PRINCE ANDREW’S LATEST FAUX PAS!
THE DUKE HAS LOTS OF IDEAS TO MODERNISE THE MONARCHY
He’s had some less than flattering nicknames bestowed on him over the years. First there was Randy Andy, then Air Miles Andy.
But Prince Andrew, Duke of York, has revealed that at home, he’s known as “the-entrepreneurin-residence”, thanks to his latest scheme to help new tech companies find rich backers. And he has a name for himself – “the ideas factory”.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, he cheerfully recounts how he drives his staff mad because he’s constantly coming up with plans they have to action.
“It’s the bane of their lives because when I walk in, it’s, ‘I’ve had another idea!’” he says. Their response, he explains, is, “Oh, for goodness’ sake, shut up, Sir! If you’ve had another idea, we’re going to have to do something else.”
Andrew’s biggest idea has been to launch Pitch@Palace, which arranges for tech start-up firms to compete for funding at Dragon’sDen- type events held at St James’s Palace. He also runs the Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA), which is a tech version of the Duke of Edinburgh awards for young people, teaching them digital and enterprise skills.
Helping people get their start in business is clearly something Andrew (57) is very passionate about. He compares himself to his great-great-great-grandfather Prince Albert, who was also an entrepreneur-in-residence. “He was doing it in the industrial revolution, I am doing it in the digital revolution.”
This could just be the making of Andrew, which will no doubt please some of his family. In the article, journalist John Aldridge writes that he recently mentioned Andrew to an unnamed royal at an informal lunch who let slip, “It’s about time he found something useful to do.”
It’s not been smooth sailing for Andrew since he left the Royal Navy 16 years ago. For 10 years, he was the UK special representative for international trade and investment – a job that involved promoting British businesses overseas – but his time in the role was controversial. Questions about his suitability were raised after he frequently took private jets and helicopters instead of commercial flights, went on holiday with a Libyan gun smuggler and supposedly used contacts to do a deal to sell his home, Sunninghill Park, which allegedly netted him $6m more than the asking price.
But it was his friendship with US billionaire Jeffrey Epstein that really hurt his reputation after the businessman was jailed for sex offences.
Buckingham Palace denied allegations made in court papers that Andrew had tried to seek special legal favours for his pal. Despite claiming he would cut ties with Epstein, Andrew was photographed with him after he was put on the sex offenders register. In 2011, hot on the heels of the scandal, it was announced that Andrew would step down from his trade envoy role.
More recently, he’s copped flak for allegedly once taking now-disgraced actor Kevin Spacey on a tour of Buckingham Palace and apparently letting him sit on the Queen’s throne to have his photo taken.
Andrew concedes there have been times when things could have been done differently, but it hasn’t always been his fault. “Sometimes you find somebody has done something after the event or you find that perhaps it wasn’t quite as wise. You don’t get it right all the time.”
It’s a good idea for Andrew to find himself a niche because the royal family’s focus is now most definitely on his older brother Charles and his
children, Princes William and Harry, and their families. Since Andrew and his daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were left out of the line-up on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations in 2012, it’s been clear that they are not going to be part of the “slimmed down” monarchy Charles is said to want.
That’s making Andrew less relevant and means he has to look beyond royal duties for a purposeful role.
Andrew insists that he is useful, especially when it comes to modernising royalty. “I’m trying to drive the technology that is available in palaces. You would have noticed that at St James’s Palace there’s no restriction on using your mobile phone.”
He is proud of putting a “very big white piece of masking tape” on the word NO in the NO MOBILE PHONES signs at Buckingham and St James’s Palaces. And he also adds that they’re upgrading the Wi-Fi.
“We’re all cogs in a huge bloody machine, yeah?” says Andrew. “Some of us have the advantage of being able to activate more cogs than other people.”