Baroness of Books
Heir Apparent
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2011
- Messages
- 5,806
- City
- Bookstacks
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- United States
It's self-indulgent acts like this that cause his undoing. He can be his own worst enemy.
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Do we know the complete story?
IMO the Queen doesn't google flights in India for andrew's trip to see if he could have flown by scheduled flights. I think she'll have been presented by his itinerary (6 cities in 6 days) and have trusted her staff and the DOY's staff to ensure no other options were available. I feel she very much just rubber stamps what is presented to her, that's not a criticism just what I think happens. I just think Andrew has stretched out the use of private jets in the past that when ever he uses them he will get criticized.
Frustrated in his efforts to secure a place for his daughter in “the Firm”, the Duke of York has ensured that she is, nevertheless, treated like the Princess that she is. Mandrake can disclose that Prince Andrew hosted a lavish banquet at Buckingham Palace last week as a “thank you” to the university from which Princess Beatrice graduated with a 2:1 degree in history and history of ideas last summer.
I'll say this for Andrew - his medals are at least earned.There’s a scene in the new Sacha Baron Cohen film, The Dictator, when the title character steps on to American soil for the first time. Dressed in naval whites with gold braid dripping from his shoulders, and an improbable number of medals for heroism pinned to his chest, the extravagant delusion of the man is laughable.There was something equally Ruritanian about the Duke of York last week when he stepped off his private jet en route to the slums of Mumbai.
Andrew was, by all accounts, deeply moved and clearly made a good impression on those he met — but the irony of returning to such a lavish suite that night seemed to have been entirely lost on him.
It would be churlish to suggest that Andrew did not work hard, meeting and greeting hundreds of dignitaries, business moguls and members of the public.
Buckingham Palace sources argue passionately how it was not Andrew’s decision to hire a jet but that of the Royal Household, which deemed it the only feasible way to cover so many engagements - 34 in all - around the country in six days.
Royal sources have made clear that Andrew feels deeply aggrieved by the ‘negative’ coverage his trip has received. The visit was, after all, undertaken at the Queen’s request, and other Royals carrying out similar Jubilee trips have taken - or are planning to take - private jets on specific legs of the visits. Prince Harry, for example, used a private plane when flying between Belize, the Bahamas, Jamaica and Brazil earlier this year.
Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Presents Operational Service Medals At York Races
The Duke of York joined other Falklands war veterans in a tiny Somerset church yesterday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the conflict, on the anniversary of the Argentinians' surrender. St Bartholomew's Church, once simply the parish church for the village of Yeovilton, but now the Fleet Air Arm Memorial Church, was packed with Fleet Air Arm personnel, including Falklands veterans, as well as others who have retired.