Government considers removing Andrew from royal line of succession (www.bbc.com)
from HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to world@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 06:00
https://sh.itjust.works/post/55671847

The government is considering introducing legislation to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of royal succession.

Defence Minister Luke Pollard told the BBC the move - which would prevent Andrew from ever becoming King - was the “right thing to do,” regardless of the outcome of the police investigation.

Currently Andrew, the King’s brother, remains eighth in line to the throne despite being stripped of his titles, including “prince”, last October amid pressure over his ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

On Thursday evening, Andrew was released under investigation 11 hours after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He has consistently and strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

#world

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MBech@feddit.dk on 21 Feb 06:40 next collapse

The fact that they think making andrew a simple peasent like the rest of us, is an appropriate punishment for raping children, either tells us a lot about how they see us regular people, or a lot about how much they care about children being raped.

ericatty@infosec.pub on 21 Feb 08:14 next collapse

I’m not from the UK or living there. So grain of salt and all… But I read this not so much as a punishment, but closing a loophole so he can never ever be in a position of royal power or benefits. And it would hold even if he wins in court.

If we in the US had closed some loopholes 2021-24, we would be at least 50% less fucked.

And maybe 90% less if we’d done it after Nixon.

It’s not enough. But it’s not nothing.

BlueDemon@lemmy.sdf.org on 21 Feb 12:55 next collapse

In the UK and I largely agree.

We’ve seen powerful people can get away with things so there will need to be a bulletproof case against him for anything to hold. Building in mitigations for that is a good thing, even if I think it should be targeting the wider systemic issues not just one loser.

GraniteM@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 17:32 next collapse

If an angry mob had closed a loophole around Richard Nixon’s neck after he received his pardon, we probably wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today.

scarabic@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 19:43 collapse

Thank you for bringing reason to that moronic comment above yours. “This is the whole punishment! WAH!” I’m so sick of reflexive cynicism in ignorance of the facts. It’s like people have forgotten how to put anything in context and want the shortest path to despair no matter what the news is.

cynar@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 09:10 next collapse

Different parts of the government. Charles has all but kicked him out of the royals themselves. This would just be finishing the job.

Neither group has any real say in prosecution etc. This is just an additional ceremonial “Fuck you for making us look bad!”

NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net on 21 Feb 09:49 collapse

“They expect one of us in the wreckage, brother”

NABDad@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 10:59 next collapse

Everything I’ve read about this says that the misconduct in question was sharing state secrets with Epstein.

The child raping doesn’t appear to be concerning them.

Avicenna@programming.dev on 21 Feb 11:48 next collapse

Nevertheless, whistleblowers spend their whole life being hunted down by goverments for exposing state secrets that reveal crimes.

NABDad@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 14:12 collapse

Perhaps that’s the state secret he’s being punished for revealing: all the child rape among the rich and powerful.

Avicenna@programming.dev on 21 Feb 14:28 next collapse

I would like to have that much faith in humanity but given that it has only happened now despite this going on for more than a decade, I doubt it. If you witness such a thing and don’t reveal it, it is either that you are the victim and afraid, or they have dirt on you, or you are an average individual who realizes that this would be a battle against a network of some of the most powerful individuals in the world and you don’t have an epsilon chance. I think he only fits in the second group.

couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip on 21 Feb 17:04 collapse

Yeah that must really have been a big surprise for Epstein

NABDad@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 18:02 collapse
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca on 21 Feb 17:36 next collapse

Al Capone didn’t go to prison for murder, he went to prison for tax evasion. Do you think it was because Elliot Ness just didn’t care about murder?

NABDad@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 18:02 collapse

Well, it certainly wasn’t because he couldn’t implicate the billionaires.

nogooduser@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 20:56 collapse

I read an article that said that he hasn’t actually broken any UK laws to do with rape that we know of.

From memory the main points were:

  • Virginia Giuffre was 17 when they met which is above the age of consent in the UK so he can’t get done for having sex with a minor.
  • Had he done what he did now, he’d have broken laws to do with sex trafficking but the laws weren’t strong enough back then so they don’t apply either.

Obviously, what he did was wrong but that doesn’t mean that he can be prosecuted for it.

I’m hoping that there’s stuff that we don’t know about that they’re preparing to prosecute him for.

NABDad@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 20:59 collapse

I’m assuming that the reason he shared state secrets with Epstein is because Epstein had something on him.

wheezy@lemmy.ml on 21 Feb 11:17 next collapse

God damn. Comment hit hard. No notes. I just wish the people in the US realized that even the monarchs of Britain are being “punished” more than the equivalent rulers of our similar class structures that exist in modern day with just different names. Our “Epstein class” (capitalist class) have less punishment than modern day monarchs.

The punishment of the monarchs is to become a rich capitalist with no titles. The punishment of the capitalist is nothing.

SlurpingPus@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 12:00 collapse

You know that the government doesn’t conduct criminal investigations?

ViatorOmnium@piefed.social on 21 Feb 07:48 next collapse

Won’t that require changes on every single commonwealth monarchy? (The joys of of an archaic political system tied with the zombified remnants of a collapsed empire)

mkwt@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 08:08 collapse

That could be a tricky legal question. The current law is that changes in the line of succession must be approved by all 15 Commonwealth realms. But this law was itself a regular statute passed by the Westminster parliament.

The principle of parliamentary supremacy demands that no parliament may bind the will of a future parliament. That is, could Westminster just override the 1931 statute when they pass this special “cut out Andrew” bill? There might not be a whole lot that says they can’t.

OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml on 21 Feb 12:05 collapse

The problem is diplomatic ramifications.

Parliament can always do what it wants, but if it’s unilaterally removing rights from another country they’re going to be pissed off.

mycodesucks@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 08:57 next collapse

The real question is how that didn’t happen automatically when he was stripped of his title.

LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz on 21 Feb 11:27 next collapse

Because the laws that give titles are different than the laws that include someone from the line of succession.

If I remember correctly, there are around 5,000 people in the line of succession, and most of them don’t even know they’re on it.

GraniteM@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 17:34 next collapse
BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 19:27 collapse

There’s a fantastic movie called Kind Hearts and Coronets from the 1940s. A guy discovers he’s tenth in line to be a duke, but his mother was disowned by her family for marrying a commoner.

Naturally, he decides to kill his relatives to avenge mom and grab the dukedom. Oh, and all nine of his relatives, male and female, are played by Alec Guinness.

GraniteM@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 19:52 collapse

See also: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

scarabic@lemmy.world on 21 Feb 19:45 collapse

Yeah that seems pretty dumb, but these processes are hardly robust. More like Byzantine.

couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip on 21 Feb 17:08 collapse

Too bad though

Would have bren nice to keep the possibility of some extreme chain of events leaving this one on the throne…