In post-Brexit Britain, there are, I’d guess, solely three issues that individuals can agree on: Kirsty Young was the best host ever of Desert Island Discs; the creator of the Terry’s Chocolate Orange must be knighted; and Prince Andrew, Duke of York deserves to be left on some distant Scottish outcrop with solely sheep for firm. (On second ideas, perhaps no sheep.)
Instead, the place do you suppose one may need discovered the 63-year-old, unemployed, at-a-permanent-loose-end Duke this weekend? Re-watching 24 and disconsolately scooping his approach via a pint of Tesco’s mint choc-chip ice cream? Doodling in his gratitude journal? Yelling at squirrels in his backyard and questioning the place ex-wife and everlasting housemate Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York has stashed his Purdey shotguns?
Oh no.
There he was, proper smack dab behind his brother King Charles, whereas having fun with a return to the royal highlight.
On Sunday, three generations of the royal household piled into the pews of St George’s Chapel at Windsor for the primary Easter service with His Majesty within the prime job. (The day additionally occurred to be the second anniversary of the dying of Prince Philip and the 18th wedding ceremony anniversary of Charles and Queen Camilla.)
This ought to have been the type of PR slam dunk that will make a courtier swoon, the picture of a united House of Windsor gathering in present of assist for the brand new monarch.
And but as an alternative, making his approach down the hill in the direction of the chapel was the royal household’s blackest of black sheep.
I can not for the lifetime of me perceive why the King would have allowed his brother to be there on Sunday; to comply with Andrew being not solely seen however photographed by the ready press pack. (Perhaps Charles misplaced at Trivial Pursuit the evening earlier than and needed to let Andrew participate as forfeit?)
This was a extremely important day within the reign of King Charles III. Not solely did he assume the throne, the keys to Tower of London, all of the sturgeon and dolphins in UK territorial waters, and the armed providers when he acceded final September, however he additionally turned the pinnacle of the Church of England. And, as I’m reliably knowledgeable by a fast Google of Bible lessons for the apathetic atheists, there isn’t any holier day than Easter Sunday for each chocoholics and observers of the Christian religion.
Which is to say, on Sunday, Charles was meant to be on the job, not indulging his brother’s whims.
While His Majesty would possibly sometimes come throughout as a barely ineffectual, plant-whispering placeholder of a sovereign, the person takes his job damned significantly. So why the dickens was Andrew allowed to be such a visual a part of this milestone second?
For Charles, the inclusion of Andrew on Sunday represents a harmful transfer.
(Please think about the Jaws theme tune taking part in right here…)
There is a sure miserable type of deja vu to this.
For a lot of the previous few years of the queen’s life, Andrew represented a critical blind spot along with her maternal affection for her second son seeming to usually trump her sense of responsibility. It was solely in March final yr that the Duke managed to primarily pull what appeared like a critical swifty and bought his mumsy to comply with let him escort her to her seat inside Westminster Abbey for Prince Philip’s memorial service. Jaws dropped, eyes bulged and a common cry of ‘whaatttt’ went up when the noxious royal and his nonagenarian mom entered the Abbey through Poet’s Corner because the world watched.
It was an actual Exxon Valdez second for Elizabeth II.
However it had largely been assumed that with the passing of the Duke’s primary champion and final remaining dues-paying member of the Official Prince Andrew Fanclub (annual payment as set by Fergie: £5999 a yr) that he was about to face a lot colder winds.
In December, Andrew was a shock inclusion on the annual royal Christmas service at Sandringham however he was saved distant from the King and from William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their youngsters together with future king, Prince George. This appeared nearly OK – Andrew lowered to ‘permanent blurry blob in the background at family events’ standing.
Then it appeared like Charles’ displeasure at his witless, egomaniac of a brother’s motion was lastly coming into full impact with the news broke that he was reportedly planning on giving his brother’s practically $500,000 tax-free allowance a critical haircut. Embarrassing sufficient for Andrew however much more so when it turned obvious this could additionally imply he might not afford the maintenance on his monumental grace-and-favour dwelling Royal Lodge. Goodbye to the 30 rooms, swimming pool and property so large it has its personal chapel. Diddums.
