I’m still sorting through several days’ worth of commentary about what Prince Andrew’s arrest and possible prosecution will mean for the royal family. There’s a wide range of editorials, everything from sedate commentary on the need for more royal transparency to somewhat-hysterical-sounding Daily Mail columns about the need for King Charles to abdicate. Well, here’s another one, coming from a political reporter/analyst Kevin Maguire from the Daily Mirror. He posted a link to his column, alongside some commentary which didn’t make it into his editorial: that there are preparations afoot for King Charles’s funeral in the next 12 months and that the Scooter King will soon inherit this Andrew crisis.
Bit not said out loud is preparations are starting for a state funeral and coronation in, I'm told, 12 months.
No wonder William Mountbatten-Windsor isn't calm when he faces Qs about what he knew about Uncle Andrew and could soon inherit this crisis.https://t.co/ybBlddwK3C
— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) February 23, 2026
As many people are already pointing out in Maguire’s comments, funeral-planning has been ongoing for more than two years already. King Charles began adjusting his funeral plans as soon as he was diagnosed with cancer in 2024. But I honestly believe that Charles’s treatments have improved his condition, which is what he announced last December. There’s been a noticeable drop in urgency when people speak about William’s eventual reign and Charles’s health. So… I don’t know. Maybe Maguire is just talking about general funeral plans or maybe this is yet another open secret among the British press. As for Maguire’s column, here’s an excerpt:
Andrew and those who indulged him have destroyed the antiquated institution from within. It’s a crisis greater than Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936, when the king was replaced by George VI, and it was pretty much business as usual. However, this is different – and it also presents a golden opportunity.
Democracy group Republic calculates that the hereditary firm costs us in excess of £510million a year in grants, subsidies, unpaid taxes, security, helicopters and jets. Heightened public scrutiny and accountability is, thanks to the files on Andrew’s paedophile benefactor Jeffrey Epstein’s, lifting veils that can never again be lowered.
The exorbitant price paid for self-serving royals is indefensible when fewer and fewer people would want to be represented by this lot. The inevitable result will be a marginalised Dutch-style monarchy or Britons finally voting for their head of state instead of inheriting an entitled family.
Current events make such outcomes no longer unimaginable in my lifetime. Tony Blair bailed out the Queen after Princess Diana’s death, advising an aloof monarch to fly a Buckingham Palace flag at half-mast to appease pearls-and-perms middle class ladies revolting at the gates, fuming that the dead People’s Princess was disrespected.
Keir Starmer privately advised Charles, I’m told, to distance himself from his since-arrested brother but the King was pushed reluctantly into doing the right thing far too late. Dodger William faces tough questions of his own and change at the top is no solution when the entire family is evading responsibility for institutional failure in a privileged institution exposed as institutionally rotten.
The public and Parliament have the bit between their teeth. There’s no option of returning to what’s gone. The debate is what comes next.
The argument that “the monarchy as we know it is already over” is very interesting, because that is the larger subtext of all of these post-arrest conversations. That it’s fait accompli, Andrew’s arrest and the wider Jeffrey Epstein scandal have already shifted everything for everyone, and now it’s just a matter of what comes next. Is that really the case in the UK? Time will tell.
As for the “Charles needs to abdicate” piece… like, I don’t know what to even say about this Mail column, so I’ll just link to it. It’s so clearly coming from Kensington Palace briefings and Team Scooter King. But that’s just it – William only wants power for power’s sake. He’s fine with casting himself as some Shakespearean villain, exiling his brother and taking out his father. But what comes next, after all of Scooter’s power plays? He’s a man without a plan and, even more than that, he’s a man who is too lazy to actually make these moves in any real way or know what to do next.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Buckingham Palace.
