AMW arrested …

[fairmaidofutopia]

At last …. 😊

The thing is there is no reason why they cant become more streamlined, just have the Head of State doing the Constitutional stuff and the Heir doing some charity work. Why involve the kids? Why take them on Royal engagements? They don't need to be groomed from birth do do this stuff. Its not rocket science. They could all be Lord/Lady whatever until they are adults and then decide for themselves. They could do the occasional waving on a balcony and walking to church. The ridiculous spectacle at Sandringham has only existed for a few years, and the even more ridiculous 'Lion King' presentation of Royal babies on steps has only been since Princess Anne did it. Do what, 6 families need 50 residences? Fully staffed?
The only reason to keep it as it is is because they cant bear to give up the unbridled wealth and privilege they enjoy and think forcing their children into a situation where they have nothing to do with their lives but wait for handouts and do some ribbon cutting is a price worth paying. Which to be fair, it probably is!

Yes, me too. William is 44 I think. He could live for another 40 or 50 years. I don't think a 60 year old George is going to be King, or if he is, it will be to finally wind the whole thing up. Although the symmetry of going from William to William would be good.
Brexit was a massive change in everything- our trading relationships, laws, economic damage that will continue for generations. Getting rid of the Monarchy will probably just be a slow decline of people not being that interested anymore, and someone else eventually signing some papers as Head of State instead.

‘Best friend’ of King Charles has been wheeled on News Night (no less twice this week - Jonathan Dimbleby - to mouthing the concern for AMW’s welfare - 100% he would have been briefed to drop those messages by King Charles

Exactly, @Chesterdrawss
Dimbleby may or may not be Charles best friend, but he's certainly a patsy to be used in laying the groundwork, and as said so often I'm convinced a "mental health crisis" will be brought into play if this comes anywhere near a charge or trial for Andrew

I so agree with you. I just want the Monarch holed up somewhere signing the papers he has to and me not seeing the rest of them.
Turn up for the Cenotaph in November maybe, and that's it.
Faint hope though

I agree - and the sole aim to avoid AMW being interrogated via a globally reported public trial is not to save AMW’s neck but a much bigger aim to protect the monarchy from inevitable collateral damage / collapse directly or indirectly.

There are a lot of people on this gravy train and a multiple structural and institutional systems
will be shown to be complicit / facilitated / enabling / inadequate - at worst directly, indirectly and at best inadvertently - past and present monarchs, Sr Government officials and departments, civil servants, private secretaries, palace apparatus, security services, police, industry trade bodies - the stain, responsibility and accountability is thrown wide.

Where is SF? Is she on the run to a jurisdiction with no extradition process? What is she running from? Why is she not around to emotionally support her daughters at this time?

You don't know that she's not with her daughters.

She's been in Zurich at a £13,000 a day retreat. Followed by the French Alps then apparently UAE.

This could be right it could be wrong.

Yes, I've read the same as you but no one on here knows definitively where she is and what's going on. She could be sedated and having a nervous breakdown somewhere, real or faked, she could be jolly and pissed and laughing away in some mountain resort or anything in-between. Having speculation presented as facts doesn't help anything.

Yes, here's a source..
www.lbc.co.uk/article/sarah-ferguson-swellness-clinic-epstein-scandal-5HjdSf6_2/

I've always thought they should have wound the whole thing up when E2 died and gone out on a bit of a high but recognised that C having waited seventy years for the job was never going to do that.

I then thought the wheels would fall off gently over maybe a decade or so but this accelerating scandal has blown that theory out of the water.

I think this debacle could actually see the end of the monarchy within the next five to ten years especially when the king in waiting has shown so very little enthusiasm for the role over decades.

I've always thought they should have wound the whole thing up when E2 died

A monarchy that's lasted a thousand years isn't just going to be 'wound up' because a popular queen dies, or the brother of a king is a low life.

Any or all can walk away any time they choose. If all chose there would be no option but to wind it up.

As it is they chose what might have appeared to be a slow slide into indifference over decades but in the event has turned into a rapid descent into a maelstrom.

Andrew Lownie has said if the public knew the full truth about MW it would bring down the monarchy.

I think we're seeing the start of that process.

I agree, no one cedes power willingly!
The more power you have the greater will be your desire to hang on to it. Royalty are appointed by god there is no greater power than that.
I'm not suggesting that they are actually appointed by God (or that there is a God) but people who believe in the monarchy act as if they are appointed by God.

Its not just the title. Its the balcony appearances, and all the other showy stuff when the royals are out in force. They're somebodies because they're royal. Otherwise they would be nobodies.

I'd love to think this was the (long overdue) end of them but the establishment won't let it happen. They'll use every bit of leverage, propaganda, dishonesty or trickery to keep the ultimate top tier of society in place. It's in their vested interests to do so.

I think it would help immensely if the ‘Orders’ that allow the monarch to bestow knighthoods, damehoods and other honours & privileges on career civil servants and senior military personnel etc were to be abolished.

The ‘Order of the Bath’ for example is a bloody disgrace.

https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/perm-secs-recognised-in-kings-birthday-honours

It’s why the more senior you go in the civil service, police and armed forces the more acquiescence you’ll find about the monarch’s wishes, no matter how those wishes are delivered or dressed up. No-one wants to jeopardise ‘their’ otherwise guaranteed gong.

Or perhaps politicians and civil servants should be excluded from orders due to that employment, leaving them available for other who have done excellent work but not been in positions of power.

The government would have to pay more then - it’s recognised that very senior servants - judges are a good example - regard the “gong” as the quid pro quo for foregoing a lucrative salary in the private sector. Take that off the table and they might see it as an unattractive bargain?

Now don't give anyone ideas of how to bump themselves up the succession batting order!

Good point @Serenster - though I do still think of judges as independent of the murky political world.

The Divine Right to Rule ended when William & Mary came to the throne. The monarchy are officially no longer descended from God.
Interestingly, in Matt Pinsent's episode of Who do you think you are? it transpired that he was descended from one of the earlier King Edward's who pre-dated William & Mary, so - joked the historian - Matt Pinsent actually is descended from God 😄But we all knew that anyway, he's ace.

I wonder which other royals use our money for "massages" .
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdr232j8kgvo

I can’t understand why the government and their officials condoned what Andrew got up to on his Trade Envoy jaunts. Yes, the RF need to give answers, but the governments who facilitated him, despite their own officials feeding back to them how corrupt he was, did nothing, just let him run wild leeching off the taxpayers they were supposed to represent and who had put them in government. This was long before the Epstein scandal cut him off at the knees. David Cameron then publicly supported him when Andrew’s links to Epstein were exposed.

I agree. So many people allowed this to happen.