I subscribe to Private Eye they have a regular column "Court Circular" which publishes stories about Royal Life on an "anonymous" basis. They detail the recent defenestration of Prince Andrew.
Their source is most likely a gossipy senior royal family employee. You should know that Private Eye has a code for the Royals Brenda=HMQE2, Brian=PC. The text and column are from EYE 1565 The 'spin' on this story if there is any is that William had no compunction is despatching Uncle Andrew, where "weak" Prince Charles was more equivocal
COURT CIRCULAR
PRINCE WILLIAM's victory over Uncle Andrew is complete. Despite attempts by Team Brian to spin last week's sacking as his own doing, it was his eldest son who again struck the final blow.
In 2019 it was the second in line who pressed Brenda into exiling Andrew after his fateful Newsnight encounter with Emily Maitlis – rather than Brian, who was overseas and had approved the interview idea in the first place (Eve 1510). And with his father away, it was William who was at Windsor last week when advance news arrived that Andrew had failed to get Virginia Giuffre's case against him thrown out.
It had been no coincidence that William and Kate had their first private Cambridge-only Christmas Day last month rather than take their children to sit at the same table as the friend of a convicted paedophile whose former confidante was on trial for sex trafficking.
Andrew, whose entitled style of royalty and treatment of commoner Kate when she arrived on the scene still riles William, saw none of this coming. He remained convinced the Newsnight interview, though uncomfortable, had cleared his name and that he had handled Maitlis well, until summoned by his mother to be told otherwise. That, it turns out, was just phase one of Operation York.
Brenda, always loyal to her second son, had assumed his exile would be temporary. Andrew expected his mother would allow him back to a semi-royal life. As the stalemate stretched beyond two years, his mother feared taking further action against him would imply she now thought him guilty.
It was Judge Lewis A Kaplan who gave Brenda the get-out clause by giving Andrew no option but to face the judicial music. Courtiers knew they had to seize the moment but were unsure how to approach Brenda about it. Fortunately for them, William was at Windsor to conduct an investiture, and with the backing of the rest of his family took control, persuading his granny that she had to sign off phase two of Operation York.
It wasn't meant to have happened like it did. It had been expected Andrew would stand aside from his military roles and royal patronages himself, sparing Brenda from having to sack him. Instead there followed 24 hours of wrangling
The showdown came when Andrew went to Windsor Castle to plead his case personally with his mum. But this was no private audience - officials were present, and despite a request by Andrew that they leave the room, they remained. Documents detailing what military roles and patronages were being removed were handed to
Andrew, but it was made clear his signature wasn't required. And he was shown the cold, terse statement that was to be issued to show his downfall was complete.
His HRH is gone, but not formally removed, meaning Andrew can still use the title on his tombstone. One concession he was allowed was for this aspect of his disgrace to be removed from the formal notice issued by the palace. For now, his position in the line of succession and his dukedom remain unchanged, mainly because they require legislation to change. He can still fly his personal standard and retain the many
gongs Brenda has given him. But Andrew has been left in no doubt that Operation York has a phase three ready to be activated if he doesn't clear his name in New York. And he really won't like that.
'Flunkey'
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www.theguardian.com
