It is time for the people closest to the appalling Andrew to now
face the most intensive scrutiny

UNDER ARREST: Police lead Peter Mandelson away from his home in North London yesterday

First things first: I am not a republican. I might be if I could think of a decent presidential candidate, but David Attenborough is three months short of 100 so alas not. Princess Anne would fit the bill rather well but if it went to an election, we would probably end up with Clare Bloody Balding who seems to walk in to any job she wants. At least it won’t be President Mandelson thank God.

Having said that, I'm not a monarchist either, at least not with the current set-up of entitlement, deference, playschool dressing-up box and a national anthem that is all about the monarch and not the country. And as the Andrew Scandal accelerates out of control, there is no long term guarantee that it has a future.

You know how bad things are by the stuff flooding the internet with Mountbatten-Windsor characterised as the Loch Ness Noncer or this: "The Royal Family are said to be devastated after Andrew's car crash next Wednesday". It is now open season on AM-W and the picture of him in the back of the Range Rover being driven home from his 11-hour away day with detectives in Norfolk will remain with him for ever. (Just so we know, this was a Range Rover from the extensive royal stable of cars, driven by the protection officers he still has along with cook and butler. That's normal for Norfolk you know).

I have said many times that this will get worse, much worse, and it already has. The Speaker has allowed the Commons to debate the affair, an indication, if ever there was one, of  how rapidly this has escalated. And the Commonwealth is now getting behind the move to remove Andrew from the line of succession. The police are now questioning their own, the cops whose unfortunate function  was to protect him. They will know everything, his global travels, his times with Epstein and friends including the girls, and, one hopes, will be revealing all over the next few weeks. 

But it is the people closest to this appalling man who must be the subject of the closest scrutiny, namely his private secretary Amanda Thirsk and David Rowland, the angry looking little fat man always pictured in a top hat, who was both one of Andrew's fixers and funders. Ditto David Stern, the German whose claims to have been a director of a string of blue-chip City firms have been denied by those very companies. Another fictional cv, like my time at Balliol and the Household Cavalry.  

I have no doubt they will obfuscate like crazy and do everything to protect themselves, but it will be a case of Him or Me. Sadly police will not be interviewing the King who, it is now revealed by the Mail on Sunday, was told about his brother's nefarious ways in 2019. According to the impeccably connected Isabel Oakeshott in the MoS, a ‘whistleblower', whose name, understandably, is not revealed, sent a series of emails to the royal lawyers Farrer & Co warning about the involvement of Rowland and his "abuse of the Royal Family".

The email was copied to the then Prince of Wales's private secretary Clive Alderton and reads in part: "...the Duke of York's actions suggest that His Royal Highness considers his relationship with David Rowland more important than that of his family". Didn't he just! His only concern throughout his rotten life has been himself and self-gratification in every way. 

You can be sure that Clive Alderton told his boss and anyway, could Charles really have been unaware of his brother's lifestyle? Of course not. In fact the whole family must have known. Just like all those who worked at the Palace — maids who had to arrange his ridiculous teddies in perfect order — and particularly the police whose official code word for Andrew was Purple 41 but whose unofficial one was Cunt. As in "Cunt is on his way up".

Sadly much (probably all) of the blame for the make-up of Andrew's character must lie with his mother, our saintly late Queen. She is known to have never said No to him, to have indulged him from birth even when he sprinkled itching powder on her bed sheets. And just what did she think when she was calling Coutts to arrange a transfer of £12 million to a woman her favourite son had never met.      

Chronic, maybe irreparable, damage has been done to the institution of monarchy and it was probably only waiting to happen with this ignorant boor on the loose. For me, his appearance with his eternally greedy ex-wife (when will she learn to walk properly?) at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent six months ago was the final insult; why did this pair of grifters think it appropriate to be at the farewell of a woman who did nothing but good and cared nothing for money or titles?

Answer: Because they have absolutely no self-awareness or shame.

*****

Talking of lack of shame and self-awareness allied with a great dollop of self-delusion and what have you got? Why, Elizabeth Truss of course, now the frontwoman for a proposed new Mayfair club, The Leconfield. This daft woman thinks she can persuade "the world's most distinguished individuals" (her words) to part with £500,000 to become founding members of the club. 

Little lacquered boxes containing the prospectus for the joint, along with a personalised message from Mrs Lettuce (oh the honour), have gone out to 700 people with the aim of having an eventual membership of 14,000 world leaders. A sort of Davos without the snow, at least not that sort of snow. Before you all rush, you should know that neighbours are not best pleased. We are talking about Curzon Street after all, the building was once home to MI5 with Trumper, London's poshest barber shop, a few doors away.  

Those very neighbours are predicting the club, if it ever gets off the ground (it won't) will be a disaster, rather like Truss' political career. She has now thrown her lot in with Trump, a man who knows all about starting clubs, three of them to be exact, all of which went bankrupt.

Dumb Don and Thick Lizzie, a marriage made in hell.

*****

Chez Frambo was a noisy affair on Saturday afternoon with the singing of The Fields of Athenry causing local animals to flee to the hills. Six times in the last seven meetings Ireland have beaten England but this one was special; the much-vaunted English played like the U-14s said Matt Dawson. And Ireland, though missing some of their best through injury, were magnificent with Ulster for once not only well represented but providing the winning edge.

Then Wales started as we did, off to a flyer and the tide seemed to be turning at long last for them. But not quite. They will be back for sure and the sooner the better. Best gag of the weekend: "Isn't it time for Georgia to replace England in the Six Nations?" People can be so very cruel...  

*****

AND FINALLY

What is wrong with Boris Johnson? He turned up on Laura Kuenssberg's TV show looking like a cross between Margaret Rutherford in a hurricane and the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. The Scarecrow dearly wanted a brain. Johnson appears to have ditched his.   

ALAN FRAME

24 February 2026