Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Do the right thing – for your mum
DURING that dreadful BBC Newsnight interview, Andrew pompously talked about doing
“the honourable thing”.
He should do that now, walk away from his honorary appointments and not put his mother in the heartbreaking position of being criticised for not doing it for him.
She doesn’t deserve this. Andrew doesn’t want to walk away from them because he is still arrogant enough to believe he’s going to come out of this and get back on the royal road.
I feel he should step back in a way that doesn’t impact on his mother, as she shouldn’t have to suffer this sort of strain and aggravation at her age. It has been a tough time for her. She should not have to endure this.
At the moment it rests with the 95-year-old Queen to take his military appointments away.
She’s stuck between a rock and a hard place as she’s reluctant to do it because it’s family and he’s her son. But she knows there is dissatisfaction within the services about this, so it’s very difficult.
Andrew hasn’t been found guilty of anything, but he is guilty by association and of the company he has kept. If Judge Kaplan decides the case should go to court, I expect there to be horse trading between the two legal teams to settle out of court. That would be the most sensible thing for Andrew’s team because, as we saw on Newsnight, he cannot answer questions... he’s incapable.
While that wouldn’t mean he’s guilty, it also wouldn’t clear his name. And there are those who will say “he settled out of court, obviously there’s something there”. If Virginia Giuffre insists on a court case, one can only fear the worst for Andrew – because they will ask about his sex life and everything he says will be wide open, not just to the court, but also the court of public opinion.