FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The clock had started to tick fast for Andrew in recent days...
Britons will remember last Thursday morning for years to come. Keir Starmer, already under pressure from all sides, explained on the BBC’s Morning Magazine that no one, including the former Prince Andrew, is above the law. Moments later, as Britons boarded buses and the Tube, police in unmarked vehicles arrived at Sandringham, the home where Andrew has lived since moving from his royal residence in Windsor. Shortly afterwards, the national broadcaster was the first to receive the news on its mobile phones: Andrew Mountbatten Windsor had been arrested on suspicion of misconduct. The charge is that he passed confidential government documents to Jeffrey Epstein.
To understand the symbolism of the moment, the police did not simply arrest a deposed former prince, who does not enjoy any high regard from the public anyway, but a man who remains a potential heir to the British throne. Despite his expulsion from the royal residence and the pompous removal of his titles (prince, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, Baron of Kildare and so on), Andrew remains eighth in line to the throne.
It's an oxymoron; nothing could be more important than something that happens once in five hundred years in history, but nothing less unmentionable than someone who takes the royal family seriously. It's this paradoxical state of affairs that has given Andrew the special immunity he has enjoyed all these years. A person at the forefront of current events, but with no real role in people's lives.
This line was abolished, perhaps forever, by Peter Mandelson, a former senior Labour minister, with his involvement in the Epstein scandal. The two were in close, constant contact, to the point of obsession, with the American tycoon. Both appear in correspondence to provide national secrets to help him enrich himself. So there can be no double standards. Indeed, no one is above the law, as Starmer said.
The clock has been ticking for Andrew in recent days. Just a week before his arrest, Sarah Owen, chair of the parliamentary equalities committee, asked in Parliament whether the time had come “beyond Peter Mandelson, for Andrew to be held accountable both to the police and to Parliament?” It is no coincidence that the biggest political victim of this case, Gordon Brown, prime minister when Mandelson was giving the information to Epstein, has taken up the matter patriotically and is essentially acting as an investigative journalist.
Brown's investigation
Gordon Brown's document to police says Epstein's private jet made 90 flights to and from British airports, trafficking women from Russia, Lithuania and Latvia. The former prime minister has sent a five-page document to several police forces across the UK about flight records at Stansted and other airports. The document says Epstein's private jet made 90 flights to and from British airports, trafficking women from Russia, Lithuania and Latvia.
Perhaps more historic than the arrest of a member of the royal family is the unprecedented demand from the political world that the palace open its latest archives. Because the police will not only investigate "private" Andrew, but also his deeds and days as a prominent member of the royal family. That is why in his statement King Charles promised the authorities that they "will have our full and undivided cooperation" in their investigations.
So, somewhere here, the relaxed, often volatile way in which the rest of the royal family treated Andrew officially comes to an end: as a man they could escape through isolation, a black face they would turn to move forward. Instead, it seems as if a new, unprecedented crisis has just begun.
In the public consciousness, the palace is de facto enshrined in history. It’s not just that Britons now see police officers coming and going from Royal Lodge, a royal residence where Andrew lived until two weeks ago, to gather incriminating evidence. Of course, the former prince was never alone either. He was accompanied everywhere, with senior palace officials accompanying him on his endless travels, with protection officers on business-class flights and accommodation in luxury hotels. Sexism was not just the whim of a mischievous member of the royal family. He was surrounded by people in high positions, such as his assistant David Stern, who also corresponded with Epstein and referred to his female victims in barbaric terms.
The way Charles treated her, the police will investigate Andrew's actions and days as a senior member of the royal family. In his statement, King Charles promised the authorities that they would have "our full and undivided cooperation." Every major crisis involving the palace always raises the same monotonous question: Is the monarchy over? But no question has been as serious as the one Andrew is asking his family. The stakes are much higher than how or if the palace will mourn Diana. This goes far beyond how Charles handles a family matter, such as his estrangement from his son Harry and wife Meghan.
This isn't just about how Charles will handle a crisis. Here, eight different police forces in Britain are investigating allegations that his brother used the country's airports to systematically traffic national secrets for his own benefit. The two allegations of sexual and financial scandals are not distinguishable, making it difficult to understand exactly which case Andrew is being called on for each time.
It is also difficult to distinguish the boundaries between the scandal-ridden political world and the palace. This is another unprecedented political condition. For the first time, a member of the royal family is entering the same framework as the political establishment. The sacred line between actual political life and the palace has become blurred. Until now, royal scandals were exclusively royal. They had an almost fairy-tale and automatically excusable dimension: as if kings operated in a special universe, far from the ordinary.
Suddenly, Andrew, from the royal residence of Windsor, appears to be doing business with politicians and together they are deceiving the world for their own personal enrichment. Mandelson and Andrew are, in the eyes of public opinion, two sides of the same coin. Until now, the monarch has had to defend only the monarchy, now Charles will have to fight to separate his position not from his brother, but from the crisis of public confidence in the Westminster political establishment. It is a point at which no British monarch has ever been before.
Historical precedents
As Andrew was being fingerprinted and sent to prison as a common prisoner, Britons began searching their national archives to find out when the last royal arrest took place. Was it in 1554, when the future Elizabeth I was arrested for her alleged involvement in a failed rebellion? Was it during Charles I's house arrest in 1648? However, you have to go back centuries, and this historical moment was felt by everyone on Thursday.
Surveys for the palace
Analysts believe that the British public's support for the monarchy will not be significantly affected. Previous polls have shown that the public shares their opinion of a person from the institution. However, new polls are already registering a possible impact of the Epstein scandal: the percentage of those who believe that abolishing the monarchy would be worse for the country has fallen from 47% to 37%. King Charles' approval rating has fallen from 54% to 46%./ Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "Kathimerini"
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