[Waterluvian]

Also the King stepping aside as the commoners come to for his brother. Lots of recent examples demonstrating that none of these unprecedented moments are untouchable if you actually are a people who believe in the rule of law.

[multjoy]

The King has made it very clear that he was entirely unhappy with Andrew's involvement for years, but had Andrew done the right thing and entirely disappeared from public life he might have retained a degree of protection.

He didn't and so he had everything stripped away which sent a very clear message to Government and the police that he was there for the taking.

[mytailorisrich]

The 'firm' protects itself ruthlessly. Andrew was too exposed in a too public scandal, they had not alternative but to cut him loose to protect themselves and the monarchy. Governor of the Bahamas was not an option...

[IncreasePosts]

"the firm" protects the people realistically in the line of succession. There's a reason harry lives in America these days.

[mytailorisrich]

Yes, that's what protecting itself means. In this case things have become so public that the best/least bad option to protect the King and the Prince of Wales is to sacrifice Andrew.

[IncreasePosts]

I'm not so positive that's the case. It's fairly well reported that Andrew and Charles have not seen eye to eye for...many decades. Charles kept the peace probably for his mother's sake while she was alive, but even before the major epstein revelations, Charles had been pushing Andrew to the side

[giraffe_lady]

It's striking that the specific offense, misconduct in a public office, is exactly what the supreme court recently decided a US president can never commit. In at least one concrete way our elected leaders are less accountable than their royalty.

[mytailorisrich]

It's not the King, it's the government, really. In any case, one of the reasons, if not the main reason, is that the scandal has unfolded very publicly so that covering it up is not an option as it might have been otherwise or previously.

[anigbrowl]

How amateurish! Officials should have just deflected to talking about the stock market.