As Scoop hits Netflix, it’s time to open the secret files on Prince Andrew
The IndependentDocuments are the lifeblood of historians, the tools with which we build our picture of the past. They are largely exempt from the Freedom of Information Act; the Royal Archives have no public inventory – rather like a restaurant with no menu; what papers are deposited in the National Archives are subject to a series of exemptions; and those who have worked with them are almost inevitably subject to confidentiality contracts. We have the absurd situation of publicly or covertly authorised biographies of royal figures, of members of the royal family appearing on American chat shows talking about royal life, where Prince Harry can write about the most intimate aspects of royal life from a few months ago for commercial gain, and royal households constantly briefing against each other, yet historians cannot see files which are 100 years old. The revelation from one of my freedom of information requests that royal papers are not made public until 105 years after the birth of a particular, is a disservice to history. A judge asked if I would supply examples of information from other protection files of the period but, when I sought to do so, I discovered that the 20 files I had highlighted in my submission – and which had been publicly available for more than 20 years and much copied by historians – had been mysteriously withdrawn from the National Archives.
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Prince Andrew files to remain secret until 2065
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