Royal Mint, National Debt by Norman Baker

Author:Norman Baker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2025-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Andrew’s Unsavoury Circle

Banned Old Duke Of York. The front-page headline on The Sun on Saturday 18 October 2025 neatly summed up the defenestration of Prince Andrew. After another week of pretty terrible stories about the prince, Charles, cajoled by William, finally told Andrew the game was up. Any title, honour or other status symbol that Andrew had managed somehow to hang on to was to be taken away. He was left only with the single word ‘prince’, which could not be removed as it was an inalienable fact of birth. Henceforth Andrew would not use his remaining tittles, including Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh. In addition, he would abandon his position as Royal Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter.

Andrew was allowed to present this as his own decision, but his emotional attachment to titles and honours has been such that nobody doubted that he had been pushed into it. Charles is said to have made it plain he would ask the government to pass the necessary parliamentary Act to remove the dukedom if Andrew did not agree to abandon it. As it is, the dukedom, earldom and baronetcy are legally merely in abeyance and could be reactivated at some point.

But this proved to be too little, too late. With the public and the press still baying for blood and MPs demanding answers from the Crown Estate and threatening to call Andrew in to give evidence before members, on 30 October, Charles was finally forced to make a statement. The poisonous barnacle was to be prised off the ship of state. It was a desperate attempt to create a firebreak, to stop the flames spreading further and engulfing the monarchy as a whole.

So, in dramatic terms, the king announced that formal revocation of Andrew’s titles would be initiated, this time including the title of prince – his brother would henceforth be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – and he would be required to vacate Royal Lodge, to be relocated to some remote part of the Sandringham estate. Fergie would have to fend for herself. A pragmatic if overdue move but high-risk nevertheless. Formal revocation opens to MPs not just the narrow issue of Andrew: once MPs get their attention turned to the royals, it could be a case of genie out of bottle.

If a week is a long time in politics, a month is an age in royal terms. It was back at the start of October when the Mountbatten Windsor formerly known as Prince Andrew began to see his royal life unravel like a ball of string. The week of 10 October had been the last straw, with more Epstein-related revelations, the publication of extracts from the posthumously published memoir of Virginia Giuffre, and further evidence of Andrew’s links to the Chinese in the week when controversy was raging over the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions to abandon the court case against two men alleged to be spying for China. There

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