Prince Andrew Rams Park Gates Open
Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s third child and second son (and according to The Daily Mail, Her Majesty’s “favourite”) must have been pretty frustrated exiting Windsor Great Park on Sunday night. When confronted with the park’s closed gates, the Prince of York decided to push them open with his two-ton, £80,000 Range Rover rather than take a one-mile detour.
The Sun interviewed a disgruntled park worker about the incident:
“It was a crazy thing to do and we are jokingly calling it ‘ParkGate’.
“But seriously, he has a bit of a reputation for roaring around like Toad of Toad Hall and he seems to think he can do what he likes.”
Andy, 56, was returning on Sunday evening to Royal Lodge, the Queen Mum’s old home given to him by the Queen in 2003.
The worker explained: “The gate stops deer roaming and the Prince uses it as a short cut.
“For some reason the sensors didn’t work. Instead of going a mile out of his way, he just decided to ram it open.”
The Crown Estate, which runs Windsor Great Park, and Buckingham Palace, predictably, have not commented.
The British press, and some anti-monarchists, are pretty upset. An article in The Guardian on Wednesday, titled “Duke of York ‘should be prosecuted for ramming open park gate,'” flat-out began with this: “Anti-monarchy campaigners have called for Duke of York to be prosecuted after he was reported to have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage by forcing open closed gates of Windsor Great Park in his Range Rover.” Prosecution, of course, is pretty unlikely considering the police say the incident wasn’t even reported.
UPDATE: The Daily Beast reports that though Graham Smith, head of an anti-monarchy campaign group called Republic, later did file a complaint, there will be no investigation. Smith claims that those gates are “nationally owned” and repairing the damage will cost the taxpayers money: “This is a matter of principle: will the royals be treated the same as the rest of us or is there a different law for them?” This man does not like the royals.
Source: The Sun/The Guardian/The Daily Beast