The Duke of York (aka Prince Andrew, aka Air Miles Andy, aka Randy Andy) addressed his current problems at Davos yesterday with the shortest of statements.
In dismissing allegations that he had sex with an American teenager, he reaffirmed previous Buckingham Palace statements rebutting those claims.
He then said: “My focus is on my work”.
I have to ask, and one doesn’t have to be a republican to ask it: what work would that be?
According to the official website of HRH The Duke of York, KG, he is “a full-time working member of the royal family” and, as such, “carries out official engagements” in support of the Queen while working “to promote economic growth and skilled job creation in the United Kingdom”.
But, as the Sunday Telegraph highlighted at the weekend in an article headlined “The global odyssey of Air Miles Andy”, he spends a great deal of time outside the UK despite having been forced to step down in 2011 from his role as Britain’s roving trade ambassador.
In 2014, however, he went on roving of his own accord. He visited 15 countries alone on so-called “working visits”. Working at what? His golf swing? What benefits to skilled job creation in the UK were achieved by such visits? And how many “private visits” did he make to foreign parts?
Then we should also note that the man without income has recently managed to obtain a mortgage to acquire a £13m ski chalet in Switzerland. How?
As a republican, I am expected to ask such questions, but monarchists should also be worried about this situation. Here is a prince without portfolio living like a billionaire potentate, a prince whose association with a convicted sex offender has brought the royal family into disrepute, and a prince who laughingly tells us his focus is on work.