Instead he was provided Harry and Meghan’s five-bedroom Frogmore Cottage the place he could have a hell of a time unplugging all of the leftover oil diffusers and chucking out the litany of Post-It notice affirmations caught to each reflective floor.
At final look, Andrew is reported to have been digging in his heels however has precisely no playing cards left to play.
When the Royal Lodge news broke, it appeared like lastly, FINALLY, after many years of near-impunity, of reportedly spending time in St Tropez with a gun runner who launched him to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, of visiting international locations on human rights watchlists, and having fun with a New York City break with a convicted intercourse offender, Andrew was going to face some materials penalties of his execrable judgment.
And but right here we’re at present with photographs of the Prince strolling within the spring sunshine, solely metres behind the King, lower than a month earlier than the coronation.
A sympathetic learn of this example can be that Charles, within the spirit of Christian forgiveness, determined to let his brother again into the fold. Or perhaps, after the humiliating Royal Lodge news, the King had determined to deem Sunday a household occasion versus an official outing.
But, that is a kind of moments when His Majesty must be making choices not as an emotional kind who consorts with timber and underlines passages in his autographed copy of the Dalai Lama’s The Art Of Happiness, however because the particular person whose accountability it’s to make sure that the monarchy endures.
For all of Harry and Meghan’s foot-stomping, TV tantrum-throwing and book-bellyaching, the harm their outbursts have executed to the monarchy can by no means start to match the irreparable hurt that Andrew and his friendship with convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein has executed to the crown.
For Charles, there mustn’t – ney, can not – be a touch of equivocation or a softening of his stance on Andrew if he needs his grandson to at some point inherit the throne and to not simply find yourself starring on I’m A Celebrity because the boy who was meant to be king after the monarchy collapses.
As a lot as I’m an enormous fan of Queen Elizabeth (each I and II), typically when it got here to the Andrew query, the late queen clearly struggled with these warring elements of herself, of the duelling halves of monarch and mom.
The Duke is clearly nonetheless part of Charles’ household, however the King’s job is to guard and safeguard a 1000-year-old establishment – to not give in to occasional bouts of affection or guilt like his mom appeared to.
It’s very a lot value noting that within the photographs from Sunday’s royal household procession to the chapel, William, Kate and their three youngsters trailed as far behind Andrew behind the royal pack as was humanly attainable.
It was reportedly William, in cahoots with Charles, who pressured the queen to vary tack and to not enable Andrew to participate within the Order of the Garter ceremony, a kind of red-letter, symbolic days which might be chock filled with significance and pomp. (Despite having misplaced his honorary navy titles and talent to make use of his HRH, Andrew stays a Knight of the Garter, the oldest and most prestigious chivalric order.)
Thus, whereas Charles and new Garter inductees – together with Camilla and former prime minister Tony Blair – capered about carrying velvet caps with monumental feathers, trying like they had been having a spiffing time, Andrew was left at dwelling to reorganise his putter assortment.
Maybe it’s now time for William to lean on his Pa a bit and drum a little bit of prudence into his noggin.
Charles mustn’t have permitted Andrew to seem within the very coronary heart of the royal household, at a second when the palace is busy making an attempt to promote a picture of a unified and strong House of Windsor.
There merely can’t be a approach again to something even vaguely resembling public life for the Duke of York.
If Charles wants some inspiration of his personal right here, he ought to look to the opposite Elizabeth’s well-known speech to the troops at Tilbury in 1588 as England ready to fend off a Spanish invasion, by which she declared: “I have the heart and stomach of a king.”
And that’s precisely what Charles wants proper now – to recollect his job calls for he have the fortitude and gumption and cojones “of a king”. Hell, he ought to in all probability write it on a couple of Post-It notes too.
Daniela Elser is a author and a royal commentator with greater than 15 years’ expertise working with a lot of Australia’s main media titles.
Source: www.news.com.au
