Omid Scobie was on a tear this weekend! He was one of the reporters breaking the story about Prince Harry’s statement about wanting to pay for his own police protection. Scobie also closely followed the Prince Andrew situation for years, and Scobie has been one of the few reporters saying “wow, y’all treated Harry worse than a credibly accused sexual predator.” Scobie wrote his latest piece in the i paper, and you can read it here. He says that he had drinks with a Buckingham Palace aide the day after Prince Andrew “stepped back” from public duties in November 2019, and the aide claimed “he’s on his own now, he’s not our problem anymore.” Except, as we all know, Andrew was still getting money from the Queen, still plotting his comeback and he still had all of his patronages and his HRH. Here’s part of Scobie’s piece:

Finally removing her favourite child from the family business was no doubt a tough decision for the Queen – a rare moment where the monarch’s life as a public servant was forced to trump motherly instinct. But given the timing, let’s not pretend that this was the royal institution finally putting its foot down over the ninth-in-line’s actions.

Had Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed Virginia Giuffre’s civil lawsuit last week, you can guarantee that the Duke would still be His Royal Highness. And there lies the problem. Andrew’s punishment was not because he failed to uphold the values that the Queen and members of the Royal Family strive to promote and live by. If that were the case, then the Prince’s complete lack of empathy towards the child victims of his close sex offender pal Jeffrey Epstein and false promises to co-operate with US law enforcement investigations would have been enough to see him booted out long ago. Instead, it was the threat to Brand Windsor and the family business that finally forced the institution’s hand.

For the public watching this saga play out, the ring of protection around Andrew has been confusing, especially when you compare his treatment to Prince Harry, who – love or loathe him – simply wanted to remove his family from an unhealthy environment.

There was no sympathetic support behind palace walls for the Duke of Sussex. Instead, he was publicly dragged over the coals and stripped of his every achievement and royal privilege before setting one foot out of the country. The royal establishment has long spoken of its need to reflect modern day ethics. But when the selfish behaviour of a pompous prince is quietly protected in a way that Harry wasn’t, simply because Andrew doesn’t challenge the system, it is clear that this is an institution whose moral compass is in desperate need of repair.

The Sussexes were forced to become 100 per cent self-sufficient after stepping back from their royal roles, but Andrew – though a short list of honours worse off – will continue to luxuriate in nearly all of the trappings of royal life. The Grade II-listed roof above his head in Windsor remains his, as does the taxpayer-funded £300,000-a-year security team that sources say the Queen will ensure he will not lose.

And though the Palace has been quick to point out that the monarch will not be covering his legal costs, it won’t like it when I point out that it is still the funds from the sale of Andrew’s £13m Swiss chalet, which the Queen helped to pay for, that will cover the massive bills for his defence against Ms Giuffre’s rape allegations (which the Duke denies).

…By continuing to support her son behind the scenes, I’m afraid that she also risks doing great damage to her legacy. While the monarch may have managed to keep calm and navigate the royal ship through a kaleidoscope of controversies over the decades, what lies ahead in a US courtroom could be the storm that capsizes it.

[From i news]

Scobie wasn’t ripping anyone apart and he wasn’t making any arguments which all of us haven’t made a million times already. And yet, it does feel notable. Like the start of something, the start of a larger reckoning and an authentic accounting of how Harry was treated versus how Andrew was treated and why that was. I would argue that there was a lot more to it than Andrew “doesn’t challenge the system.” Harry was pushed out – exiled, even – because he continued to choose his Black wife over his privilege. He chose growth, therapy, healing and his wife and child over being the convenient scapegoat and doormat for his brother, father and grandmother.

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