This week, the Ephraim Hardcastle column “reported” something very obvious, which is that King Charles’s slimmed down monarchy is very slim, and that Charles views his family quite differently than his mother. QEII saw everyone as part of “the Family Firm” while Charles categorizes the fam as “Senior Royals, Working Royals, Non-Working Royals and Others. The Others are, apparently, Andrew, Harry and Meghan – with Andrew getting preferential treatment over the Sussexes.” As I said, it was obvious, but the Mail does love to rake over old news and repackage it as something new. Anyone watching the Windsor sh-tshow in recent years has gotten the message loud and clear: a rapist pervert is preferable to a prince married to a Black woman. Tom Sykes, another master of the obvious, devoted his column to this too, that “sources close to Andrew” are quite pleased that Andrew is treated better than the Sussexes, and that Charles will continue to give Andrew what he wants because Andrew has never given an interview to Oprah.

Andrew gets better treatment than Harry: The differing treatment meted out to Andrew and Harry in respect of their security arrangements seems, with the benefit of hindsight, a foreshadowing of what has since become a routine habit of the new king; namely giving Andrew notably better treatment than Harry, despite his brother’s out-of-court settlement for a reputed $14 million with Virginia Giuffre over underage sex abuse allegations. Of course, there are complicating factors; principally that Harry lives in California not Windsor, and that Harry seems in no rush to bend the knee to his father. But the inconvenient fact remains that it rather looks like the king would prefer you pay off a sex accuser than give an interview to Oprah Winfrey.

Why Andrew is in the king’s good books: A friend of Andrew’s confirmed to The Daily Beast that Andrew believes he is in the king’s good books compared to Harry: “If you were Charles, would you rather have a problem that looks like Harry and Meghan or a problem that looks like Andrew? Andrew has taken his punishment, withdrawn from public life and done whatever has been asked of him. He knows he has damaged the monarchy. So have Harry and Meghan. The difference is [Andrew] deeply regrets it and it was not intentional, whereas Harry and Meghan deliberately set out to cause as much damage to Charles and Camilla as they could to sell books and TV shows. That’s an entirely different matter. Disloyalty is far and away the No. 1 crime in that family.”

A template for a Sussex reconciliation: “The extent to which the king has publicly made it clear Andrew is still part of the family has caught some people by surprise. But ultimately, he has the interests of the monarchy at heart, and that means a united family, whatever its problems. Hopefully that message is getting through to Harry and Meghan.”

Outside the tent, pissing in: A former Buckingham Palace staffer put the king’s strategic case for including Andrew in family set pieces more bluntly, saying: “It’s the oldest question in politics: would you rather have the troublemakers inside the tent pissing out or outside the tent pissing in? Harry is very much outside the tent pissing in and it’s a problem. Andrew is inside the tent pissing out, and that suits Charles better.”

Historian Andrew Lownie’s thoughts: The royal historian Andrew Lownie, who is publishing a biography of Prince Andrew next year, told The Daily Beast: “Harry is a loose cannon and Meghan even more so. They both have more books coming. The strategy, I believe, is to keep in with him and to marginalize her, which is exactly what they did with Wallis and the Duke of Windsor. Andrew has been loyal to a certain extent. He’s made some implicit threats, and things have been floated about books and TV interviews, but ultimately he is a loyalist. Andrew is less of a problem than Harry. He may become more of a problem, especially when my book comes out, because I think there will be things in there that will rock the boat. But he’s not been rude about Camilla. He’s not set out to destabilize the monarchy. He hasn’t spilled secrets.”

How the family views Andrew: Lownie said: “I think some of them feel sorry for him. He says the accusations against him are false, and there are suggestions that some of the family believe him.” Lownie also hints that Camilla may have had a significant role in urging Charles to reconcile with his brother—who he didn’t get on with particularly well before he was accused of sex crimes.

[From The Daily Beast]

“But ultimately, he has the interests of the monarchy at heart, and that means a united family, whatever its problems. Hopefully that message is getting through to Harry and Meghan.” No – Charles is a weak man who can’t stand to deal with things directly, so instead of speaking to his son and apologizing and figuring out a way forward, Charles is making a point of allowing his staff to brief against Harry and Meghan, leak sh-t about them and shun them. The message being sent to the Sussexes is actually as Lownie describes: “The strategy, I believe, is to keep in with him and to marginalize her.” Charles wants to keep some sort of line open to Harry – indirectly, of course – but treat Meghan like she doesn’t exist and is not worth his respect or regard. The galaxy-brains at Buckingham Palace think this is a good look for the king, they think it plays well that he can’t wait to include a rapist in family events but he won’t allow his son to stay in a guest room for one night.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.