Is Prince Andrew's protestation too little too late?

*PA has to have known what Epstein was. I do believe that. I hope that more fats emerge and he has to own up.
He has responsibilities in return for his lifestyle and he is not playing the game*

I agree. This is not going to go away. What a disgusting group of people he keeps company with a Maxwell, Trump, Epstein, talk about 'drain the swamp'

I agree about his non-innocence in this pinkquartz.

I do not believe PA has any innocence in this matter.
He has an extraordinarily arrogant expression on his face in some photos and from things I have read I think he enjoys taking advantage because that proves how powerful he is.

He is known to be the rudest of the royals.
I do not understand how he is the Queens favourite. What does that say about her?

I really want the entire Royal family to be put to work and their privilege lifestyle to end.

PA has to have known what Epstein was. I do believe that.
I hope that more facts emerge and he has to own up.

He has responsibilities in return for his lifestyle and he is not playing the game.

I have no idea where Victoria got her money from,

Suppose Windsor Castle could be turned into flats ?

Handed down...and where did the money come from in the first place?

The queen doesn't need use of all these residences. I just read a little about residences owned/used by the monarch and the luxury estates owned by the others. What utter privilege! They know they don't deserve this.
Meanwhile we are putting food in foodbank trolleys and campaigning for social housing. What a laugh!
Sorry I've gone totally off thread.

annepl the queen owns Balmoral, handed down from Victoria and Sandringham handed down from V11.

Buck House, Windsor, KP, Holyrood, St,James Palace are official residences of the reigning monarch but not the property of.

When queenie became queen her mother and sister had to move out of Buck House

Can you explain Anniebach and save me googling please ?

The Queen has two residences , the others are not hers to give away.

Prince Andrew imo is arrogant and just does what he wants. He can't be completely ignorant of what was going on.

According to the BBC Epstein and GM were at a "star studded" party at Sandringham, PA hosted a party for GM at Sandringham and they were on a pheasant shoot in Norfolk.

And what else do we not know......
It's a hard life being a royal.

Just before I read this I was on a support site for M.E. sufferers looking for advice on work they could possibly do at home as they are so short of money for essentials like food!/are finding it impossible to keep going to work with the pain and tiredness. (I was one of them)
And how many British citizens are suffering..homeless, ill, hungry.

So I have limited sympathy for the queen. If she gave up even one of her residences to help her "subjects" I might think she cared...a little.

But nothing will ever change. PA will be excused. He and the rest of the gang will continue to live with privilege and get away with everything. The whole system in Britain stinks.

If the queens parents didn’t want the marriage it would not have taken place. Arranged marriages are not decided by one
person. The queen mother was chosen for the duke of Windsor, and as in some previous generations she got the second son.

All the ‘the queen mother hated Wallis and Edward because they caused her husband an early death’ . Hell hath no fury etc.

Mountbatten was also a father figure to Prince Charles when he was growing up.

Don't most families have 'scandals' of some kind, certainly events or relations classified as 'dirty linen' and not talked about, or quietly forgotten.

They certainly exist in my family.

I don't think George V1th had mental problems. It is true that he was nervous, stammered badly, was highly strung and totally unprepared for kingship, but more with the help and support of his very able, strong minded wife, and mother he made a more than passable King. Mountbatten was a very ambitious man and quite frankly a mischief maker, pushing a marriage that the king and queen simply didn't want, in order to have his name included in the royal surname, causing the Queen enormous upset in the early days of her marriage! The Queen mother disliked him intensely, having seen through his machinations from day 1!! So what you saw, was not quite what you got!!

On Mountbatten, he didn’t just play a part in the marriage of the queen and Phillip. He was very much involved with the whole family. With the Duke of Windsor and Wallis, he escorted Wallis to her husband’s funeral.

George 6th had mental health problems, they all relied on Mountbatten. When he was murdered Margaret was so distressed she publicly called the IRA , pigs.

Andrew has always felt very "entitled" .... he has been the same with his daughters.

The Royals get away with everything, Andrew doesn’t do a worthwhile role of any kind for this country so why should we pay to keep him, we are almost broken with our NHS, housing and Education we can’t afford to keep a lazy parasite like him.

I understand that Princess Margaret could have been with "the love of her life" if she had been prepared to give up being royal and just become Mrs Townsend. She chose to stay royal and live a hedonistic life doing pretty much nothing of any value.

I think it is difficult for the second child. I know Princess Anne has said that right from childhood their nanny made it plain that Prince Charles was the No. 1 child. However, Anne has worked very hard for The Firm, and also with her horse riding, and found her niche early in life. Prince Harry could take note, but will find it hard because his wife wants the celebrity lifestyle and does not seem to understand the difference between celebrity and royalty .... and Harry at the moment is too besotted to show her. Harry needs a job and to get out of the pulpit.

The Royals have always had scandals, though, haven't they?

This one's no different, except there's no escaping the media now. It'll blow over eventually.

Didn't Mountbatten have a lot to do with fixing the marriage of the DofE and Her Maj?

I was 14 or 15 when I met my first boyfriend, he was 16 /17 I think. We remained an item well sort of, -at a distance until I was 18 and went to university (with a couple of “local” dalliances on my part )
I can well imagine the young Elizabeth fell for this blonde Greek god!

I am sure many a 19 year old has met a 13 year old in the most respectable of circumstances and been drawn to them. It is what happens next that matter. If nothing is done or said beyond keeping in contact with the family until the girl involved is at an age when a relationship is considered acceptable, I cannot see where any problem lies. If a 19 year old starts sexually grooming a 13 year old that is very different.

I have friends who were naval officers and they can tell you just how difficult it was to keep any kind of relationship going when you are away at sea for months at a time in an age before the internet and mobile phones.

^Paddyann* it is one thing to be a republican, another entirely to assume that every action of someone royal is immoral, illegal or aimed at transgressing the law.

merlot, yes he wasn’t wild but when the stirrings of Edward
abdicating began it cause panic, Bertie wasn’t considered suitable to be king. He too entered an arrange marriage.

paddyann you would say the queen going to the loo was murky.

I agree , who are you to think you could set us straight?

Not really, Annie. George V's second child was the best of the lot.

True Monica,

every generation has had its problems, the press remained silent, now they dont just report they print ‘sources close to said’.

I am always baffled by comments from the public on Margaret . ‘She had an unhappy life because she couldn’t marry the love of her life ‘, tosh. She lived a hedonistic life .

Is it a 2nd child thing in the Windsors ?

I think two children who meet at 9 are very different from a 13 year old being introduced to an adult of 18 or 19 who has the intention of marrying her .Maybe you would all be happy for a 19 year old to write to or nowadays msg /text your 13 year old GD ?
The documentary on TV this evening confirmed what I said earlier .Mountbatten was obsessed with getting his nephew's family on the throne and he succeeded .The footage shown of a very young looking 13 year old and a man in his late teens is quite creepy .But hey ..if you all believe it was the great love story of the 20th century who am I to set you straight /
Mountbatten saw himself as a kingmaker and was delighted when the family changed its name to Mountbatten Windsor ...he changed his crest to that too .Murky stuff!