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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was pictured yesterday with a large bruise on his cheek |
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Victoria Ward Deputy Royal Editor |
Another day, another revelation about the former Duke of York.
This time, the National Audit Office (NAO) has published a detailed report today setting out the intricacies of royal property arrangements, the specific terms of various leases, who pays what to whom, and (crucially) who pays nothing.
It reveals that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor made money from three cottages on his Windsor estate, despite paying only a peppercorn rent for two decades.
His daughters, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who are not working royals, live rent-free courtesy of the King at Kensington Palace and St James’s Palace.
Meanwhile, it emerged that Prince and Princess Michael of Kent – non-working royals like the York sisters – have never been required to pay their own rent at Kensington Palace, despite a public declaration from Buckingham Palace some 18 years ago that they would do so.
The NAO was careful not to pass judgment – its report simply sets out the facts before the Public Accounts Committee gets down to business scrutinising whether the taxpayer is getting value for money.
The Crown Estate and the Royal Household, which between them manage the various leases, will surely have questions to answer, as my colleague Hannah Furness discusses below.
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Hannah Furness Royal Editor |
There is an old adage, beloved by traditional monarchists, that the Royal family must not let “daylight in upon the magic”. This report proves once and for all that such a policy is no longer fit for purpose.
The Yorks, as usual, will make headlines around the world.
Detractors of the Royal family will have a field day. The King comes out of the report looking rather loyal to his family – paying the way of elderly and non-working relatives – if nothing else.
It will be a fresh round of criticism about Mountbatten-Windsor, who was photographed yesterday with a large, painful-looking bruise on his face.
The monarchy will survive this report, but there is a lesson here, and they would do well to learn it.
It is time to replace secrecy and endless excuses of “privacy” with an effort at transparency. The era of people agreeing to live in darkness when it comes to public funds is over.
Retaining the magic of the modern monarchy will need a little more daylight, and the NAO report is a useful start.
Read the full story and Hannah’s analysis here ➤ |
Emma Webber’s son, Barnaby, was killed by Valdo Calocane in 2023 |
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Abigail Buchanan Features Writer |
This week marks the final days of evidence in the Nottingham Inquiry. For three months, Emma Webber – mother of Barnaby, who was killed in 2023 – has listened to hours of evidence about how her son died and all the chances the authorities missed to stop his killer Valdo Calocane, a paranoid schizophrenic.
It also marks the week protests broke out over the police’s handling of the murder of Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed as he lay dying, after being accused of racism by the man who had stabbed him.
Webber has become a spokesman for the bereaved families of the Nottingham attack victims. She told me she hoped Nowak’s murder was a “line in the sand”. Calocane “was a black man who killed three white people and that was never part of the conversation” she says. “If it had been the other way round, it would have been.”
Valdo Calocane killed Barnaby, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates in 2023 |
This is a pivotal moment for her to give her most personal interview yet, speaking about her own experience of caring for a relative with serious mental illness.
For subscribers only ➤
Catch up with our latest coverage of the fallout from the murder of Henry Nowak:
White House demands end to two-tier policing ➤
It’s the police’s job to end racism, says diversity boss ➤ |
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David Frost The police are the latest institution to be captured by unaccountable Left-wing ideologues who will never bow to public anger Continue reading ➤
Isabel Oakeshott The BBC is right to be terrified of Nigel Farage Continue reading ➤
Louis Mosley By attacking Palantir, MPs are putting politics above patients Continue reading ➤ |
To make sure you don’t miss our newsletters when they land in your inbox, click here. |
Andy Burnham announced last night that he would challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he won the Makerfield by-election. The party descended further into civil war yesterday after the Mayor of Greater Manchester made the announcement on a special episode of the BBC’s Question Time as Downing Street hit back at Burnham, insisting the Prime Minister would not “walk away”. Despite a clear path to No 10 now emerging for Burnham, the mayor is facing a close fight in Makerfield against Reform UK, with polls showing just a three per cent gap between the two.
Continue reading ➤
Tim Stanley: Low-grade Question Time was a terrifying glimpse of modern Britain ➤ |
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A couple of days from payday you might feel a long way off being one of the country’s top earners – but our latest tool might surprise you. While your earnings will need to be well into the six-figure range to be among the top 1 per cent, the top 10 per cent is much more achievable. Simply enter your salary to find out where it ranks. Subscribers can use our tool here ➤ |
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Clodagh Morgan went through what she describes as a spiritual awakening |
When Clodagh Morgan’s inner voice warned her never to board an Air India flight, she reluctantly quit her job as a nanny for a family from Mumbai. Months later, one of the airline’s planes crashed, killing 260 people. A fifth of adults now claim to experience similar premonitions, yet psychologists suggest a far more rational explanation lies behind these seemingly supernatural occurrences. Continue reading ➤ |
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Dire Strait’s frontman Mark Knopfler |
Eighties stadium-fillers, guitar heroes, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees... and Gen Z’s new favourite band? Dire Straits are suddenly the hottest musical commodity on TikTok: songs from Walk of Life to Money for Nothing are inspiring viral trends, the Knopfler brothers have become fashion icons and Spotify streams are through the roof. However, as the band’s former keyboardist Guy Fletcher tells James Hall, don’t count on a reunion. Continue reading ➤ |
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The launch of EES has caused extreme queues at key airports across Europe |
European frontier roulette: that seems the best description for the haphazard roll-out of the EU’s entry/exit system (EES), writes Simon Calder. While some have visited Europe in recent weeks and experienced no problems, long queues have been reported on both arrival and departure at many airports. To give you the best chance of dodging the chaos, I’ve examined the schedules at five key hubs to pinpoint the best and worst times to travel. Continue reading ➤
- For more advice on how to outsmart the European border chaos, you can listen to the first episode of our new podcast The Travel Expert here.
