There is a new briefing out. According to sources, Prince William wanted Andrew removed from the line of succession last year. The Prince of Wales is apparently frustrated by the delay that leaves Andrew Mountbatten Windsor eighth in line to the throne.
We are supposed to believe this now.
We are supposed to believe that William, the man who was happy to be photographed with Andrew multiple times over the years, secretly wanted him gone. We are supposed to believe that William, who shared a plane with Andrew, was privately pushing for his removal. We are supposed to believe that William, who drove his uncle to church in full view of cameras, was actually leading the charge to cut him out.
I do not believe this. And let me tell you why.
This is what William does. He briefs the press. He never says anything himself. He never puts his name to anything. He never stands in front of a camera and says this is what I think and this is what I want.
Instead, sources close to the Prince of Wales say things. Friends of William reveal things. People familiar with his thinking share things. The briefings go out and William keeps his hands clean.
If William was even half the leader he pretends to be, he would say what he wants from his own mouth. He would stand up and be counted. He would take a position publicly instead of hiding behind anonymous sources and letting journalists do his dirty work.
But that is not how William operates. William complains and explains through intermediaries. William distances himself from controversy while simultaneously creating it. William wants credit for being tough on Andrew without ever actually saying he is tough on Andrew.
And here is what makes this briefing even more absurd.
Remember when William briefed that he would rather have Andrew as a neighbour than Harry? That was not long ago. William made it clear through his usual channels that he preferred the company of his uncle, the man now arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, over his own brother.
Andrew over Harry. That was the choice William made publicly. That was the preference William wanted the world to know about.
And now we are supposed to believe he wanted Andrew removed from the line of succession last year? Now we are supposed to believe he was frustrated by the delay? Now we are supposed to believe William was ahead of everyone else on this?
The revisionist history is staggering.
This briefing is damage control. Nothing more. William's team sees the catastrophe unfolding with Andrew and they are trying to get ahead of it. They are trying to create distance. They are trying to make William look like the sensible one who saw this coming while his dithering father did nothing.
But the record exists. The photographs exist. The previous briefings exist.
William was happy with Andrew for years. William posed with Andrew for years. William defended Andrew through silence for years. The entire institution protected Andrew for years while simultaneously driving Harry and Meghan out of the country.
You do not get to rewrite that history with a convenient briefing.
And here is what this briefing reveals about William's priorities.
The briefing focuses on the line of succession. William is frustrated that Andrew is still eighth in line to the throne. That is the concern. That is what apparently keeps William up at night.
Not the victims. Not the women and girls who were allegedly trafficked and abused. Not the national security implications of a senior royal allegedly passing trade secrets to a convicted paedophile. Not the decades of cover up that allowed this to continue.
The line of succession. How it looks. How it affects William's future reign. How it impacts the institution he will one day lead.
That is what a moron focuses on. The optics. The positioning. The PR.
A decent person would be asking about the victims. A decent person would be demanding accountability. A decent person would be asking what the institution knew and when it knew it.
But William is not asking those questions. William is briefing about the line of succession. William is worried about how this makes him look. William is doing damage limitation for himself while the actual damage, the human damage, goes unaddressed.
And here is the question that nobody in the press seems willing to ask.
What did they know? When did they know it? Why did they cover it up?
These are simple questions. These are the questions that journalists are supposed to ask. These are the questions that accountability requires.
But instead we get briefings about William wanting Andrew removed last year. We get spin. We get smokescreens. We get propaganda designed to protect the heir while the institution burns.
Removing Andrew from the line of succession is Parliament's job anyway. It is not the King's decision alone. It requires an Act of Parliament. It requires the consent of Commonwealth realms. William could not have done it himself even if he wanted to.
So this briefing is doubly meaningless. William supposedly wanted something done that he has no power to do. And we are supposed to be impressed by his private frustration while he did absolutely nothing publicly.
This is North Korea level propaganda. This is the kind of revisionist history that authoritarian regimes engage in. The Dear Leader always knew. The Dear Leader was always right. The Dear Leader saw the problem before anyone else.
Except we have photographs. We have previous briefings. We have the record of what actually happened.
William was complicit. The institution was complicit. They all knew about Andrew. They all protected Andrew. They all chose Andrew over Harry and Meghan.
And now that Andrew has been arrested, now that the Epstein files have been released, now that the whole rotten structure is exposed, William wants us to believe he was secretly on the right side all along.
No. We do not believe this. We remember what happened. We remember who was protected and who was driven out. We remember the choices that were made.
The smokescreen is not working. The damage limitation is not working. The briefings are not working.
What did they know? When did they know it? Why did they cover it up?
Those are the questions. And no amount of spin will make them go away.