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Ah Calorougus Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue Game.
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Your host Mark Francis for the BBC. Johnny Diamond writes,
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no one would envy the position of the King right now,
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his supporter's point to the actions he has already taken,
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stripping titles and home from his brother, as well as
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promising cooperation with any inquiries. Some believe the arrest will
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give the royal family and palace some breathing space, and
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that the treatment of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor as just another
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suspect will lessen the damage done. There can be little
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doubt of the struggle the King has had balancing family
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loyalty and his duty to the crown. As Andrew withdrew
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from public life, so the palace withdrew from representing him.
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But the distraction so important to the palace is entirely
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lost on most people. The Palace, the royal family, the
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monarchy all scene as one. Andrew may not have been
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on Buckingham Palace balcony for a while, but for more
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than six decades he was part of what his father,
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Prince Philip used to call the family business. The idea
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this is or was a private matter is for the birds.
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One story lost in the mix was how King charles
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new documentary Finding Harmony a king's vision, was quickly overshadowed
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by renewed attention on Andrew. According to Pallace sources, the
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King had hoped the documentary would focus public attention on
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what he sees as his long term environmental legacy. Instead,
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headlines shifted almost immediately to fresh images and documents connected
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to Andrew and Epstein. A Palace source said, there is
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real anger behind the scenes, and if we are being candid,
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some of it is rooted in pride. The King invested
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enormous personal energy into this documentary. It was not just
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another engagement or ceremonial duty. He regards it as a
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distillation of everything he has stood for over decades, a
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kind of mission statement for his reign. Charles believed the
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release would focus public attention on his environmental legacy, the
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years of care painting that were once mocked and now
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widely accepted. Instead, the headlines pivoted almost immediately to Andrew
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and the latest Epstein revelations. From the King's perspective, what
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should have been a moment of gravitas and reflection was eclipsed.
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Another source said Charles, he's a stark contrast between his
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life's work and Andrew's recurring controversies. He views himself as
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focused on stewardship, legacy, and long term Andrew, in his view,
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remains trapped in reputational crises of his own making. In
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his sub stack Royal Insighted, Deep Crown Rights. What should
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alarm us most is the characterization of full cooperation with
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law enforcement as some sort of hardened stance, a tipping
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point reached only because Andrew's scandal hijacked a film premiere,
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if it requires a documentary being overshadowed to prompt basic
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institutional responsibility. If this represents the outer limit of royal decisiveness,
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then we are not witnessing firm leadership. We are witnessing
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a man fundamentally unsuited to the ruthlessness the monarchy occasionally
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demands for its own survival. For Boomberg, Andrew, Hastings writes
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and Epstein's show trial for Andrew is a bad idea.
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According to Hastings, there is a better than even money
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chance that Andrew mount Batten Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, Duke
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of York Knight of the Garta, will soon be obliged
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to fly to Washington and testify before a Congressional committee
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about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. An appearance on Capitol
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Hill will merely be show business unless there is a
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clear aim to establish criminality to continue pruriently pouring over
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disclosures of more women, more free trips, more money for
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his ex wife is for whose benefit. The story of
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Windsor and Epstein is unusual among squalid royal stories because
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it has been documented and photographed, but regal families have
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for centuries exploited the fact that rich people foolish enough
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to value association with crowns offer prince's absurdly generous prizes
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financial sexual limits for their company. Spain's royals have been
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repeatedly shamed by exposure of their participation in dirty deals,
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and the Scandinavians have their share of embarrassments. Kings and
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princes seem never to have as much money or in
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some cases, as much sex, as they think themselves entitled to,
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and even in an age when few crowned heads outside
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of the Gulf States actually rule anything, sugar daddies are
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willing to indulge them, though further exposure of Windsor's activities
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will diminish the eagerness of some future royals to embrace
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sleeves as a career, if they are granted the opportunity.
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Because this is what ignorantly entitled people do. What we
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middle class types label is decadence. They call fun. In
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the Express, Chris Richess writes, when Anne Berlin was executed
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by a sword on May nineteenth, fifteen thirty six, her
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French executioner wore soft shoes to muffle his movements and
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distracted her with a sudden noise, so she turned her head,
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exposing her neck for his swift strike. Although she had
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said her prayers, she was not expecting to be killed
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at just that moment, so the blow stopped minutes of
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agonized waiting. Similarly, King Charles and Prince William swiftly executed
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their mission to oust Andrew from royal lodge with a
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deaft but unexpected strike. Maybe that was too an act
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of mercy. More palats in just a moment, Andrew should
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be removed from the line of succession and stripped of
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his remaining constitutional roles. According to a Labour MP Rachel Maskell,
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MP for York Central, told the PBC that the former
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Duke of York's position in the order of succession, where
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he is currently eighth, should be reconsidered. She also called
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for his role as a Counselor of State to be revoked.
