andrew, and themselves, and the RF’s response to the book beyond encouraging A to move house, and removing most of his titles, appears to be “nothing to see here, let’s move on”. Big mistake imho.

And as ever, our braver MPs are being prevented from tabling questions in Parliament! And we live in a so-called democracy?

The French phrase “plus ça change”
springs to mind, or rather the full phrase,
"plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” which means "the more things change, the more they stay the same”, indicating that superficial changes don't alter fundamental realities! Sadly, it’s very apt in this instance.

And as ever, our braver MPs are being prevented from tabling questions in Parliament! And we live in a so-called democracy?

That is the responsibility of the government. If the government wanted the questions to be tabled, it would allow parliamentary time for them.

We know it's the responsibility of the government. That is the point of @Thewolffromthedoor89 's post

Does anyone ever wonder was Andrew’s behaviour discussed at the weekly meetings QE2 had with the various prime ministers who met her every week?
Or was it such a taboo subject that it couldn’t be mentioned?
Makes all that palaver about those meetings and how she went nowhere without her red boxes such a farce.
She was the great gaslighter of her subjects.

Great post @Thewolffromthedoor89.
I would regard myself as a mild monarchist but agree that there needs to be a massive overhaul, there needs to be transparency and scrutiny if the monarchy is to continue.
Andrew Lownie and Tom Bower have both really opened my eyes to how protected the monarchy has been.
I am glad to see that Andrew has been reduced to a commoner in terms of titles but he is still being protected and his wrongdoings covered up.
I hope Lownie does feel proud of his sterling work and I am sure he knows a lot more than he was able to put into his book.

The queen was told about Andrew . Repeatedly .

She ignored it all .
She is fully complicit with Andrew .
Remember the statement issued from Buckingham palace rubbishing VG? That was a blatant misuse of privilege . The full weight of the establishment - headed by the Windsors - was used against a woman - without any recourse to law . It was shockingly corrupt

Then when Elizabeth Windsor paid out , she made sure she was photographed with Andrew several times . The message was clear . Piss off peasants .

Btw Andrew is still HRH
The so called ‘title removal ‘ nothing but distraction .
He is fully protected .

The queen was told about Andrew . Repeatedly .
She ignored it all .
She is fully complicit with Andrew .

I agree. And where does that leave a succession of prime ministers?

Yes that’s the other question.

As mentioned above there have been brave MPs and privy councillors who have repeatedly spoken out but it will take the groundswell of objection from the public

It is there and growing .

I'm late to the party here as I've only just finished the book but I'm honestly staggered. One of those cases of reality actually being worse than what I'd imagined. What a greedy grifting pair.

And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as the daughters seem equally grifting, especially Beatrice and all her trips to the ME.

@AnnunciataM
I found it wearing to read and I have read a lot about the Windsors.

The endless abuses - of all kinds- is so disturbing that I skipped sections . I think the whole Andrew Windsor story is so unsettling because we know the Windsors = the establishment writ large and the abuse is covered up .

The Windsors knew and did nothing and even now they are protecting Andrew . That’s the bitter pill . I know the Windsors have minority support now but that’s what their supporters are cheering .

I know the Windsors have minority support now

If only. Support for the monarchy is still fairly high overall. It's only the under 50s really who are more for an elected head of state. Hopefully it will come.

I was staggered too. And as I was reading it, I was wondering about the sort of upbringing that produces such a person as Andrew.

My theory tbh is that the entire Windsor family are pretty dysfunctional and as far as finances go, I think they are all pretty entitled too, and they probably all do pretty much what Andrew did, but he obviously took it to extremes.

Lownie repeatedly said that the royal way was to never, ever use their own money for projects and that means a lot of extracting money from benefactors in exchange for audiences, or dinners, or a carriage ride; a prostitution of sorts, for want of a better expression, which is built in to the system.

As far as the emotional side of it goes, I know Prince Philip is revered as a very capable person when it came to ships, helicopters and horse carriages, but it seems to me that he wasn’t a great parent, except perhaps with Anne?

Lownie describes him as a distant and critical father. And of course the first pages of the book describes Philip’s affair with Sarah Ferguson’s mother. And by all accounts Philip went on to have many affairs with society women, actresses and ballet dancers.

I wonder what that does to a boy’s psyche witnessing his father do that? And I wonder what affect it had on the Queen herself and her marriage? It’s hardly a great foundation on which to raise well balanced children.

I wonder if Charles would have thrived had he not become King? And it’s hard to read Edward. None of them seem particularly at ease with themselves imho, except Anne. I think they are raised in a very emotionally damaging system too in which inevitably the heirs thrive and the rest become collateral damage. In Andrew’s case he very much propelled that damage forward.

Am aware that this thread is reaching its post limit but there's another similar thread going atm too which has plenty of space left. https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/5473274-andrew-continuing-his-effort-to-end-the-monarchy

If the infidelity alone is true, the benchmark for the boys is affairs are normal & the woman look the other way? Sex and love are different? Maybe for Anne too (?) ‘the son her never had?

I find PC’s immorality very hard to recognise with him being head of Church of England. It’s rank hypocrisy with one rule for them…

Lownie is apparently writing a book about Philip next, so it'll be interesting to see how much of Andrew's behaviour was influenced by a father who couldn't keep it in his pants.

Is it really true that he sent Andrew to a prostitute when he was eleven? That's astounding.

Maybe even for William. The Rose Hanbury thing may be true after all.

Same could be said for William and Harry. Diana had a least 6 affairs before she died - the first starting before Harry was even two. We all know Charles was shagging Camilla throughout. So William and Harry would have been brought up with the similar whispering etc but this would then have been amplified by Diana’s emotional reaction (maybe QE2 ‘accepted’ it as normal?) and her going to the global media via Panaroma. Also many details of her stalking and having affairs with married men were in the tabloids which the earlier generations of children didn’t have to endure. It must have been humiliating and emotionally very painful for them - not just the public coverage of your parents shenanigans but also parents like this are focused primarily on themselves and their affairs and are not attuned to their young children’s needs. They were also packed off to boarding school at 8.

It wasn’t his father that sent him but I think it is true. ‘Tarts’ are/were disposable but can teach you a thing or two if you pay attention. It was the norm in their circles.

I think Earl Spencer was also damaged by early sex, abuse & a similar story.