The Royals

The allegation that Prince Andrew had sex with an under-age girl, is, of course, serious and since it was claimed that she was forced into this, the allegation is even more serious since it implies one of rape.  We have no way of knowing the truth.  There is no denying, however, that he did have some association with the girl and one might ask what a middle aged Prince had to do with a 17year old girl.  It is a fact that his friend, Jeffry Epstein, who was responsible for introducing them, had been convicted of sex with an under-age girl and accused of much worse.  Only the American system of plea bargaining saved Epstein from facing trial for these further allegations, and denied us the possibility of getting nearer to the truth.

The whole sad story throws a spotlight once again on the playboy lifestyle of the Prince.  It has been known for a long time that he has had a number of billionaire friends of questionable character and of his associations with autocrats shunned by many because of their appalling human rights record.  Goodness knows what he might have been doing in these states where there is no free press.  His behaviour causes me, once again, to question the whole concept of a monarch and the whole Royal Family, and, when it comes to free press, one has to ask just how free it is to investigate the behaviour of the Royals in this country.  If he or any other members of the royal family had been alleged to have engaged in disreputable, even criminal, behaviour in the UK, is it likely that it would get to court or the media permitted to report it?  The Palace press organisation keeps a tight rein on what is permitted.  The BBC was recently persuaded (pressured?) not to broadcast two programmes on the royal family. These programmes “Reinventing the Royals” were scheduled for BBC2 on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th January and advertised in the Radio Times, but they did not take place.  Had they been shown we might have understood better how the Palace has slowly brainwashed the people into forgetting about the appalling way in which Diana was used for breeding more royals whilst Prince Charles carried on with Camilla, and then brainwashed them into accepting Camilla as a future queen.  The royal family are excused from the Freedom of Information Act, as a consequence we may not know the details of their finances or the extent to which the Queen and Prince Philip, their sons and daughter and grandsons and granddaughters are supported directly or indirectly by the tax payer.  They all enjoy a lifestyle of the super rich.  But who are they?  Where did they come from?  By what right do they enjoy this super rich lifestyle and elevated status?  What have they done to merit their position?

We are told that the monarch is a figurehead, a Head of State with no real power, but we are not permitted to know the extent to which they can and do influence the government.  We do know that the Prime Minister meets very regularly with the Queen and that Prince Charles corresponds with and has meetings with Ministers.

There is no doubt that the Queen has performed her duties well throughout her long reign, could anyone have done better?  But we might remember that she too was a party to the Camilla/Diana conspiracy and stunned the nation with her initial apparent indifference to Diana’s death.  William and Kate might well be extremely nice people but it would make little difference to their position if they were not.  To my mind it is not a question of whether or not the Queen has been a good queen or whether some of the royal family are nice.  We claim to be a democratic country but the very existence of an unelected Head of State is a denial of that democracy.  Many of us are concerned at the serious inequalities in our society and the existence of a class structure that dates from the distant past, but it is the very existence of a monarch that is the foundation for that class structure.  The royal family and their relatives, cousins and aunts and uncles and all their children, the dukes and duchesses and earls and lords, all sit on top of the edifice of a class structure, many with extreme wealth and much of that passed down over the years from Norman Lords and Barons who stole it from the indigenous population.  Not until we get rid of a monarchy will we ever rid ourselves of this anachronistic class structure.

It is natural, I suppose, for the people to come out to cheer their Head of State on formal national occasions but what is a mystery to me is the idolisation and near worshipping of these ordinary mortals who are where they are by accident of birth.

Ron Watts