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Councilors of State can undertake certain official duties on behalf
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of the monarch in his absence. Maskell said, time and
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time again we have seen that Andrew has been conservative
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with the truth, adding that all of these titles and
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positions need to be addressed. We are just left with
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Andrew the citizen, and a citizen that is fully accountable
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royal inside a deep ground, adds the Counselor of state
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arrangement is one of those constitutional curiosities that functions perfectly
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well in the background, right up until the moment it doesn't,
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at which point you are no longer dealing with a curiosity,
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but a full blown crisis. Under ordinary circumstances. The question
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of who might temporarily sign off on official documents in
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the king's absence is administrative housekeeping, but the mathematics here
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are rather uncomfortable should the realm ever find itself in
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circumstances grave enough to require a region, and we are
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speaking of scenario as one genuinely hopes never materialize. The
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current line of succession places us in the extraordinary position
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of potentially looking to either the Duke of Sussex or
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the former Duke of York for constitutional cover. One is
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conducting a one man grievance tour from a California media compound,
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and the other is as the MP for York Central,
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so diplomatically put it, a man who has been rather
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concerservative with the truth the Institution deserves better contingency planning
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than that. Miss Maskell is not wrong in her instincts,
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even if Parliament has thus far declined to provide the mechanism.
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The Council of State roster was quietly expanded in twenty
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twenty two to add the Princess Royal and the Earl
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of Wessex now Edinburgh, precisely because sensible people in and
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around the Palace understood that the existing arrangement was untenable.
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That was institutional pragmatism doing quietly what the Parliament would
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not do loudly, removing Andrew from the succession entirely as
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a heavier constitutional lift. But the case for stripping his
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councilor of State status is frankly straightforward. These are not
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ceremonial baubles. They are instruments of the Crown, and the
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Crown's credibility is not well served by association with a
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man whose conduct remains to borrow. The charitable phrasing unresolved.
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The Palace has managed Andrew through managed distance. What is
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now required is managed removal. In the Daily Mail, A. N.
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Wilson writes the monarchy engraved jeopardy. The revelations about Andrew,
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Fergie and Epstein are among the most devastating to happen
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to the royal family, and it's about to get worse.
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We will probably felt we had reached rock bottom looking
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at that photograph of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor on all fours
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hovering over some unfortunate young person on the floor. Whether
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it is in Glene Maxwell's house in London, or in
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Jeffrey Epstein's New York home, or even in Buckingham Palace
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to which the former Prince invited the unsaved repair, it
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does not really matter wherever it took place. The picture
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contained in the latest tranch of Epstein files has brought
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us to a new low, and that famous phrase of
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Victorian journalist Walter Bagerhart and the British monarchy, we must
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not let daylight in upon the magic. We have never
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sounded more relevant or ominous. For this is not merely daylight.
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It is the blind and glaring arc light of publicity,
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the light of FBI investigators, accompanied by the demand of
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the US Congress for answers from our royal family. This
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is the light of attention, such as the royals would
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never have dreamed in their worst nightmares. Understandably enough, there
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are renewed calls for King Charles the Third to do something.
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But what can he do? He has already stripped his
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brother of all his titles, booted him out of his
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grace and favor, mansion, Royal Lodge and Windsor, and done
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more or less everything humanly possible to distance himself and
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the rest of his family and the whole royal brand
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from the taint of Andrew Fergie, the pedophile Epstein and
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his Madame Maxwell. There is even talk of excluding Andrew
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from the line of succession. I am no constitutional expert,
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but I do not actually see how this could be done,
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and in any case, it would surely just be a
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gesture of politics, since unless they were the most monumental
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calamity in which the Prince of Wales and or his
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family were wiped out, there is no likelihood of Andrew
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getting anywhere near becoming the king. The revelations about Andrew,
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Fergie and Epstein are among the most devastating to happen,
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not just to the royal family but the monarchy itself.
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I believe it could be in grave jeopardy as a result.
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Let us look at the implications of this. Our monarchy
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is a fact of our constitution, but if you try
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to examine quite what it is and has been over
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the centuries, you come to realize it is something much
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more than an anachronistic byproduct of history or political convenience.
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We cherished the illusion that our royal family were different,
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that our king or Queen was a special person, someone
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we could look up to. We deliberately drew a veil
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over their faults. We journalists never reported their illnesses in
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any detail. Their love lives were simply not mentioned throughout
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the long marriage of Queen Elizabeth Second and Prince Philip,
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although gossips might occasionally murmur that the Duke was something
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of a playboy with an eye for the ladies. Barely
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a breath of scandal ever got into print. The outpouring
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of grief for Queen Elizabeth the Second was in part
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the morning of a nation who felt they could look
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to her as a figure of purity and decency, an
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emblem of what we want the monarchy to be. The
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end of Charles's marriage to Diana did great damage to
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the idea of royalty as magic. It has taken decades
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for Charles and Camilla to repair it. Now they are
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older and more frail. The solidity of their relationship has
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made them very popular in the nation as a whole,
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and only the most churlish would deny them their happiness together.
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But Fergie and Andrew's greedy, coarse way of life, mercilessly
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exposed by the Epstein scandal, has done untold damage once again,
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and this time it could be mortal. Not because of
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any one particular example of their greed or corruption, but
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because the whole story reveals their sense of entitlement. King Charles,
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despite having cancer, is doing his utmost to keep the
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show on the road. The seriousness with which he prepared
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for his coronation was a sign of how much he
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wants us all to believe in the magic still, for
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he knows that the monarchy's survival depends on it. And
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there you have it. If you like to email us
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or addresses the Palace Intrigue at gmail dot com. Please
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followus on Spotify, Apple, Facebook, Instagram. Were all over social media.
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I'm Mark Francis my thanks to John mcdermoth. This is
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Palace Intriguan. Good terms.