to the tower with him
Unlike his direct predecessor, King Charles III always knew his reign would be relatively short. However, he probably never thought it would witness the most consequential and damaging crisis since his namesake lost his own head in 1649. And this remains only the beginning. Never the heir, but less of a spare than Harry, the ‘Andrew situation’ has not been over in a week, or a month, or a decade and it continues to pose deep, existential questions of the monarchy: its money, its secrecy, its lack of accountability, the deference it demands and its true character.
Andrew is done for. An arrogant, entitled, two-faced grifter has been shown to be the charlatan he always was. Did he even go to Woking Pizza Express? The removal of public duties, military ranks, aristocratic and royal titles and the eviction from grace and favour homes is no more than too little too late. He will eventually be brought, kicking and screaming, to trial within the king’s court, in front of a judge sitting under the royal court of arms and sentenced to serve time at His Majesty’s pleasure. The irony of Princess Anne’s dutiful tour of Leeds prison on the same day her favoured brother was in police custody was lost on no-one.
‘Never complain, never explain’ now speaks volumes as The Firm have been shown to be complicit in their handling of Mr Mountbatten Windsor. Incredibly tight with their own money, the Windsors have spent generations in rows, arguments and internecine sulks about how it’s spread around. The idea that they would fork-over undisclosed millions without a helluva kerfuffle, is pure bunkum. They all knew what was going on, including sadly, and it pains me to say this, the Queen, and this should be seen as nothing more than a #12m cover-up. Perhaps now the monarchy can drop the platitudes and help both us and the ex-prince’s victims in slightly more active ways than ‘thoughts and prayers’. The game’s up and they need to come clean about what they knew about Andrew and Epstein, and why they chose to keep schtum. A black sheep or a bad lot?
The palace apparently pores over its own opinion polls to gauge its next move and these now display a marked downturn. Ipsos shows 25% saying it would be better for the monarchy to be abolished, up from 10% ten years ago. Asked whether it will survive, 50% reckon there won’t be one within fifty years. For a nation that loves nothing more than a naughty knees-up at a celebratory street party these numbers are significant. This is the beginning of the end. You watch.
