Monarchy -
HRH Prince Andrew
Prince Andrew used a royal jet to fly to Scotland
and back for a round of golf - landing the
taxpayer with a £10,000 bill. The Duke had the
BAe146 jet, from 32 Squadron, wait 11 hours while
he played in the golf match. He spent the
afternoon on the links at the Royal and Ancient
Golf Club at St Andrews, then had dinner in the
clubhouse before being whisked back to the
waiting jet for the return flight to London.
Andrew joined R&A members on the first day of
their Spring Meeting at the historic home of golf
on Bank Holiday Monday.
He carried out no other duties in Scotland that
day - and didn't even meet up with his nephew,
Prince William, who is a student at St Andrews
University. Buckingham Palace insisted the Duke
was carrying out an official engagement with his
visit to the golf club, where he is to become
captain next year. But a spectator stormed,
"The captaincy is just an excuse for him to
follow one of his favourite hobbies and get the
taxpayer to pay for it. He didn't meet anyone
other than R&A members - he can hardly claim
he's visiting Scotland for the public good."
The jet arrived at RAF Leuchars - six miles from
St Andrews - at 11.30am. It was met by police
officers and the prince was driven away in a
waiting BAe146 jet used by Andrew on tarmac at
Leuchars Range Rover with his personal protection
officer and a driver. Two plainclothes policemen
accompanied him during the visit. He was whisked
to the members-only clubhouse of the Royal and
Ancient Golf Club to change into his designer
golf gear before heading out to a practice green.
Laughing and joking, the prince made allowances
for his play. "This is my first game since
January. There have been more important things
going on," he said, referring to the Royal
Family's visits to bases to meet families of
troops serving in the Gulf. Later, when the
prince was at the first tee of the Old Course,
the announcement of his name on a Tannoy
attracted a small handful of spectators. One
R&A official, who tried to stop pictures
being taken of the prince, mistakenly claimed the
visit was "private".
Of course, if it had been listed as private,
royal accountants would have banned Andrew from
taking the royal jet or he would have had to pay
for it himself. Andrew has been accused of
wasting money before. In June 2001, he took the
royal jet to watch the British Open at Royal
Lytham and St Anne's, Lancs. And the previous
year, he was helicoptered to President's Day at
the Royal North Devon Golf Club, running up
another bill for £10,000.
By contrast, if Andrew had taken a scheduled
service from Heathrow to Edinburgh - about 80
minutes' drive from St Andrews - his ticket would
have cost just £328 return. The only difference
is the last flight would have meant him leaving
earlier. Buckingham Palace said, "It was an
official visit, as it was announced that he will
be the captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club
next year. All modes of transport were looked at
and ruled out, with various timing and logistical
problems."
Prince Andrew spent £325,000 of
public money hiring planes and helicopters in one
year, according to a report by the National Audit
Office (NAO). The report said the prince was
reluctant to use "unreliable" trains.
The total included £32,000 on flights to St
Andrews golf course, while Prince Andrew was club
captain. Buckingham Palace said that the NAO had
"exonerated the Duke of York from
inappropriate use of public funds in his use of
transport".
Expenses detailed in the report included almost
£3,000 spent chartering a helicopter for a
50-mile trip to a lunch in Oxford in June 2003.
The report said, "Travel by rail (which
would have cost £97) was considered but rejected
as an option, based on the additional
hour-and-a-half travelling time... and the
potential unreliability of the train arrival
time". The prince also spent £3,600 using
an RAF jet for a 90-mile journey to a Somerset
military base in June 2004, the NAO said.
Prince Andrew spent £100,000 of
taxpayers’ money to take a jet of the
Queen’s Flight to a series of VE day
celebrations in Russia. If he had travelled by
commercial airline it would have cost £451.30
return.
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