Who is popular today?

AT A TIME when warships are prowling and geopolitical tensions flaring, few might bother to take on the latest royal scandal. But the message sent by King Charles III’s October 30 announcement in relation to Prince Andrew is so powerful, it is one that demands recognition.
It’s not every day a British king strips his brother of his princely title and kicks him to the curb.
The privately owned Sandringham Estate is hardly a dump, but it is no Royal Lodge, the 30-room manor in Windsor Great Park, which the 65-year-old royal has hitherto occupied.
The king has initiated the surrender of that lease, as well as the removal of the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew, who will become Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – citizen Andrew. All in response to renewed revelations surrounding the royal’s ties to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” Buckingham Palace said this week.
“Their majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
King Charles’ move is easily his most significant since becoming monarch. But many will argue it has come too late.
Virginia Giuffre, who accused the prince of participating in her sexual trafficking, died earlier this year by suicide. She did not live to see this moment’s vindication, though it has been triggered to a large degree by the words in her recently published posthumous memoir.
In 2022, Prince Andrew had reached an out-of-court civil suit settlement, to the tune of millions, with her. The public will now ask again what and when the royal family knew. King Charles has only acted after the pressure triggered by Ms Guiffre’s book; just a week prior, the palace had announced merely a voluntary relinquishing of titles.
More uncomfortable questions also arise over Andrew’s possible abuse of protection officers in a reported effort to dig up dirt against his accuser, as well as whether Ms Giuffre was a minor at the time of any interactions. Her memoir details meeting the prince not once but three times, including once at Mr Epstein’s notorious Caribbean island.
The transatlantic reach of the Epstein scandal provides a rare glimpse into the sordid networks of the rich and powerful that have, for too long, enabled exploitation.
That a deceased woman, a so-called commoner, has brought down a prince is a hopeful moment, one that suggests all who enable abuse might, eventually, get their comeuppance. King Charles has spoken.
The message is clear. It is about the universal need to tackle sexual abuse no matter who is involved. Local authorities, take note.
The post Banished from the kingdom appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.