66
The comedian Hal Cruttenden sums up brilliantly many people’s thoughts about the arrest on the day of his 66th birthday of the artist formerly known as Prince (Andrew):
“If the Royal Family is a soap opera, I think we’ve just reached the Emmerdale plane crash or the Den giving Angie divorce papers episode.” #Andrew #Epstein
It’s very, very funny and yet, by the same token, it isn’t. Andrew Windsor, the friend of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, WHO DENIES ANY WRONGDOING, has been lifted by Inspector Knacker on suspicion of misconduct in public office. As of now, I imagine, Windsor is sitting in a cell, having handed in his personal items to the custody sergeant and is waiting upon his lawyer, an eminent QC no doubt from the well-known legal partnership Messrs Sue, Grabbit and Runne, before being interviewed under caution. Let’s just take that in for a minute:
Mr Windsor answers the door in the dead of night to be greeted by the police. After confirming his identity, the lead copper will have said: “Andrew Mountbatten Windsor: I am arresting you on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Now I am going to caution you which is: You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something that you later rely on in Court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”
Yes, the bloke who is eighth in line to the throne, the actual brother of King Brian, is banged up under caution. All right, eighth isn’t actually that high. Prince Harry’s children Archie and Lilibet are above him and Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi (who she? – ed), who is four years old, is only two places below him. But in a King Ralph turn of events, it is theoretically possible that someday a jailbird could be ruling over us. I must emphasise at this point that Mr Windsor DENIES ANY WRONGDOING.
And Mr Windsor is an innocent man. After all, only an innocent man would borrow £12 million from his billionaire granny (rest in peace) and father in order to settle a civil lawsuit over sexual abuse with a woman, Virginia Giuffre, he claims he never met. We’ve all done it, haven’t we? Well, I haven’t, and I am guessing you haven’t, either. We’ve been scratching a living as best we can, trying to put bread on the table, struggling to pay the mortgage, working hard in exchange for a modest income and generally not hanging out with rich, famous paedophiles. It is the P word that angers me most.
There is no suggestion Windsor was engaged in such behaviour. But his mate was and he will have known about it. How do you maintain any respect for someone who had sex with minors? Because if you have sex with minors, it is not a passing fad. It is who and what you are. It is not an aberration. Wouldn’t you feel physically sick at the prospect of being in the same country as such a person, never mind the same room? And while the Royal Family has, belatedly, take action to remove Windsor’s titles, they cannot be exonerated.
How much did they know about Windsor’s activities and when did they know it? How come they didn’t kick him out of the door when came by on bended knee to borrow £12 million to pay off an accuser? Did they ask Windsor why he needed £12 million to pay off someone he had never met? It makes no sense at all.
Of course, the Royal Family is diminished. How could it not be? Harry Windsor is now a full-time celebrity, although he remains fifth in line to the throne, Princess Anne has slipped down the charts to 16th in line and we’re down to Prince William and his children. Brian continues to be unwell – let’s not speculate anymore, but we can’t ignore that simple fact – and we’re down to the bare bones. Who will be left soon to be rushed around the country shaking hands with people and cutting ribbons? Hang on: given that’s pretty well all they do, is it really worth the expense of keeping them at all?
My feeling is that despite this latest scandal, The Firm will survive, most likely in its current form. I hope not, though, and if we must have Royals at all, then their numbers are pared back dramatically, that they live lives more in tune with ordinary folk, which is to say working for a living. No one can seriously suggest that being a patron of a few charities represents proper hard work. They are not better than us, so why do we, the taxpayer subsidise, their lives by paying them to attend elite private schools and use elite private medical care that the lumpen proletariat could never afford?
Most people liked or at least respected Queen Elizabeth II but shouldn’t she really represent the end of the line when it comes to the Royal Family we used to know? Maybe Andrew Windsor is the only wrong ‘un in the household, but what the hell were the rest of them doing while he was gallivanting around the world, partying with the rich and infamous, including a convicted paedophile?
As we know, Windsor DENIES ANY WRONGDOING and we will need to wait for the police investigation to conclude whether he has a case to answer. From my point of view, I don’t see any way back for Windsor or any of his dysfunctional family. The age of cap-doffing and bowing to people of a supposedly superior class should have been over a long time ago. Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is but a symptom of Royal decline. A large part of me hopes he takes the rest of them down with him. They call the Royal Family an institution. I would ask who among you wants to be in an institution? Not me. Either way, the Royal Family once appeared on the BBC show It’s A Knock Out. It certainly should be now.