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- King Charles III during the Accession Council at St James’s Palace, London, where King Charles III is formally proclaimed monarch. Charles automatically became King on the death of his mother, but the Accession Council, attended by Privy Councillors, confirms his role. Picture date: Saturday September 10, 2022. . .,Image: 721404798, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- The Prince of Wales and the Queen during the Accession Council at St James’s Palace, London, where King Charles III is formally proclaimed monarch. Charles automatically became King on the death of his mother, but the Accession Council, attended by Privy Councillors, confirms his role. Picture date: Saturday September 10, 2022. . .,Image: 721406177, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- King Charles III during the Accession Council at St James’s Palace, London, where King Charles III is formally proclaimed monarch. Charles automatically became King on the death of his mother, but the Accession Council, attended by Privy Councillors, confirms his role. Picture date: Saturday September 10, 2022. . .,Image: 721406187, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- King Charles III and the Queen Consort at Westminster Hall, London, where both Houses of Parliament are meeting to express their condolences following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.,Image: 721928710, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau / Avalon
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- Britain’s King Charles III at the presentation of Addresses by both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall, inside the Palace of Westminster, central London on September 12, 2022, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8.,Image: 721936686, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph / Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 14: Prince William, Prince of Wales, Sir Timothy Laurence, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, King Charles III, Mr Peter Phillips, Anne, Princess Royal walk behind the coffin during the procession for the Lying-in State of Queen Elizabeth II on September 14, 2022 in London, England. Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin is taken in procession on a Gun Carriage of The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall where she will lay in state until the early morning of her funeral. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, and is succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III.,Image: 722674714, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Jeff J Mitchell / Avalon
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- CARDIFF, WALES – SEPTEMBER 16: King Charles III arrives at Cardiff Castle to conduct audiences on September 16, 2022 in Cardiff, Wales. King Charles III is visiting Wales for the first time since ascending the throne following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died at Balmoral Castle on September 8, 2022.,Image: 723280480, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- King Charles III and the Queen Consort in front of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II during her State Funeral at the Abbey in London.,Image: 724154241, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dominic Lipinski / Avalon
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- Prince William, Prince Harry and King Charles III The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Service, Westminster Abbey, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724167805, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Tim Rooke/Shutterstock / Avalon
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- WINDSOR, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 19: King Charles III and Prince William, Prince of Wales before the Committal Service for Queen Elizabeth II at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle on September 19, 2022 in Windsor, England. The committal service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, took place following the state funeral at Westminster Abbey. A private burial in The King George VI Memorial Chapel followed. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, and is succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III.,Image: 724223940, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Setterfield / Avalon
We will see if this is the end of the Monarchy as we know it… I mean it’s survived Charles I having his head chopped off and the monarchy being basically abolished and having Oliver Cromwell run it for five years. So unless the British population turns definitively and collectively against it, I don’t think it’s going anywhere at this moment. Now when Will becomes King…I think that will be a whole other story.
Seriously. The BRF is like a giant cockroach, it seems to survive anything.
“…this lot..”, “dodger William” – wow, this guy doesn’t mince his words! Rightfully so!
Did someone let Charles know he’s dying in exactly a year? The ghoulish briefing from KP continues.
I’m taking this as a wilful misunderstanding of the fact that the monarchs funeral plans are ALWAYS active and up to date, he could trip over one of Camilla’s empty gin bottles and hit his head on a stone hearth tonight and that would be it.
What in the world is William going to brief about once he finally is king? Just a load of how amazing he is all the time.
@Jais, probably just more of the same about how much he hates his brother. He doesn’t seem to think about much else.
The press almost seem to be gleefully turning on William. I’m so here for it. So absolutely here for it.
It’s easy to dismiss the article as more BS from the British media and it chances are, that’s the case. Another thing to consider, Charles may have decided to lessen treatment because it’s no longer as effective as it once was. It would all depend on the kind of cancer he has. Sometimes, even if someone is in relatively good health with treatment, there can be diminishing returns over time. Especially if the cancer is treatable for a time but incurable, which is about all we truly know of Charles’ cancer (I suspect bladder or pancreatic cancer that was caught early). I can see Charles telling the public “I’m fine. I’m healthy,” while also preparing for the end. Honesty has never been this family’s strong suit. With Andrew’s issues, Charles’ death has the potential of turning a vulnerable situation catastrophic. So I can see there being real care and hesitation in discussing terminal diagnosis.
Don’t they have all of that figured out far in advance? Like as soon as Charles was coronated.