- Plus, you can sign up to Simon’s weekly travel newsletter here.
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There have been some truly dismal releases this week. We have read and watched them so you don’t have to. Here are three things to avoid at all costs, and one unmissable highlight.
Eleanor Tomlinson plays cheery – and profoundly unrealistic – waitress Amanda Blakefield |
TV
The Fortune
Channel 5
★☆☆☆☆
What would you do if a lawyer turned up at your workplace and told you you’d inherited a fortune from someone you’d never heard of? Me? I’d take the money. In Channel 5’s new thriller, waitress Amanda Blakefield, played by Eleanor Tomlinson, doesn’t do that so she is doomed to have the unhappiest life imaginable. Who in their right mind would take any of this seriously? Why am I watching this rubbish when the cat needs feeding?
Read Benji Wilson’s review here ➤
Film
Masters of the Universe
★☆☆☆☆
The new He-Man film, Masters of the Universe, might be utterly awful, but in its defence, at least it seems to know it. The makers of this brain-vaporising reboot of the 1980s fantasy cartoon about a sword-wielding hero have come up with a novel means of deflecting any accusations of datedness or corniness: by having every character talk constantly about how dated and corny it is.
(In cinemas now)
Read Robbie Collin’s review here ➤
Books
View from the East Wing by Jill Biden
★★☆☆☆
In her candid memoir, the wife of the former US president emerges as a frosty, complicit aide to her husband’s failed rule. One intuits that pretty, blonde and well-dressed Jill Biden may well have been the leader of the mean-girl gang at school, deciding who was in and who was out. She comes across as a clanswoman for whom her family and a dead-serious embrace of God and faith are everything. Everyone and everything else is just noise or trouble.
Read Zoe Strimpel’s review here ➤
Plus, our highlight of the week:
Theatre
War Horse
National Theatre
★★★★★
Of everything we’ve seen this week, War Horse’s triumphant homecoming to the National Theatre is the out-and-out highlight. Nineteen years since its premiere, this theatrical blockbuster still has the power to move me to tears, writes Dominic Cavendish.
Read the full review here ➤ |
Do these notes fit the bill?Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal reader correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
The banknotes are a-changin’. Yes, it’s out with that picture of stuffy old Churchill and in with... a basking shark? A barn owl? A frog? The public have been asked to nominate the worthiest contenders from the great panoply of British wildlife.
Telegraph readers, by and large, have reservations about all this, and they weren’t especially persuaded by Andrew Bailey’s recent article. The governor of the Bank of England argued that Churchill needed to be replaced for security reasons.
“Benjamin Franklin has been on the $100 bill since 1914,” responded Michael H Scott. “I am sure the United States has security problems too, but it chooses not to erase history.”
Still, Piers Pottinger added, “it is perhaps symbolic of our political climate that the Bank wishes to replace an image of our greatest leader with that of, say, an insect”.
Steve Tremlett registered his objection to one candidate in particular: “Many people, especially those who have had all their chickens and ducks slaughtered, recognise foxes as the murderers that nature designed them to be. Are we really considering celebrating them on our banknotes?”
Finally, Dorothy Woolliscroft had an appeal: “Is it too late to ask for one of the greatest modern Britons, Sir David Attenborough, to grace a new note? He above all others has taught us to value wildlife here and across the world.” Now that, I suspect, is an idea many readers could get behind. What do you make of the proposed new notes? Send your replies here and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of this newsletter.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name.
P.S. A few days ago, we asked you which animal you would most like to see replace Winston Churchill on the £5 note. The majority of readers voted for a hedgehog. |
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1963 | John Profumo resigns over Christine Keeler scandal (which led our newspaper the following day, seen below)
1968 | Robert F Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles
1975 | Egyptian president Anwar Sadat reopens the Suez Canal. It had been closed since 1967
Birthdays: Mark Wahlberg (55), Ron Livingston (59), Sir David Hare (79),
Plus, in the news today, Donald Trump has suggested that he may never remove this structure from the grounds of the White House. What event will be hosted within the construction?
1. The Ultimate Fighting Championship
2. A country music concert
3. A Republican rally ahead of the midterm elections
4. A stand-up comedy evening
Click one of the options to reveal the answer... |
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was ROADBLOCK. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. |
Please let me know what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here.
Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.
Chris Evans, Editor |
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