Prince Andrew has described British civil servants as "hopeless". Barry Everingham says that Andrew will certainly be reminded that royalty’s influence resides in not being seen to exercise it.
PROFESSOR David Flint has used the website he shares with Tom Flynn, co-owner of ACM (Australians for Constitutional Monarchy) to report that Prince Andrew, the Queen’s second son, has dropped a bucket over Ministry of Defence public servants.
If Andrew tried a tactic like that in Australia – or in any of his mother’s other colonies – he’d be brought to book by the Minister for Defence concerned and told to mind his own business.
One of the few attributes the monarchy has left is the unwritten rule that under no circumstances whatsoever do its members embroil themselves in political controversy.
Andrew Windsor is, like his egregious father, a bore and a big mouth. Prince Phillip is also a racist, and most British governments have learned to ignore him.
It’s a fair bet that within the next 24 hours Andrew will be hauled before his defence masters and ordered to put a sock in it. His mother has never dared to venture into that kind of territory during her long reign. She too, if she follows her tried and trusted form, will make sure this is a one-off mistake and no doubt he’ll be ordered to issue a public apology.
Andrew’s beef seems to be that the public servants he has criticized are “hopeless” for not buying “ better armoured vehicles” for frontline duty.
He will certainly be reminded that royalty’s influence resides in not being seen to exercise it.
David Flint’s and Tom Flynn’s website is a mishmash of irrelevant pap, written by Flint himself in a style abandoned by long forgotten women’s magazines.
In drawing attention to Andrew’s blunder, Flint and Flynn have unwittingly hammered yet another nail in the outmoded, outdated and unwanted British royal family – whose relevance to this wonderful country is practically zilch.