Yes, they always have a plan for the monarch’s funeral (my aunt told me the code name for Charles’s, but I can’t remember it atm), and I believe they conduct “dress rehearsals” in the middle of the night when the streets are empty. But this seems to be implying that they’re planning this one for a specific time, as if Charles was given a year by his doctors. Which…who knows. We won’t know the truth until it actually happens since we can’t believe whatever the palace tells the public.
Maybe the “Charles must abdicate now!” line has been met with so much ridicule that KP’s minions were forced to pivot to “Charles is on his deathbed, no matter what he told you about dialing back his treatment!”
I agree with Kaiser. They’ve been funeral planning for EVERYONE in the BRF for ages. And of course they’d want Willy’s coronation to occur within a year of Charles’ death, whether that’s in 10 months or 20 years. So this is a big nothingburger.
And yeah, “Dodger William” and a “rotten” institution–this MacGuire guy isn’t holding back. The Mirror and Mail seem to be trying to walk a line between “Willy will be kinging soon for whatever reason!” and “Willy really isn’t to kinging and everyone knows it.”
Sounds like ok Chuckles you have twelve months either abdicate or kick the bucket and let your oh so incompetent heir become king! Geez!!
William is anxious for the crown for one reason only, he cannot be prosecuted. Looking into Andrew’s white crimes may lead to his many crimes. And none of us can forget the “make your eyes bleed” comment from someone in the BM waiting to report what they know. They most likely knew of all of Andrew’s crimes yet used that phrase for William. I am not sure I am ready for what could come out but it needs to.
Well if this is the case then to Chuckles I say hold on tight to that crown and live long and don’t abdicate and let your oh so unsympathetic heir twist in the wind!
@ecsmom I agree completely. William wants to be king ASAP for the same reason that our orange nightmare wanted to be president ASAP (and forever): so they can’t be held accountable, in a legal sense, for their heinous acts.
AFAIK the reigning monarch cannot be arrested by police and prosecuted in the normal way and cannot be forced to attend court and give evidence. There is in principle ‘Sovereign Immunity’. The most recent example was when King George V was accused of bigamy in 1911. The Lord Chief Justice ruled that the King could not be compelled to give evidence.
I think if there was evidence of a criminal offence by the King it would need Parliament to first enact a law to remove him from his position as the reigning monarch. Once he was no longer King he could be arrested and face prosecution.
In the case of Andrew, in my opinion, the King did not have the power to remove his titles without the authority of Parliament. There should have been an open debate. It seems to me the King, the government and Andrew himself would have wanted to avoid this and perhaps everyone hoped that the police wouldn’t pursue an investigation if Andrew lost his titles and honours. The published Epstein files plus police action against Peter Mandelson plus Gordon Brown’s letters to the police have now dashed that hope.
In the long term it may lead to a public debate about privilege and accountability in public office, including the monarchy.
Even though Maguire is an avowed republican, for him to come out and say this live on the top UK morning show and be allowed editorially to write this article speaks volumes.
Also, Shelagh Fogerty, a top presenter on LBC radio, has openly questioned whether it’s time for Charles to consider abdicating.
The institution will eat its own to survive and Charles’ position is becoming increasingly vulnerable due to his knowledge of Andrew’s behaviour over the years; the establishment will move to cut out any perceived threat and, I suspect, William is finally waking up to the reality that he is going to ascend the throne a lot earlier than he had anticipated, with that being behind his comment about “not feeling calm”.
For all William’s briefing on his plans, he’s not ready for the challenge of actually being monarch; bleating about what he’d do and having to really live it and be forced into committing to the role are two different things and he’s panicking.
“…Charles’ position is becoming increasingly vulnerable due to his knowledge of Andrew’s behavior over the years; the establishment will move to cut out any perceived threat and…”
SERIOUSLY?? What about this – “I can’t wait to finally write the truth about William. Your eyes will bleed!”
These aren’t betrayals; they have to be serious. Maybe “games” with Epstein, or maybe something else, but it has to be something terrible, and that too is being hidden and suppressed, even though everyone knows it, even journalists. It might even turn out that Andrew is a little angel next to William… So the declaration that “the establishment will move to cut out any perceived threat” is just a sham. The establishment will resort to cover-ups to save their own asses. They will sacrifice Andrew, fall asleep on accusations, and even innocuous photos will be inflated with accusatory headlines, while William cowers nearby, tinged with fear, praying for his father’s quick death, because as a monarch, he will be legally unpunished.
