Is Britain a free country? Just try getting the inside story on the Royal Family
JUST GOOD FRIENDS? Prince Philip and Penny Romsey
Who knew the Royals like nothing more than a good bonfire? Prince Philip certainly did and during his last four years living more or less permanently at Wood Farm, the five-bedroom guest cottage on the Sandringham estate, he spent much of the time stoking the flames that consumed much of his official papers. Apart from frequent visits from his carriage-driving friend Penny Romsey that is.
Princess Margaret did the same with those concerning the Queen Mother, ably assisted by her chauffeur of 26 years, David Griffin, and we must assume that Margaret made sure anything — which really meant everything — incriminating about her also went up in smoke.
Well, it's certainly one way of reducing the effectiveness of the Freedom of Information Act, not that much help is needed. The simple and shocking fact is that while we might think we live in a free and open country, we don't. Try to ask a question on almost any topic citing FOI and you will be disappointed. You will probably get a standard reply: 'We will get back to you within 20 days but we may need more time, say 40 days'. That could stretch to six months and often does.
A variety of exemptions will be deployed ranging from national security, law enforcement, health and safety, personal data, international relations, and communications with the Royal Family, until you give up. You will fare little better taking your complaint to the Regulator, the Information Commissioner, and then to the First Tier Tribunal. Almost always they will side with the public authority against the requestor. In England, the Information Commissioner reports to the Cabinet Office, the worst FOI culprit. Freedom of Information has been going backwards for years to the extent that we are little better than Russia or China.
And please don't rely on your MP or friendly member of the Lords to get an answer to any query you might have on the Royals because they are not allowed to ask such questions. Yes really, despite the fact that to a large extent we fund them. My friend Andrew Lownie, the historian and author of some of the most exhaustively researched biographies of Guy Burgess, the Mountbattens and the Duke of Windsor has another out in the summer, this time on the Yorks, Andrew and his ex, Sarah Ferguson. He has relied on more than 100 interviews with friends (and of course foes) of the couple because all attempts for help on information and background through the FOI were met with either a straight No or subterfuge and silence.
Here's an example: Q: What information do you have on Prince Andrew's parachute training in 1975? A: That file is closed. In fact the earliest date information will be available (or more probably not) will be 105 years after his birth, in other words 2065. Fortunately the idiot prince has done so much wrong for most of his life that we all know more about him than of any other member of the family.
In no particular order: Arrogance, stupidity, dodgy friends in former Soviet countries, North Africa and the Middle East, corruption, friendship with a Chinese spy, access to vast sums of money when claiming to be penniless (Royal Lodge for instance) and of course Jeffrey Epstein and allegedly sex with under-age girls. I might add to this list his relationship with Fergie who has her very own catalogue of shame. The two have been described as ‘Bonnie & Clyde in coronets’ and all possible because there has been so little scrutiny of their business and charitable activities. A pair of them in it, as we say in Ireland.
Four years after Prince Philip’s death and three since the Queen died and their papers going back almost 80 years remain closed with no plans yet announced for official biographies though we know the serious job of sorting her papers has been entrusted to a footman, Clacton boy Paul Wybrew, aka Tall Paul, rather than a panel of historians.
So next time you think we live in an open country, forget it. Governments of all persuasions go along with the cover-up and there seems little likelihood of change. Compare and contrast the FOI Act in the US, yes even in Trump's America, where every government agency is 'required to make available promptly to any person for public inspection and for copying, the department's opinions, statements of policy interpretations and staff manuals and instructions'. Woodward and Bernstein, brilliant exposers of Watergate, might have got nowhere had it not been for their country's liberal and cherished Freedom of Information Act.
Forget Canada, maybe we should become the 51st state...
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You probably all know the old joke, apparently born of fact, about the News of the World reporter knocking on the door and announcing himself to the house owner who responded with "Can you prove it?" "Madam", he said, "I'm admitting it."
It came to mind when reading former MP Mark Field's account of his 18-month affair with Liz Truss, or to put that in context exactly 498 days longer than her time in Downing Street. He tells us that "her manic energy was intoxicating, disconcerting and exhausting" and that when she became (I still find it hard to write this) Prime Minister he thought she might last six months, a good deal longer than the life of most lettuces.
Field sums up Truss well, though with hindsight we could all do that: "She is dismissive of the conventional; she will not be told what to do but is open to quirky ideas; she has a total obsession with politics and absolute self-belief". And when he told a mutual friend in New York that she was about to become our next PM the incredulous reply was "God help the UK".
How right he was.
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Most of us were well rewarded during our time at the Express. I was very well paid, had a sporty company coupe, very generous expenses and all the other privileges. One thing I didn't have was a company credit card and, as far as I know, none of us did because such a thing did not exist. Imagine the surprise to learn that many civil servants have exactly that. Well, that perk is soon to be no more because, surprise surprise, it has been abused and spectacularly so.
Normally when claiming exes they are scrutinised. These civil servants spent on what was euphemistically known as a procurement card on everything from bespoke shoes (£741), food at private members' clubs (too many to list but thousands), English sparkling wine from Fortnum (more expensive — and better — than the finest champagne) and £5,237 for four staying at the Hotel Claris in Barcelona while they were at an IT conference. Oh, and £87,000 on hotels for Foreign Office staff on just one jaunt to South Africa.
They seem a thirsty lot too. In the first four months of the current government civil servants spent £49,511 on booze. That would give the combined talents of Jon Akass, George Gale and Paul Callan a run for their money.
But knowing them so well, they would have tried.
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Fatrewell Paddy Hemingway. The Dubliner and Very Last of the Few died on Monday, appropriately St Patrick's Day at the age of 105. Two years ago he gave his final TV interview. "So what do you credit for surviving so long?" "Well I was shot down four times so it can only have been one thing: It was the luck of the Irish".
ALAN FRAME
19 March 2025
