Opinion: Monarchy Hits a New Low With Prince Andrew Settlement
The British monarchy hit a new low with the news that Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, had reached an out of court settlement with Virginia Giuffre, the woman who had accused the duke of sexually assaulting her on three occasions when she was 17, accusations that he has repeatedly denied.
As details began to leak out of the alleged sum paid to Ms Giuffre – widely reported as around £12million – many wags took to Twitter to point out that £12million is a lot of money to pay someone that you claim to have never met, despite that infamous photo of Andrew with his arm around Ms Giuffre, with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell grinning in the background.
As soon as the settlement was announced, questions naturally began to be asked about how exactly the duke intends to finance the settlement. The Telegraph reported that Andrew’s mother, Queen Elizabeth, was set to “help,” begging the question of just how much that help will be paid by the taxpayer, given that is they who ultimately prop up the monarchy’s wealth and privilege.
The possibility of taxpayer money being used to pay a survivor of sexual abuse pales into insignificance when placed against the years of trauma Ms Giuffre has suffered; she deserves her settlement, especially given years of having her character called into question, something that sadly still continues.
Ohhhhhhh
— Balderdashing through the sloe (@notDcfcBoss) February 15, 2022
The grand old Duke of York
He borrowed 12 million quid
He gave it to someone
He’d never ever met
and for something he never did
Yet if taxpayer money isn’t used, what does it say about our head of state who is “helping” Andrew? Even among otherwise sensible people, the Queen has always been placed on a pedestal as somehow above the fray, allowing a convenient fiction of Elizabeth as benevolent auntie who merely tolerates her odious family, to grow in the popular imagination. Her apparent intervention in helping Andrew reach a settlement with a victim of sexual abuse and trafficking suggests that “The Firm” will tolerate much so long as it doesn’t upset her Jubilee party.
But to say such things in Britain is apparently a severe case of lèse-majesté, beyond the pale. This is especially sinister when the UK government is aggressively going after teachers who teach “biased” interpretations of British history by the likes of civil rights groups like Black Lives Matter and Stonewall. Apparently, a nation where many people still think Churchill and the Blitz Spirits (trademarking that as the name of a UKIP dad band by the way) won WWII single-handed is obviously the sign of functioning historical literacy.
In the same way that much of UK society still genuinely believes that British empire did no wrong, there is also a widespread cultural oddity that maintains that the Queen can do no wrong, or indeed, never has. A cynic might suggest standing lock, stock, and barrel behind a son who was palling around with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein long after a warrant had been issued for Epstein’s arrest for sexual assault of a minor in 2006 shows – at best – poor judgement.
There is a sense even now among monarchists that the entitlement of the Windsor’s is a price worth paying because…errr…tourism! The sort of entitlement that allows BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell to ludicrously suggest that Andrew could make a return to public life as an advocate for sexual abuse victims. Where do you even start with that level of delusion?
This isn’t the first time the British royal family have had, to be suitably medieval, their heads on the metaphorical block. From the death of Princess Diana to the treatment of Meghan Markle, the royals are no strangers to being low in the public’s estimation. However, with each glossy photoshoot of Will & Kate and their brood, or bitchy gossip rag ‘exclusive’ about the “ungrateful” (no racist overtones there, no siree) Ms Markle, they have always managed to wriggle out of whatever royal jam they find themselves in.
Perhaps it’s too optimistic to suggest that the Prince Andrew affair will prove terminal for such an outdated, ridiculous institution as the monarchy, and of course the Queen is not to blame for the individual actions of any of her children.
But if love is blindness, then abuse is darkness, and no one - not even elderly heads of state - should be above accountability for the role they play in helping those they love to avoid proper scrutiny.