Exclusive: Palace insiders have revealed to The Sunday Times that the royal family will never let Prince Andrew return to public life after Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre filed a civil case against him thetimes.co.uk/article/prince…
Of the official photographs issued by Buckingham Palace for Princess Beatrice’s wedding last year, none featured Prince Andrew — the father of the bride who walked his daughter down the aisle that day

The decision is a notable break with royal tradition
Things have since gone from bad to worse for Andrew; a prince unable to escape the fallout from his friendships with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell, who will stand trial in New York next month accused of sex trafficking
thetimes.co.uk/article/ghisla…
Andrew faces a protracted legal nightmare of his own

His lawyers say the accusations are “baseless” and initially appeared to use every loophole in the book to stall proceedings

“Not a good look for him,” says Lisa Bloom, the US lawyer who represents several Epstein victims
Andrew twice bolted up to Balmoral, the Queen’s Scottish retreat, after Giuffre filed her case, leading many to suggest that he was hiding behind his mother’s skirts to avoid service of court papers
thetimes.co.uk/article/prince…
Royal watchers say the saga is damaging the monarchy

“This drip, drip, drip not only involves Andrew but, because he is the Queen’s second son, also engages the whole royal family, tarnishes their image and, by implication, Britain’s image too," says the historian Tessa Dunlop
Andrew is said to have told his mother his Newsnight interview in November 2019 was “a great success”

Instead, it went down as one of the most bizarre and misguided attempts at exoneration ever seen on television

Within days the Queen sacked her son from the firm
He is now rarely, if ever, seen publicly socialising, with only the occasional photograph of him on a horse in Windsor Great Park as evidence of his daily activity

“Riding is on the ‘allowed list’,” says a friend. “He is climbing the walls."
Andrew is said to remain convinced there is still a royal role for him in some shape or form, if the dust ever settles. It is not a view shared up the chain of command
When he tested the water last year — a source close to Andrew told The Sunday Times he hoped to “serve his country and support the monarchy in the future”. The royal slap-down was swift. Prince Charles was understood to be furious about Andrew’s claim of support for a future role
Prince William, who joined crisis talks with his grandmother and father over the decision to remove Andrew from public life, agrees that the change should be permanent
One of Andrew’s problems is that he is not very popular

A military source who has dealt with Andrew on several engagements does not mince words
A royal source who knows Andrew believes he has limited options:

“No business or brand in the country would touch him... he has to come to terms with it”
thetimes.co.uk/article/prince…

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More from @thesundaytimes

10 Oct
One of the last links to Hollywood’s golden age, @Joancollinsdbe is about to publish her withering and witty diaries. @thesundaytimes meets her at home in Belgravia. thetimes.co.uk/article/joan-c…
A mood killer in this interview is The Mail on Sunday, writes @joshglancy, which has just printed a story about Collins supposedly having an affair with the patrician Tory MP Alan Clark that is “an absolute, 100% lie”.
The offending anecdote is taken from documentary maker Michael Cockerell’s new memoir.

Collins was “appalled” by the story and is trying to put her lawyer on it. “I’ve never heard of this Cockerell chap,” she says dismissively.
Read 11 tweets
10 Oct
There have been some great @cheltfestivals moments over the years, but one of the most electric hours in the festival’s history was the appearance of @lewis_damian and Helen McRory, writes @aholgate. thetimes.co.uk/article/damian…
The married couple rarely appeared together. But both were passionate poetry lovers, and they had agreed to help a friend, the poetry impresario Allie Esiri, by reading a selection of love poems from Esiri’s collection of classic verse, The Love Book.
Funny, tender, poignant and often heartbreaking, the 50 minutes that followed left the people who attended the reading spellbound.
Read 7 tweets
10 Oct
Inbetweeners star @EmAtack has received thousands of messages from trolls spanning almost a decade.

Some men describe how they would rape her; others share graphic videos of themselves masturbating over photos of her. thetimes.co.uk/article/emily-…
Sometimes Atack tries to find out more about those targeting her. “Some of these men are married with children. They’ve got daughters in their profile pictures and things like that,” she said.
“How can you sleep at night knowing you’ve just tucked your daughters into bed, probably helped them with their homework, and then you’re sneakily going onto your phone [and sending that sort of message]?”
Read 7 tweets
9 Oct
Exclusive: JK Rowling (@jk_rowling) never thought of writing children’s books. After all, her own childhood wasn’t very happy

Here she explains why she changed her mind, and why she'd have gone looking online for a sense of self if she were a teen today
thetimes.co.uk/article/jk-row…
"I began writing aged six. Maybe, if I’d grown up now, I’d have joined an online writing group and posted my fiction there, although I was always quite secretive about the work I produced out of the classroom."
"As it is, only my bin and I know exactly what was in the short stories I churned out as a child and a teen, not to mention the novels that shrivelled up and died after a couple of chapters."
Read 8 tweets
9 Oct
In a bid to untangle the necks of the two “black swans” at the heart of the current crises – and see which is most to blame – The Sunday Times asked economists at an independent think tank:

Covid or Brexit? thetimes.co.uk/article/covid-…
The pay gap

The prime minister’s assertion that “wages are rising” is not supported by the data. There is no evidence that labour shortages will lead to a high-wage, high-skill economy
Reduced migration from Brexit may raise some wages but spending power could be eroded by higher inflation. So far, the EU’s spending power is similar to that of the UK, suggesting that Brexit is not the main driver

Verdict: Covid 🦠
Read 13 tweets
25 Sep
As elite universities make a concerted effort to take on more state school pupils, the wealthy and successful have begun to fear for their children’s places at these lauded institutions.

In response, American universities have come calling. thetimes.co.uk/article/forget…
As head girl of a top private school, and with a string of top grades, Teagan Galloway is exactly the sort of person you might expect to sail into Oxbridge.

Not these days, she says. In fact, Teagan was so convinced she wouldn’t get in that she didn’t even bother to apply.
The diversity drive at top universities — and the threat to the Oxbridge chances of private school pupils — is “discussed and feared” at Bryanston, her £40,000-a-year school in Dorset, she says.
Read 9 tweets

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