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This whole Priti Patel-Prince Andrew-King Charles story is very confusing to me. From what I gather, at some point in recent weeks, Priti Patel wrote to King Charles\u2019s private secretary and suggested that Prince Andrew\u2019s security situation needed to be reviewed. Andrew no longer has \u201ctaxpayer-funded\u201d royal protection, although reportedly, he does have some private security which was paid for by his mother and now by Charles. The way this story has been framed, though, it\u2019s as if Andrew hasn\u2019t had any kind of security for a few years, so I don\u2019t know what\u2019s really happening. In any case, Patel is no longer Home Secretary, but that didn\u2019t stop someone (in the palace?) from leaking her letter to the tabloids, after which everyone started freaking out. Patel issued a formal apology, but it doesn\u2019t sound like she had anything to do with her own letter being leaked? And it also sounds like she\u2019s quite angry that the palace leaked her letter as some kind of warning. The message seems to be \u201cwe\u2019ll do what we want without anyone looking over our shoulder.\u201d<\/em> Which is chilling.<\/p>\n Dame Priti Patel was \u201cthrown under the bus\u201d for suggesting that decisions about the Royal family\u2019s security should receive proper scrutiny, it has been claimed.A letter sent by Dame Priti to Sir Clive Alderton, the King\u2019s private secretary, in which she mooted a potential review of the decision to strip the Duke of York of his taxpayer-funded police protection was leaked to a tabloid newspaper. The leak forced the former home secretary to apologise to the King for the \u201cembarrassment and difficulties\u201d it had caused.<\/p>\n But a source familiar with the situation said she had done nothing but point out the \u201cblindingly obvious\u201d when it came to the activities of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures \u2013 known as Ravec \u2013 which is responsible for such decisions.<\/p>\n The source said: \u201cIt is outrageous that an email sent in confidence about sensitive security matters should be leaked less than a week after it was written. All she did was suggest that decisions made by Ravec about the security arrangements for high-profile individuals should have proper political accountability and be kept under review. Dame Priti has been thrown under a bus for simply raising a matter of process. Is she not entitled to express her view?\u201d<\/p>\n The source suggested that the email was leaked as a warning to anyone who dared try to question the decision-making process. The source added: \u201cThis leak could only have come from an official inside the palace, the Home Office or Ravec to warn off anyone \u2013 including the former home secretary \u2013 from asking serious questions about security policy. And this from the people employed to keep us and the Royal family safe? They should be ashamed.\u201d<\/p>\n The Duke lost his Metropolitan Police protection when he was forced to step back from official royal duties in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. It is thought likely that he is keen to have his bodyguards \u2013 said to cost up to \u00a33 million a year \u2013 reinstated. The concerns raised by Dame Priti echo those outlined by the Duke of Sussex in his legal challenge of the decision to deny him and his family automatic police protection when in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [From The Telegraph]<\/p>\n\n
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