First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said there is a debate to be had over the future of the monarchy in the wake of the controversy over the Duke of York.
Andrew stepped down from public duties after mounting pressure following his BBC Newsnight interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
After the programme aired, the duke faced criticism for showing a lack of empathy towards the victims of his late friend, who took his own life in prison earlier this year while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
READ MORE: Letters: Monarchy will not be relevant to daily life in an independent Scotland
In an interview on ITV News At Ten on Thursday, Ms Sturgeon said a debate about the monarchy should not be a distraction from Epstein’s victims.
However, when asked if the issue made her consider whether the monarchy is fit for purpose, she replied: “I think it raises a number of questions.
“I think there is a debate to be had about the longer term future of the monarchy, one of the things though in the context of Prince Andrew that I feel very strongly about is that a debate about the monarchy shouldn’t be a distraction from Epstein’s victims and how they now get whatever justice they can get and get the truth and the ability to move on.
READ MORE: Opinion Matrix: Politics and the monarchy
“And I think while, yes, there is a debate to be had about the former, I don’t think it should become conflated with that or be used in any way to sort of take attention from that.”
The duke has resigned from a large number of patronages, and seen organisations he was once involved with sever ties in the wake of the Newsnight interview.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel