And the heir apparent has plans to reduce the number of ‘working’ Royals as well …
Don’t you guys have big companies who are willing to pony up $50k for the Local Authority so that their chief executive or other bigwigs can be the guest of honor?
The respect the monarchy still has is to a large extent attributable to Elizabeth herself. Whatever the failures of her children, she has been a genuinely amazing monarch who takes her job seriously. As a columnist in a Canadian newspaper pointed out this past week. Elizabeth II has visited Moose Jaw more times than she’s visited Manhattan, because the former is part of her job and the latter is not.
What respect the monarchy will retain after she’s dead and the job passed to her vastly less respectable son is anyone’s guess.
It would seem that in this case, we get punishment first, followed by trial and verdict.
Long and close association with a notorious paedophile and a convicted child trafficker, and blatant and ridiculous lies told to defend himself, are not sufficient to discredit him?
I suggest you read this short letter to the Queen from 150 former members of the armed services asking her to strip him of all his military ranks and titles. It sets out the case clearly and succinctly.
Moosomin, too.
Sing another prairie tune.
If Her Majesty had sent Andrew to prison you’d have a point, but she did not.
What nonsense. Judicial punishment requires a trial, but that’s not what this is. Not all forms of punishment are judicial. Do you imagine that someone cannot be fired from their job for misconduct without a criminal trial?
An example, from this very day: the president of the University of Michigan was just fired, due to an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, and using his university email account for communications with that person.
There may well have not been any laws broken at all in this case; it was still inappropriate, and almost undoubtedly in violation of the employer’s rules.
That’s already been well answered by multiple posters. I’ll just add that “trial and verdict” is neither required nor possible on matters of preserving the dignity and reputation of the monarchy. Andrew’s name is mud in the eyes of not just British people, but in the eyes of citizens of all the Commonwealth countries where the Queen is the head of state. And this sordid reputation is based on very compelling evidence, along with his embarrassingly inept attempts at denial.
Absolutely. A truly amazing lady.
There’s been a lot of wishful speculation that Charles might decline the throne and let it go to Prince William. William and Kate are really popular, and haven’t been mired in the kinds of controversy that Charles has. And I don’t think there’s any great love for Camilla, either. But, AIUI, no way that’s gonna happen.
It’s also a matter of who is the guilty party. Most likely it would be Epstein and/or Maxwell. Was any money exchanged or was this a favor to a famous Royal? Did Andrew transport her across state lines for prostitution or was it Epstein? The pandering would be Epstein again. If he didn’t pay for it Andrew might not be guilty of soliciting either. That’s before I bother looking at what the statute of limitations is for each charge. His lack of morality is clear but it’s unlikely he could be found guilty of a crime.
It would be an offense to the memory of his mother were Charles to give up the job at any point prior to death. It’s about the last thing she’d want him to do. So, to be honest, I won’t be the slightest bit surprised if he does it.
That said, as old as he is, we might have King Charles III for twenty years if he wants the job. He’s in good health and his father damn near got to 100.
n/m, saw the later mod note.
They won’t be affected officially. And that’s fair, as far as conferring titles on people at all is fair - they didn’t do anything. It’s highly unlikely they even covered for him or knew anything was going on.
Only the Queen actually gets any official state funding. But some of that funding will be diverted to the “working royals” - the ones who mainly stand in for the Queen, which might involve some foreign travel that could be fun, but also formal appearances that aren’t fun. Beatrice and Eugenie don’t do that. They turn up at some events as members of the family, but that’s it. They do still have bodyguards paid for by the crown - there was talk of getting rid of it, but Andrew protested. He’s aware that protecting young women is important if it’s his own daughters that are concerned.
(FWIW I think continuing the bodyguards for them was sensible when Andrew protested, and probably still is - they’re just such obvious targets for terrorism that it’d cost us less to have them guarded than to deal with the fall-out of them being killed - but that won’t be the case forever).
FWIW, His earned military rank, as opposed to his honorary ones, hasn’t been stripped yet. That’d be a different process.
You might want to read up on Italian history; the first fascist dictatorship happened in a constitutional monarchy.
But the monarchs also had a hand in the downfall of the Fascists as well as the Japanese regime. Without such a bulwark, however theoretical, the Fascist Council may not have been able to depose Mussolini and the Japanese may not have surrendered before even more of their countrypeople (and not a few more U.S. troops) had been killed.
Never mind.
Charles in Charge
Looks like it Charles and Wills who pushed the Queen to do the deed:
I once worked with a guy who had gone to high school with Prince Andrew. This would have been the late 1970s.
It was Lakefield College School, a private boys’ school in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. My co-worker knew Andrew, and had classes with him. They knew each other, though they did not know each other well.
But my co-worker knew him well enough that he said that the name “Randy Andy” fitted. Andrew was always on the prowl for women, and often succeeded in getting them. Apparently, he did a lot better at that, than a lot of us similarly-aged high school guys did.