I think about that “your eyes will bleed!” comment about William frequently. What could that possibly mean??
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing on Shelagh Fogarty’s programme today. She surely can’t be serious I thought, fawning over Willnot and Cannot as if she believed that they could rescue the monarchy from this debacle. How they are lily white in the Epstein scandal? Hasn’t she done any research into the Earths*** payment by the ‘torture Sheikh’ and Billy visiting the Emirates a couple of weeks ago? Would her eyes bleed if she did?
James O’Brien needs to have a word and tell her to wise up.
@AOC
Of course she knows the facts, but she writes about William what William commissions from her. She uses the content and the defensible photos that KP provides her in exchange for access, money, and invitations to the palace. As the American press agency wrote, “propaganda, like in North Korea.”
Journalists, at least a large portion of them, also know the reasons for the “bleeding eyes” and can’t wait to write about it. But they are blocked, “their mouths are sealed,” and even if someone did write it, they wouldn’t print it. You know, it’s the same press on all continents, the same media corporation… but I hope it will finally crack now.
Funeral planning is always done in advance and is nothing to indicate a timescale for Chuck ‘s departure. However he is 78 and on maintenance chemo and maybe making it to 95 isn’t a realistic option but one hopes for the best for him. Wilbur talks the talk but is an underwhelming PoW becoming King won’t change his low energy approach to work. Newspaper commentary on his actual ineptitude is going to be a doozy. No more he’s going to do this or that when he’s King will quickly turn into where’s our King? Why he’s on holiday again? Why aren’t there any more state visits or Royal Tours? How come he just attends major sports finals but no national commenorative events?
Nothing will happen to the monarchy. For some unfathomable reason, British people are proud to say they have a monarchy, as if that’s some kind of accomplishment? I don’t understand it, but it’s definitely a collective sentiment.
It seems to be changing a bit as older royalists die off…from what I’ve read, younger people are much more in favor of abolishing it. But it sounds like such a complicated endeavor (especially with the individual treaties in Canada), so idk how realistic it is. Apathy will probably keep it around, but hopefully the amount of money spent on this family will be scaled WAY down at some point. It’s insane that they do so little that actually benefits the UK and live lives of unimaginable luxury.
Oh you’d be surprised.
I’m a Liverpool FC supporter and we boo the national anthem whenever we have to suffer it at one of our matches. The majority of the North of the UK is very firmly anti-monarchist and will celebrate the day when we don’t have to fund their antics any longer.
I imagine preparation starts as soon as the last one takes place, so this isn’t really surprising. I’m sure the press can’t wait, they know once Charles is gone they can move on from Andrew and go back to just fawning. Not enough people want the monarchy to end, or won’t actually work towards ending it. I wish Harry wasn’t a monarchist because now would be a great time to remove himself and his children from this joke. Titles and line of succession. I don’t see the monarchy ending anytime soon, William will have a very long reign. Giving it up instead of having it taken away, let William be alone, with just his son in line.
The Palace has been preparing for Charles’ funeral since September 2022 when he became King.
Longer than that, they start up a file with funeral plans pretty much the day these folks are born. It’s just that when he became King they had to switch from a more generalist State Funeral format to the full Death of a Monarch theatrical production.
I’ve been seeing snippets of articles/ British tv shows – calling for Charles to abdicate, or that he doesn’t have long to live, so he needs to step down so Willileaks can take over. Here’s my thought – William is probably implicated in the Epstein files ( probably for something similar to what Andrew was arrested for) , and they’re trying to get him on the throne, before it’s revealed. Just my thought.
I agree! I think so too. Aggressively spread in the media —Wilhelm ascends the throne—is saturated with desperation and hysteria, typical of the coward Wilhelm. He doesn’t consider what it looks like, what does it look like to provide the date of your father’s death; he panics…
I also wrote about it here, in the comments under number 9. Read it.