Because we’ve known for at least 15 years Andrew was a wrong ‘un since he was photographed in 2010 strolling side-by-side with Epstein in the New York sunshine
King Charles has stripped his brother Andrew of titles and his home(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Forced by public and political pressure to finally sacrifice a sleazy brother to save his throne, King Charles the Weak putting family before country for so long crowns a sordid scandal that will forever tarnish a creaking hereditary monarchy. Now banishing slimeball sibling Andrew to the security of a comfortable life in a five-bed home on the sprawling Sandringham estate – what have the good people of Norfolk done to deserve a disgraced former prince as their new neighbour? – was no heroic, principled stand to internally exile the paedophile’s friend. Dithering, evasive, prevaricating Charles was bounced into doing the right thing only by a clamour growing deafening and neatly encapsulated by the heckler outside Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire who asked how long had the King known about his brother and convicted sex monster Jeffrey Epstein. We still don’t know the answer, Buckingham Palace crossing fingers the stripping of titles and eviction from Royal Lodge will quieten this stomach-churning drama. I wouldn’t be quite so sure, rackety royals. What fresh horrors may emerge after Halloween is anybody’s guess yet the antiquated institution should brace itself for more nastily stained laundry aired publicly.
Andrew, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell(Image: US District Court – Southern Dis)READ MORE: Prince Andrew LIVE: Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie flee UK as dad loses titles
OPINION
Because we’ve known for at least 15 years Andrew was a wrong ‘un since he was photographed in 2010 strolling side-by-side with Epstein in the New York sunshine. Ten years ago the creep was named in US court documents. Did Charles not ask questions then? Six years ago, after that gobsmacking Newsnight interview, the late Queen agreeing her favourite son would step back from official duties and give up roles with Army regiments and charities no longer wanting to touch him with a barge pole anyway was in reality doing the minimum. Why didn’t he lose the princely and Duke of York titles then? Why? Come on, Charles. Why? Or after the family, believed to include his mother and big bro, ponied up a suspected £12million to keep out of court Virginia Giuffre’s claim against a man implausibly claiming he’d never even met her?
Or as recently as a fortnight ago after Buckingham Palace issued Andrew’s backpatting statement boasting that, to do his duty for the Royal Family and country, he was selflessly agreeing not to use, not to give up, an honour and name leaving folk in York squirming?
Charles is no steely Alan Sugar pointing an unforgiving finger and growling “you’re fired” at another hopeless wannabe on The Apprentice. He’s more a manipulative, calculating and cynical Alan Carr doing anything to win on Celebrity Traitors but without the TV star’s humour and keen sense of the absurd.
The King was heckled outside Lichfield Cathedral(Image: Harry Owen)
I’m one of our country’s millions of republicans who believe democracy is a better way to choose a head of state than gamble on a much-broken line descended from warlords. Andrew and The Firm’s inept, self-interested handling of this sorry episode make the case for fundamental change better than anybody. The fact is the Royal Family’s proved its own worst enemy and will eventually be destroyed from within, whatever they call and wherever they hide the one they loved and now pretend not to know.
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Sunlight is an enemy of vampires and Royals. This is a time for scrutiny and accountability, within and outside Parliament. Let the finances be properly examined, applying a right for us to know what is done in our name under Freedom of Information access instead of giving the palace and castle brigade a free pass. The walls of Windsor Castle will be shaking. Andrew is the end of the beginning. The beginning of the end must be ahead.