Andrew Assault Proves that the Palace Will Always Put HRH over HR
Further reporting on alleged Andrew assault lays bare the tension between accountability and deference to a family that must be protected at all costs, however its members behave.
There are some startling revelations in Robert Hardman’s new book concerning Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He adds further colour to an incident I describe in the below extract from Entitled, where, in a fury at not being able to book the room he wanted for a Pitch@Palace event, Andrew punched the Master of the Royal Household, Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt.
Pitch@Palace was important to Andrew because, despite being presented as a charity, it was a pay-to-play profit enterprise, with Mountbatten-Windsor demanding a cut of every business that got investment. He also couldn’t help but involve some of his unsavoury contacts. Selman Turk, who had given Andrew and the Yorks over £1m, received a ‘People’s Choice’ award for a company that would later go bust. You can read my chapter about Pitch@Palace here.
Complaints about this violent outburst were reported to Lord Peel, the Lord Chamberlain, and to Prince Charles. It was so serious that a retired Prince Philip even wrote a letter of apology. Most of us feel a sense of regret after a moment of madness or frustration. Not so Andrew, who responded to the complaint by calling the Lord Chamberlain and accusing him of ‘causing problems’. Hardman reports that Andrew eventually sent what one member of staff called a ‘sorry, not sorry’ letter.
The story echoes another shocking anecdote I uncovered while writing Entitled about Andrew hitting a police officer with his car and also ramming the gates of Windsor Park when they failed to open fast enough.
What both stories show is that the culture of deference around Andrew meant that not only could he bring prostitutes into royal palaces, as well as his paedophile friend, not only could he indulge his greed in dodgy business dealings with dubious characters, he could also use violence to try and get his own way. That he was not punished at all for punching one of the most senior members of staff will have confirmed what he had always thought: that, unlike the poor police officer and the Master of the Royal Household, he was untouchable.
What is also demonstrated is the tension between having a family that is seemingly above the law, surrounded by ex-intelligence staff, policemen and ex-servicemen who must all sit by, do nothing and roll with the punches. It’s a case of HRH over HR and a culture that inevitably breeds a contempt for staff that extends even to casual violence.
Hardman reports that the incident was not reported to the Queen, but given her love of gossip and insistence on knowing what was going on, it seems inconceivable that she was not made aware of such a shocking incident, especially given that it involved one of her most senior members of staff, with whom she was in near-daily contact.
One also has to think about the implications here. If Andrew can punch such a senior figure and get away with a churlish non-apology, imagine what message this sent out to much humbler staff. What emerges is a toxic culture of fear for servants and impunity for the principals, with an institution built entirely on protecting and covering up behaviour that would get most of us fired or even arrested. Entitled indeed.
An extract from Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York
An indication of Andrew’s state of mind came with a newspaper story at the beginning of September of an altercation – some reports said physical as well as verbal – with the respected Master of the Household, Vice-Admiral Sir Anthony Johnstone-Burt, and a former navy pilot contemporary of Andrew’s, over a booking for a Pitch@Palace event.
Criticisms had continued of the duke’s Pitch@Palace activities. In May 2019 he had taken a private jet to Canada for a Pitch event, though numerous commercial flights were available. Buckingham Palace claimed the costs had been met privately but would not say by whom. Another trip, on which Andrew was accompanied by his ex-wife, daughter Beatrice and her then boyfriend Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, to Bahrain, as guests of the crown prince, was timed to coincide with the Grand Prix.
Rich Wilson, the founder of various digital companies, wrote an article arguing, ‘Pitch@Palace appears to have been a vehicle for Prince Andrew to enrich himself at the cost of the hard-working entrepreneurs he claimed to be helping.’ Wilson divulged that he had been invited to a Pitch event but on the condition he fill in an application. Reading the small print, he saw that Pitch@Palace was asking for a 2 per cent commission ‘if you raised investment at any point for up to three years after the pitch event’.
He was shocked: ‘It’s a massive red card … There is literally no reason to pay to pitch to investors, it’s simply predatory on the part of the organisers and anyone operating in this way should be named and shamed for it.’
This money was to be funnelled from the charity, Pitch@Palace CIC (community interest company), which had sponsored and benefited from events at Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace, graced by the Queen and various military bands, into Andrew’s private limited company, Pitch@Palace Global Ltd.
The second company, of which the Prince was the ‘ultimate controlling party’, had eight directors. It had £300,000 in the bank and was entitled to pay dividends to its shareholders. It was also registered at Buckingham Palace, which, according to royal protocol, must never be used for commercial purposes. It appeared that, for the prince, business as well as charity began at home.
For the year ending 31 March 2019, Pitch@Palace Global posted a profit of £576,000, with an increase in assets from £943,731 in 2018 to £3,125,398, indicating turnover – ‘amounts received in sponsorship or donation income’ – for the business exceeding £2.2 million. Accounts up to March 2020 showed assets of £1,495,737 and profits of £1.2 million. But that posed a question: where had the profits come from?
It’s actually quite scary that the people in the monarchy that win people’s admiration are not as they seem. They are entitled, privileged Demi-gods who, as Diana said to Harry, “You can do anything you like, just don’t get caught”. Even if they do get caught the Institution will protect, cover up and pay off any misdeeds. Do they deserve our support any more?
Hmmm...you say it was not reported to the Queen. I see that as a way of covering up the fact that she did nothing. I think Queen Elizabeth helped create a monster by coddling her favorite child.