Monarchy -
HRH Prince Andrew 2
Prince Andrew was let off by a
police officer for speeding after he was stopped
near Heathrow airport for doing 60mph in a 40mph
zone. He was driving from his home in Berkshire
to catch a flight to get to the Open golf
championship at Muirfield in Scotland. The
speeding offence should carry a minimum fine of
£60 and three penalty points.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said,
"I can confirm a vehicle was stopped on the
southern perimeter road at Heathrow for allegedly
exceeding the speed limit. The occupants were
spoken to by the officer. No further action was
taken. An officer who stops a car for speeding
does have the discretion to just speak to the
driver and take no further action. We are not
prepared to discuss the incident any
further." According to reports, the duke
told the traffic officer who pulled him over he
was "in a hurry". He refused to get out
of his Range Rover and his bodyguard spoke to the
traffic officer involved.
Prince Andrew referred to VIPs on
a visit to a school as "shiny arses".
He made the gaffe when he walked into the new
£500,000 concert hall. He turned his back on the
local dignatories and suddenly blurted out,
"Good morning everybody. Who are all these
shiny arses?" The outburst was greeted with
an embarrassed silence, and then giggles.
A host, accompanying the prince, jumped in,
"A variety of guests and staff and people
who have come along and been invited." One
parent at Whitchurch High School, Cardiff, said,
"Maybe he was just trying to be matey but
this makes him look a complete prat."
Headmaster Gareth Matthewson said, "I assume
he was referring to men in suits. It was not
offensive."
Prince Andrew took a helicopter
for a journey of just 11 MILES, costing taxpayers
£1,000 when he flew from his home at
Sunninghill, Berks, to the Farnborough Air Show
in Hampshire. The flight would have taken him
less than ten minutes. A Palace spokesman said,
“All options were looked at before the
helicopter was used.”
Prince Andrew was questioned by
MPs over the use of public cash to pay for
flights to golf dates. They were concerned his
travel expenses were out of control and that he
uses the cover of royal duties to indulge his
love of golf. Andrew notched up a £8,000 bill
flying to Northern Ireland to play and later flew
to Scotland for a dinner at the Royal and Ancient
club in St Andrew’s, where he is captain.
Two days later he took a helicopter to see a
tournament in Wales.
He has been dubbed “Air Miles Andy”
after Buckingham Palace accounts revealed his
official flights in 2003 cost more than
£300,000, including one of less than 60 miles.
Labour MP Ian Davidson, on the Commons Public
Accounts Committee, said, “It would be
interesting to know what came first in the
engagement book, the golf or the royal
function.” A Palace spokesman predictably
said the R&A paid for some flights and added,
“He’s doing nothing wrong.”
Prince Andrew took to the air for
a 112-mile trip in defiance of MPs shocked at his
travel expenses. His helicopter journey to
Birmingham and Nottingham will probably cost the
taxpayer £4,500. Taking the car from London
would have been a fraction of that, and still
left him time to get back to Windsor for his
scheduled engagement there. A royal source said
the Duke had been furious when the expenses
rundown from the Audit Office report was
released. The source said, "Andrew's
attitude was 'Nobody understands how hard I have
to work'." The insider added, "He's so
arrogant, he thinks it is his right as a member
of the Royal Family to travel how he wants. He
has no comprehension about how his extravagance
is perceived outside." Andrew was exonerated
of inappropriate use of public funds. But MP Ian
Davidson, of the Public Accounts Committee,
accused him of paying little regard to economy.
Whitehall officials have covered
up the amount of money spent by the Duke of York
on his trips to promote British trade. The Mail
on Sunday asked UK Trade and Investment, the body
on whose behalf Prince Andrew flies around the
world, for a breakdown of the costs of the lavish
journeys, which are met by taxpayers. But it
responded by saying, "We don't keep a
central list of the visits he makes." We
then applied for the details to be released under
the new Freedom of Information Act. After four
weeks-during which the request was passed between
the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the
Cabinet Office and Buckingham Palace and caused
`a hell of a fuss', according to one civil
servant, we were given a list of excuses.
The officials responded by saying the details
were already available on the website, www.royal.gov.uk. But we
found only 32 of his trips are listed there - out
of a total of 267 trade-related engagements he
made in 2004. Ian Davidson, a member of the
all-party Commons Public Accounts Committee, said
he would demand answers from the DTI, which now
oversees the trips that earned the Prince the tag
`Airmiles Andy'. "I can think of no good
reason why this list of visits should not be
produced," he said. "What is there to
hide? I can only think that because there has
been such an outcry over his other journeys, they
are worried the information would demonstrate he
had been equally extravagant on behalf of the
DTL." (Source: Mail on Sunday)
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