They’re Changing The Guard At Buckingham Palace

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And this has naff all to do with Christopher Robin and Alice.

The senior management the Ever-So-Slightly-Unhinged Branch at New Scotland Yard have got together and finally managed to make a decision.

This decision has caused a slight uproar among Royal and Diplomatic Protection Department officers charged with guarding the Queen and her family, including high-profile members Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

Prince Charles was sufficiently miffed at learning of the proposed changes that he raised them with senior Met officers at Assistant Commissioner level.  Who is that today? Cressida’s on her bike, who knows?

An immensely powerful post ACSO, previously inhabited by some exceedingly fine folk, with the occasional moron thrown in for good measure.

In their usual manner the Met took absolutely no notice of anyone, including the future King of England, and went ahead regardless.

The Met said the move is not about cost-cutting and insists there will be no impact on the safety of the royal family. But it will affect the security of all senior royals, including the Queen, Prince Philip, Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.  [Isn’t that a tad contradictory?]

Now SO14 officers, who work very long hours, are threatening to operate under European Union 40-hour-week guidelines after some of their colleagues were bluntly informed by email that they were “no longer in post”. Nice to see that the Met is still a ‘Caring Employer’, an Investors in People Gold Award can now only be a mere formality.

The personal protection officers have been told effectively it is over to them to sort it out – what exactly does THAT mean?

Lesser Royals, such as Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, have apparently already had their security details either reduced  or removed.

A ‘senior source’ was happy to be quoted as saying “Obviously it raises serious concern about the effectiveness of the department and will have an impact on the safety of the royal family. For the first time it seems Scotland Yard is putting a price on protecting the royal family. In the past this was not even a consideration — security came first.”

In my opinion, for what it’s worth, the security of the Royal Family should ALWAYS come first, regardless of cost.  Do NSY envisage removing Personal Protection Officers from defunct Prime Ministers and Home Secretaries?  Will the Commissioner now surrender his armed driver?  I doubt that, but who knows what goes on in that strange place that NSY has become.

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7 thoughts on “They’re Changing The Guard At Buckingham Palace”

  1. Should be funding it themselves frankly, especially considering 25%+ cutbacks. Guarding Royals is not ‘dealing with criminals’ à la Teresa May.

    1. As a self-confessed Royalist I can’t really agree with you there Tanya, and I’m sure the Royals would make a contribution if it was discussed with them. The bigger issue (to me) is the arrogance and contempt of senior Met Officers. Fortunately we haven’t had a serious assault on the Royal Family since Princess Anne in the Mall, but we don’t have the right type of crystal ball to be certain it won’t happen again, and news like this is just not helpful IMHO.

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