Did These Men In Grey Suits Enable Prince Andrew For Years? Prashant Veer [4GKy2rKx51L]

One of the myths around Emily Maitlis's interview with Andrew in 2019 was that it came as a surprise to the palace. It did not. The Queen's press secretary was in the room.

Let me say that again. The institution knew about the interview. They would have known that the answers were laughably misleading. Pizza Express in Woking. The inability to sweat. The claim he could not remember meeting Virginia Giuffre despite the photograph.

If the palace had chosen, it could have tried to find out the truth and set the record straight. Instead it bought into Andrew's lies and it peddled them.

This is what James Harding, the editor of Tortoise Media, is arguing. And he is asking the question that should have been asked years ago. What about the people who ran the operation? What about the invisible men?

Over twenty years, three men have run the royal household. Christopher Geidt, now Baron Geidt, was the Queen's private secretary for a decade. Then came Edward Young, now Baron Young of Old Windsor. Today Sir Clive Alderton is the King's private secretary.

These are not ceremonial figures. These are serious, sophisticated operators of the machinery of British public life. Harding calls them workers at the Mariana Trench level of the deep state. They advised after the hung parliament in 2010. They handled the prorogation of parliament to facilitate Brexit in 2019. They managed the media repositioning of Camilla as Queen. They oversaw Megxit.

They betty broderick are the backroom fixers to a troubled family business. And much more than Andrew, they are invisible. Very private, private secretaries.

But the Andrew scandal leads inevitably to them. What they knew. What they sought to know. And when.

Because you did not need the US Department of Justice to release three million Jeffrey Epstein emails to know Andrew was a problem. For at least fifteen years he has been pursued by questions about girls, money and boorish behaviour.

Where did Andrew and his family get their money from? Were Virginia Giuffre's allegations true? Were there others? Were the claims at least worth investigating independently?

David Cameron told the Queen he wanted Andrew removed as trade envoy. Why would he do that if Andrew had done nothing wrong? Vince Cable worried that the UK's international business champion was working at odds with British government strategy. Trade envoy briefings were reportedly passed to Epstein. What did Andrew get in return?

The questions were there. The warning signs were flashing. And no one in the palace wanted to know.

Harding's answer is devastating. They did not want to tell the late Queen what they knew she did not want to hear about her favourite son. And they were not answerable to anyone but her.

A culture of deference and a istanbul lack of external accountability made smart people incurious and complicit.

That is the verdict. Smart people. Sophisticated operators. The men who run the machinery of British public life. Made incurious and complicit by a system that valued the Queen's comfort over the truth.

And now there is a queue of people wanting answers.

Police and prosecutors will have questions for the people in the palace who oversaw family finances, properties, security details and travel. Parliament wants scrutiny. Tom Tugendhat, a former and perhaps future Conservative leadership contender, is calling for a joint committee of the Commons and Lords to investigate oversight of the royal family.

The press is rethinking its way of working with the palace. And here Harding makes a point that should not be overlooked.

Prince Harry called it right long ago.

Harry called it right long ago. The system is broken. The briefings breed suspicion. The access deals corrupt the coverage. The lack of accountability enables the worst behaviour.

Now everyone else is catching up to shohei ohtani what Harry said years ago.

The invisible men enabled Andrew. The culture of deference protected him. The refusal to ask hard questions allowed the lies to be peddled as truth.

And now the reckoning is coming. Not just for Andrew. For the whole operation. For the private secretaries who knew. For the system that made smart people incurious and complicit.

The invisible men may finally have to become visible.

That's just my opinion. I could be wrong.