Prince Andrew is not only an embarrassment to his family. It is a national liability.
This is because our precarious and fractured Britain has some political “glue” left that actually seems to work and be popular: namely, the monarchy. And anything that endangers the monarchy can be seen as the loose brick that, when moved and removed, means the beginning of the entire wall collapsing.
Hence our concern with the superficially trivial questions surrounding the origin of the money that has allowed Andrew to stay at Royal Lodge.
King Charles has long made clear his desire for Andrew to leave the Royal Lodge.
Until now, thanks to the generosity of his mother, who always favored him and made him her pet, the prince lives in the wonderful Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, which was the marital home of George VI before becoming king. . and which was where his widow, the Queen Mother, spent her retirement, as a much-adored National Treasure.
But King Charles has long made clear his desire for Andrew to leave the Royal Lodge. Perhaps in an effort to encourage him to move on, he has ordered the Keeper of the Privy Purse to cut his younger brother’s allowance of around £1 million a year, and is no longer paying for his security team (as the Mail has revealed from the new edition of Robert Hardman’s book, Charles III).
You would have thought Andrew might have taken the hint. But not.
At the weekend, it was revealed that the prince had secured sufficient funds to remain at Royal Lodge thanks to a mysterious benefactor who will allow the disgraced duke to continue to dominate the property.
It may well turn out that the generous person is a saint who honestly believes that this is a sensible use of a large amount of money, which could have been spent rehousing the poor, or aiding medical research, or shoring up the plight of the poor. war. Victims in the Middle East.
However, the overwhelming probability, given Andrew’s history so far, is that he has found a rich friend who will put the Royal Family to even more embarrassment. The prince was the patron of the Middle East Partnership and was also Special Representative for Trade and Investment.
While some welcomed his efforts as he flew around the world and helped people by introducing himself to the world of international trade, others, especially at the Foreign Office, raised an eyebrow at some of the company Andrew kept in the world. of international finance.
Now that he is no longer a working royal, there has been much less scrutiny of Andrew’s business activities.
At the weekend, it was revealed that the prince had secured financing to remain at the property.
In 2011, his wife Sarah Ferguson accepted £15,000 from convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to settle a debt.
The king has been trying to persuade Andrew to move to Frogmore Cottage.
But it is an area that deserves interrogation, particularly because his previous decisions to accept financial aid were far from prudent.
In 2011, for example, his wife Sarah Ferguson accepted £15,000 from convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to pay a debt, a decision she later described as a “gigantic error of judgement”.
And the prince’s former marital home, Sunninghill Park in Berkshire, was controversially bought by oil and gas magnate Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, in 2007 for £15m (£3m plus than requested). price, even though the property had been on the market for five years.
It was later revealed in 2016 that the Duke of York’s office, at the same time as Sunninghill was purchased, had been acting as a broker for Kulibayev, who wanted to buy another London home from the Queen’s estate. Andrew denied any wrongdoing.
Then in 2019, the Mail on Sunday revealed how he had used his taxpayer-funded role as trade envoy to quietly promote a Luxembourg-based private bank for the super-rich, owned by controversial billionaire David Rowland and his family.
This time, the public must be assured that the money that allows him to maintain his unpopular and extravagant lifestyle at Royal Lodge does not come from a source that, when revealed, will cover the monarchy with even more shame and shame. That means the duke has to clarify where the money comes from.
After all, Royal Lodge is a huge and unnecessarily luxurious house for his needs, even if we recognize that these “needs” include providing accommodation for his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
The Queen Mother’s weekends there were synonymous with extravagance and old-fashioned luxury, the likes of which had not been seen since the early 20th century, but no one envied the elderly lady her fun, and she provided great entertainment for her exotic guests and older, like Noel Coward or Sir Roy Strong.
The King has been trying to persuade Andrew to move into Frogmore Cottage, which has now been vacated by Harry and Meghan. In their brief occupation of the place, the Sussexes went all out, installing yoga studios, saunas and a large Granny Flat for Doria Ragland, Meghan’s mother.
Queen Elizabeth II always favored her son Andrew and made him her pet
From any normal point of view, this place, even if it is called a cabin, would seem like a more than suitable residence for the pampered Prince Andrew.
One of the glories of our Royal Family used to be that they liked to live simply. Our late Queen storing breakfast cereals in Tupperware and heating her room with an electric fire from a bar was a noble tradition. George V lived simply at York Cottage, Sandringham, and bought shop furniture at the now closed Maples on London’s Tottenham Court Road.
His great predecessor, George III, unlike the kings of France or the Habsburg emperors in Vienna, lived simply, like a gentleman farmer.
Prince Andrew, on the other hand, with his flashy cars and his nickname Airmiles Andy, has always been attracted to the life of the wealthy jet-set. Hence his fateful friendship with the late Epstein, which destroyed his public reputation and made it necessary for him to retire from all official duties, in the armed forces and in charities.
No one wants to be vindictive towards him, although he is a pretty unpleasant guy by all accounts. All we want is for it to be kept secret, somewhere in Windsor Great Park, and not endanger the highly respected institution of the monarchy with more sordid behaviour.
To be sure of that, we need to know who gives Prince Andrew his money.
