Friday, March 11, 2011

The Queen of England calls for consultations to his son Andrew after latest scandal

The Queen and the Duke of York met Thursday at Buckingham Palace. Has not leaked the content of the meeting. But the British media assume that mother and son have evaluated the impact of the scandals that have beaten the Duke in recent days and have jeopardized its responsibilities as a sales representative in the UK and abroad.

The position of Prince Andrew is not a paid position or an official responsibility. But keeping everyone more or less satisfied. The Prince kept the busy Windsor, the ministers cited the example of the benefits of the monarchy and the business earned a voice that greased its dealings in countries where only one member of royalty can be negotiated.

But in recent days, the consensus around the Duke of York has begun to crumble. Some ministers have hinted that the Government may degrade and the Labour opposition has formally requested his removal. The trigger was a photograph showing in Virginia Andrew Roberts: lower prostitute at the house of his friend Jeffrey Epstein.

The image is embarrassing for many reasons. But most important is the degustation Epstein, convicted of frequent adolescent sexual services as Roberts. For now, nobody has dared to say that the Duke of York share the services of prostitutes. But the tabloids have explored its relationship with American tycoon and have found edifying details.

For example, Epstein was scheduled to tens of Andrés numbers or had offered to pay part of the debts of his former wife Sarah Ferguson. Also that the duke had invited his friend to land your jet on an Army base in one of his visits to Sandringham, one of the country houses of the British monarchy.

The scandal surrounding Epstein encouraged the British press to look into the work of the Duke of York as a trade envoy and what they have found is even more problematic for the state. His trips cost about five million euros to the taxpayer. A figure that should be added the 300,000 per year that Andrew received from the Queen and the salaries of service personnel who take care of his apartment on the outskirts of Windsor Castle.

The Duke does not receive a salary for his work as a trade envoy, but many accuse him of using the position to their advantage. Some employers defended their role by saying it has helped create employment contracts starting in difficult countries for the United Kingdom. But the press and some politicians criticized their increasingly frequent trips to countries that do not respect human rights.

In the past three years, Duke has completed over 50 trade missions. Most of the Gulf monarchies (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) or as far away as Thailand, Vietnam and Mongolia. A Andrew criticize him his trip to Tunisia or Libya, where he cultivated the friendship of the family of Gaddafi and Ben Ali.

But mostly he is accused his dealings with dictators of the republics of Central Asia, where it has traveled a recurrent way in recent years. The most flagrant case is Azerbaijan, where the Duke of York has traveled eight times in the last five years and where the press Aliyev dictator addicted to greet him as "dear guest." In public, Andrew has always defended his visits as a way to make way for British companies in a country with reserves of energy.

'The Guardian' published today, however, Andrew has served as a kind of double agent mediating pro-regime with several MPs. The Duke is also associated with the regime of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, whose president has had as its host repeatedly. And they have also criticized recurrent dealings with Kazakhstan.

And not just for your trip to the country. Also for his friendship with the dictator's family. A few years ago, Andrew has sold his mansion in Sunninghill for a stratospheric price and the buyer was Timur Kulibayev: Kazakh dictator's son and the father of the son of Goga Ashkenazy, with the Duke can be seen in public.

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