Andrew Lownie's "Entitled" talk at AlumniFestival, University of Cambridge

[QuenchedSquirrel]

Here's a link to the talk on YouTube: Andrew Lownie describes "Entitled" as a book about financial corruption by a senior royal.

I think the suspicion is that Beatrice is grifting in the Middle East and it involves daddy’s chums, and that she self-identifies as a ‘private equity analyst’ as well as using her ‘HRH Princess’ title in order to grease the wheels.

And that she must be doing this knowingly. No-one is that naive, at 37 years old.

If any of these chums turn out to be extremely dodgy, then that’s a problem for her.

Makes sense. If the case, wise to exit fast & keep a low profile in the future.

DoK =Duchess of Kent, who died recently.
I hadn’t realised they still do that many engagements, so definitely shouldn’t be kicked out of their G&F homes!

Beatrice seems not to be particularly clued up generally, and she flew out to the middle East last week or the week before when all this was coming out, so she doesn't have great judgement.

It was her after all that persuaded her dad to do the interview, and was the intermediary between the BBC and her dad.

So I think there's definitely more light to be shone there. I think there is some nativity there because the people she's mixing with are using her for their own ends and won't hesitate to ditch the association if things start to look tricky for her.

Having now been tucked in to the rabbit hole...at the end of the Lownie interview on Mountbatten he says he would like to do a similar treatment on Prince Philip.
As an aside we had a chat with a retired diplomat at an event a few years ago. She said that Diana and Philip were the best briefed members of the family. Philip was very impressive at chairing conference papers.

It would be interesting if he tried to do Philip. He wondered how much access he might get to papers and people, so it could end up being something that wouldn't quite work.

He had enough issues with Mountbattens. Interesting there that all the paedophilia he was involved in hasn't had any knock on effect with the monarchy. They all seem to be very poor judges if character.

Andrew was easier because he was such an awful person people were only too happy to talk!

He is going after B&E now quite fiercely. I'm not sure they've warranted that scrutiny.

surely, if they haven't done anything wrong, they've got nothing to worry about have they?

They ALL warrant scrutiny, even the King

I am slightly surprised Lownie talks openly about Phillip being a serial philanderer. Wouldn’t this have been very difficult for the Queen? Lownie talks about his affair with SF’s mother which sounds particularly tricky.

Could this be why the Queen had very little sympathy with Diana over Charles’ infidelity with Camilla. It was only the one mistress get a grip...

Phil was apparently habitually short & rude to staff. It’s perhaps not a surprise PA did same.

I thought Beatrice tried to talk Andrew out of doing the interview, and it was his PR lady who pushed him to do it?

Thanks for the elucidation!

No
Beatrice was instrumental in making it happen

His PR guy/media adviser was strongly against it and resigned when Andrew refused to back down

metro.co.uk/2019/11/17/prince-andrews-pr-adviser-quit-telling-not-tv-interview-11170702/

It’s only here that the media has/had a deferential embargo on mentioning Phil’s affairs. Go to eg France or Italy and it’s a different story. He had a French mistress for a while.

Interesting. I wonder how the Queen felt about it all? Affairs are the norm for their set & I do wonder if the Queen thought Diana just very middle class & prissy about Camilla…(?)

The amount of work and time that went into this book is massive. I found his presentation quite shocking and relentless. He really fit a lot into that hour. The amount of decadence and waste, the cover-ups, the Queen's role, etc, is a lot. Really hits home that she was not innocent.

Watching this now. Lownie thinks most likely charge is malfeasance in public office.

Please let this happen.

The RF need to know they're not untouchable when it comes to the law.

Diana was part of the aristocracy; before Lord Spencer entered the church to give her away on her wedding day he mentioned the Spencer leniage.

I think the Windsors thought Diana was self absorbed. All the cheering crowds had gone to her head. Thought her ego was too big, she was silly for not understanding that she couldn't attract the entire world. Diana was too much hard work for them, and not very deferential. The Spencer s had equally as good lineage, but had veered away over the previous generations from the current ruling line, before her marriage re-established the regal connection.

Diana felt powerful enough to challenge the "firm".

Yes, she was an aristo but it might have been as Queen saw it ‘middle class’ to worry about a husband’s affairs. As long as you kept to establishment ‘rules’.

Yes to rest but Diana did try and look for warmth, compassion & understanding from the Queen.

True.

The Queen was pretty annoyed with Philip in her youth due to his early extra marital flirtations and disappointed in him, but she learned to live with it. The queen was thrown into the deep end too and had to get on with it. Stiff upper lip and all that.

Both Diana and Charles had poor parenting models. All were emotionally stunted.