This archive report was first published on 1 December 2019.
Published on December 1, 2019, a time when the British monarchy was already facing scrutiny, the Prince Andrew affair has brought new levels of discontent to the already unhappy British citizenry.
Politics in the UK has taken on a toxic air in the last year or so, following the decision to leave Europe. Social media has enabled ordinary people to post vile and poisonous messages about their perceived opponents, while MPs are threatened with violence and the main opposition party is charged with anti-Semitism.
The royal family, once a unifying force, has been at the center of controversy. The focus has shifted from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, who were cheered by crowds during World War II, to Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and his friendship with convicted American paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Prince Andrew's BBC TV interview was widely panned, with six out of 10 people polled considering it damaged the monarchy's reputation and two-thirds thinking he should be interviewed by America's FBI. The result was a decision to effectively retire Prince Andrew from royal duties.
The Queen, aged 93, is said to be deeply frustrated that the scandal has overshadowed the royal family's work for social good. Meanwhile, Prince Charles, heir to the throne, has endorsed the decision to retire Prince Andrew from royal duties.
As the British citizenry grapples with the royal scandal, other issues have come to the forefront. Official figures show that the number of children being admitted to hospital in England with severe allergic reactions has risen every year for the last five years, reaching 1,746 in 2018-19.
Scientists say dietary changes could be part of the reason, and a law is now being drafted to require producers of prepacked foods to list all their ingredients. In a separate issue, a mysterious phenomenon has been observed in the former coal-mining community of Blackhall Colliery, where 13 cash bundles of £2,000 each have been found lying in plain sight and handed in to the police by honest residents.
While the police have returned every penny of the cash bundles to the finders, the question remains: how many £2,000 bundles might have been spotted and quietly pocketed?
