Prince Andrew has stepped away from royal duties to spend more time with his conscience. The Prince has a lot of local connections. He is Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Irish Regiment as well as Baron of Killyleagh. He also has several streets named after him across Northern Ireland. I wonder what the residents’ views on him are?
He will cease to receive £249,000 of taxpayers’ money from the Sovereign Grant used to pay for his office, but aul Andy does not seem to be short of a few bob. I think the real story in all this is where does he get his money from? From the Soraway Sun (I know, I never imagined I would ever quote them either):
On paper, Andrew should not be that well off, royally speaking. He receives a tax-free income of £249,000 a year from the Queen, which is topped up with £20,000 from his naval pension.
That’s a total of nearly £270,000 a year. Yet he somehow lives a billionaire lifestyle, jetting around the world, lounging on superyachts or relaxing on the beach at St Tropez.
But even with these expenses he has managed to buy a £13million ski chalet in the sought-after Swiss resort of Verbier, with a staff of six, to give daughters Beatrice and Eugenie a permanent base in this billionaires’ playground.
With its living quarters full of priceless antiques, seven bedrooms, massive indoor pool, sauna, sun terrace and bar, Chalet Helora, would cost nearly £25,000 a week to rent.
Remarkably, when he bought the magnificent Swiss chalet in 2014, the prince also splashed out £7.5million to refurbish Royal Lodge, his 30-room home in Windsor Great Park.
Nor does he skimp on his personal possessions. He was snapped in 2015 wearing the latest £12,000, 18-carat Apple watch and he drives a Bentley with the personal number plate DOY.
Yet there is no steady income stream to explain this lavish lifestyle.
Jeffrey Epstein was just one of his very dubious friends. He is also close buddies with various billionaire dictators and autocrats. Also from the Sun story:
On a trip to Qatar, he disappeared for four days. It turned out he had stopped off in Azerbaijan, one of the most corrupt countries in the world, where political opponents are tortured and elections are rigged. This did not seem to deter Andrew. He had been there eight times in the previous six years.
Two of those visits were described in the WikiLeaks cables as “very private”. Yet on at least one occasion, in 2009, he flew there and back using a private jet, leaving the taxpayer to foot the £60,000 bill.
Another favourite destination was Kazakhstan, where Andrew had a series of “private” meetings lasting hours with the Kazakh tycoon Kenges Rakishev, said to be worth £2billion.
It looks like this story will run and run…
I am no Royalist but I must confess to having a soft spot for the Queen. If you watch the superb Netflix show The Crown you quickly come to the view that she is trapped in a gilded cage. She is like the lead in a long-running soap opera who can never retire. Will the monarchy survive much longer? I think it will as Prince Charles and Prince William seem fairly sensible. The one positive of having a Royal family is at least they provide a certain amount of entertainment value to the public.
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Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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