In the ideal world of Buckingham Palace public relations, the most prominent headline about the royal family last week might have been a hurrah for the shortlist of the Queen’s platinum jubilee pudding competition, organised by Fortnum & Mason and judged by Mary Berry. However, try as the Palace might to make this a celebratory summer of bunting and “God bless you ma’am”, the monarch’s offspring keep on trashing the party plans. No sooner, it seems, has a table been prepared for a royal tea than an inspector calls.
It is said that the secret to great longevity is never to stop having novel experiences. Whatever the truth of that idea, one experience that the Queen might have preferred to avoid is the necessity, in her 95th year, of bailing out her 62-year-old child with reportedly up to £12m so that he could avoid appearing in an American court to defend himself against allegations of coerced sex with a trafficked 17-year-old. Andrew, of course, maintains his innocence and in settling the case with his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, accepts none of her accusations. We might have to wait for long distant episodes of The Crown properly to imagine how the conversations went that led to those funds being released, but it is to be hoped that the Queen’s second son did not offer his mother versions of his “incapable of sweating” and Pizza Express excuses. One result of those chats was that Andrew was stripped of his military titles. The city of York is now looking for ways to cut ties with its disgraced duke.
