ANALYSIS:Fergie has never been popular with most of the British royal family. Now, they like her even less, writes MARK HENNESSY
SARAH FERGUSON, the Duchess of York, has made a habit of putting her foot in it during nearly three decades in the public eye but the timing of her latest blunder could hardly have been worse, and not just for herself.
With an age of austerity looming in the UK, her offer to sell access to her former husband, Prince Andrew – the UK’s international trade representative – for hundreds of thousands of pounds could hardly have been less appropriate.
Over the weekend, Buckingham Palace cringed at the sight of a video offering to put a businessman – in reality an undercover reporter from the News of the World – in contact with the man she divorced in 1996.
Prince Andrew’s ambassadorial role has been valuable in securing contracts for British companies, particularly in the Middle East where a high premium is put on royalty and continuity.
In the job since 2001, the prince has expanded its remit substantially, partly because of the rapid changeover of ministers in the Tony Blair era.
As he put it last year: “My corporate memory is now, as it were, slightly greater than theirs. So continuity is one thing I bring to this.
“We are still trusted, as it were, above and beyond governments.
“I have no political will, or desire. My desire is to serve the United Kingdom to the best of my ability and to get the best for the United Kingdom.”
Last year, he undertook 630 engagements on behalf of British companies around the world – a number fast-increasing every year, according to his office.
It has strongly denied he knew anything about his former wife’s action, and she has done likewise, though it is the sort of publicity he could well do without.
The belief that his ex-wife’s actions would threaten his international position is unfounded.
The British government’s business secretary, Vince Cable, made clear yesterday that the storm over the duchess would soon be forgotten.
However, her actions have once again, focused attention on the money the taxpayer pays for the monarchy every year, even though she is not one of those who benefits from the civil list, as the detailed funding of the royal household is known.
Since she left the royals, Ferguson has made – and spent – millions, though she did clear a £4 million debt left during her time as the prince’s wife; but she has carped occasionally about her £15,000-a-year maintenance.
Civil list payments have been frozen for a decade following a decision by Tony Blair in 2000 and this year was supposed to be the year when the royals would succeed in getting an increase.
Indeed, it no longer covers all of the costs, and Queen Elizabeth has dipped into a reserve fund built up from savings made during the 1990s, but which will be exhausted by 2012 – the year of her diamond jubilee.
The reality of the financial situation facing the royals, however, is further complicated by the fact that the reserve only arose because they managed to do a better than expected deal with John Major in 1990 when he was chancellor of the exchequer.
Instead of increases, they are now, if anything, likely to experience a cut, with Downing Street believing the royals should bear the same 5 per cent reduction, and five-year freeze borne by the queen’s ministers.
Buckingham Palace began pressing for a rise from last summer, but Conservative Party sources are adamant the queen “can’t have a begging bowl out there at a time like this”.
The queen gets nearly £8 million annually to fund her operations and those of her offspring under the civil list, though another £15 million is spent on the upkeep of historic buildings.
From the civil list, she gives £230,000 a year to Princess Anne, £175,000 to the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and £236,000 to the Duke and Duchess of Kent, along with rent-free accommodation.
Unlike some of the others, Prince Charles has assets of his own, earning £16 million per year from the Duchy of Cornwall, along with rent-free accommodation at Clarence House, his official residence on the Mall, near Buckingham Palace, where he stays with princes William and Harry.
Staff redundancies are now likely, if not inevitable, while some existing recipients of the civil list may find themselves cut off and told to fend for themselves, government sources indicate.
The garden parties this summer in Buckingham Palace and Holyrood in Edinburgh are expected to be far smaller affairs than usual, though the queen, apparently, is much attached to them.
The years ahead will test even the curious mixture of excess and frugality that makes up the royal family – a world where security costs up to £50 million a year, but where the late queen mother used to hire a TV for her summer holidays in Scotland.
Mark Hennessy is London Editor