Comment & Analysis

While the country grapples with serious recession and MPs are attacked almost daily for spending a few thousand pounds worth of expenses they probably shouldn’t have claimed, the Windsors continue to dig deep into our pockets.

According to Wikipedia a ‘protection racket’ is “an extortion scheme whereby a powerful entity or individual coerces other less powerful entities or individuals to pay protection money.” That seems to sum up nicely what is happening with royal security as minor royals – who most people wouldn’t spot in a line-up – demand round-the-clock protection at taxpayers’ expense.

The Sun has today reported that police protection for Eugenie and Beatrice, the two daughters of Prince Andrew, costs us around £250,000 a year. That figure is now likely to rise further as – in the words of the Sun – the globe-trotting 19-year-old (Eugenie) is living it up on a gap-year jaunt around the world.

There is little excuse for this level of protection. Anne’s children don’t get any police escort, the risk to Eugenie and Beatrice has been assessed as minimal and – as one retired police officer has pointed out – if the risk were genuinely serious then there would be much more security. A single police officer is simply no use against any real threat.

So why does it happen? Norman Baker MP has told the Sun: “The trouble with the Royal Family is that they seem to regard security officers as some kind of status symbol.” I think he’s right. That explains why some Windsors insist on the round-the-clock- protection, but it doesn’t tell us why their demands are met by an overstretched police service.

The simple explanation is deference and the power of royal influence. Some time back it was reported that the Met police had suggested downgrading protection for Eugenie and Beatrice, but Andrew stamped his feet and demanded the protection remain in place. Had this been a discussion about the protection of an MP or some other public figure the Met would simply advise the individuals concerned of their decision, there would no tip-toeing around or attempts to negotiate a downgrade.

The problem is two fold. We can blame the royals for their self-indulgent attitudes and disregard for the taxpayer. It’s not beyond them to understand that, as Jim Devine MP put it in a letter to Andrew, “it is not the role of the British taxpayer to pay for the protection of two junior members of the Royal Family as they flirt and flaunt their way through the nightclubs of Europe”.

We should also blame parliament, government and the Metropolitan police. They are quite capable of putting their foot down and saying ‘enough is enough’. Yet they don’t.

It is perhaps the case that no politician is willing to take the decision to downgrade security in case these royals are then attacked. This is why Andrew and his family should make the decision easier for the police by accepting there is no need for this status-symbol protection. But the police are used to taking these kinds of decisions and don’t need politicians to give them permission. They should not be allowing the Windsor family to brow-beat them into acquiesence.

It’s time to stand up to the Windsors and end this racket.

Tags: Eugenie, prince andrew

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under Minor royals, Royal Finances, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments are now closed.