So William is taking control of Palace response to Andrew scandal

[ShenandoahRiver]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prince-andrew-royal-lodge-virginia-giuffre-latest-news-b2850570.html

Bless Jenny Bond 😂

Jenny Bond was the female version of Nicholas Witchell and hopping mad sounds like the girls boarding school phrase for being a bit irritated

😂😂😂😂

I think Andrew has Narcissistic Personality Disorder , he had power and status and free rein to do whatever he liked & now he doesn’t have a mum to protect him .

When William actually says something or puts out a statement himself, I’ll believe William is on it. But “sources” won’t cut it.

Yes its a bit ' I'm taking my homework home to mark it myself as thexteaher is too busy'. William will find that everything is fine and theres nothing to see here.

he also can confirm what he’s angry about, his uncle’s behaviour or his fathers slow response making the family look bad? Is the abuse the problem or the slow response?
Seeing as his entire family knew what Andrew was like, including his father, who raised concerns about Andrew being trade envoy (which was ignored by his mother) and the Epstein scandal and Royal Lodge arrangements were known to them all along its likely its more concern that his family will end up having to justify their behaviour and be more transparent.

😀

Haha yes.

To be fair, he could well find himself fully entitled to taxpayer-funded free accommodation of a particular kind, should those who are currently protecting him from on high allow him to face a trial.

There is a comment piece in the Independent but it is behind a paywall. The opening sentence refers to the possibility of Andrew taking Elizabeth's good name down with him. Another paywalled piece speaks about how the RF are completely misjudging the public mood- last seen in 1997 following Diana's death.

Royals want MPs to focus on ‘important issues’ not Prince Andrew, No 10 says.
Downing Street said the Government would not allocate time for a Commons debate on Andrew’s conduct or his living arrangements

What a surprise
Not

Same with Starmer. He didn't back call for further scrutiny at all. What he said was that it was important the Crown Estate was scrutinised. He didn't say it needed any more scrutiny.

Given that the original lease was reported by the National Audit Office, and reviewed by two independent advisers, it's hard to see how he could say so without looking foolish.

I think they are all scared of A and what the repercussions of doing anything about him might be for their privileged cossetted and protected lifestyles.

"You do it Dad, no YOU do it W, I'm not very well these days. But I'm very busy with the kids and Catherine Dad. What will we do son, get Parliament to investigate or what? I dunno Dad, they might get rid of all of us. OMG, say nothing then, keep the head down and hope it all blows over. I'm off to see the Pope so I better tell the subjects to look at MEEEE for a bit, then A might go off the front pages. What do you think son? Say a few prayers for us all Dad, we need them, since we might have to do something soon before the peasants revolt. Ah pour me another gin there son, at least the cellar is full"

Fortunately this one isn't paywalled, @ShenandoahRiver, and describes tey more stonewalling in parliament: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/government-mps-downing-street-house-of-commons-jeffrey-epstein-b2850898.html

I see "we are guided in this by the palace" is making an appearance again - it goes with yesterday's remarks that "legislation (on removing titles) is a matter for the palace in the first instance" - presumably in the hope people might believe this is how it's supposed to work

Thanks for this. Looks interesting. Have archived the articles so we can all have a nosy 🙂

https://archive.ph/ZtQDF

https://archive.ph/6g9LV

Private Eye said about 5? years ago that the [late] Queen dealt with state matters and Prince Philip handled the family issues. When Philip passed away she expected Charles to take over the family side but Charles hates confrontation so was terrible at it and as Prince Philip became more frail, and then passed away, the family side became less and less controlled because Charles did not want to have any difficult conversations.

Hence Harry complaining that his father won't take his calls - Charles cannot cope with them so avoids them. This may also explain one of the reasons why Charles infuriated Diana - he just did not (could not?) react to emotional appeals.

Andrew is Charles's little brother. However he has behaved that relationship must still be there somewhere. Charles knows something drastic needs doing but doesn't want to do it himself. . . so why not give it to William to handle? William who seems much more able to be harsh when necessary.

@CathyorClaire
Thank you!
Britain a banana republic - the RF will be outraged!
Catherine needs to dye her hair again to take the pressure off them.

Wonder what Philip's opinion on Andrew's behaviour was..
Though he was so boorish and bullying himself that he probably thought it was perfectly fine and man like!

Thanks, Cathy; excellent pieces but already taken over by events

They said that "parliament will act" if the RF fail to, but it's being made more than clear that parliament has no intention of doing any such thing - and worse, they're trying to pretend it's for the palace to call the shots rather than our elected representatives

I just didn’t get the impression that Philip was close to any of his children, particularly his sons. I don’t think he took much interest in what they were up to , or not.

Ghastly reading, isn't it?

Royals (as we always suspected) more concerned with throwing hush money at a scandal to avoid casting a shadow over an extravagantly publicly funded knees-up celebrating an incumbent mostly too ill to attend than bringing one of their own to account 😡

How the heck can legislation of all things be a matter for the palace?!?!?!?!?!?!

You tell me, CrimsonStoat

I can only think they're hoping folk will be too ignorant to realise it's not supposed to work that way, or that they simply won't care enough - and it gets worse with No10 now saying the family want them to focus on important issues rather than Andrew (strange link I know, but others were paywalled)

https://www.thetottenhamindependent.co.uk/news/national/25566435.royals-want-mps-focus-important-issues-not-prince-andrew-no-10-says/

Yes, I've said it before on these threads.

The government (of whatever persuasion) could have discussed Andrew and brought forward legislation to remove the Dukedom any time it wanted.

It just doesn't want to.

There are too many more powerful men involved. It's not about Andrew. He's just the scapegoat.