Today in royal family drama, The Guardian reports that there are "thousands of government documents" about Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip that are "due for release in the next two years" and researchers fear they are being censored.
According to the outlet, these secret files (which include records from Her Majesty's reign; correspondence; and accounts of major moments like marriages, deaths, and divorces) are scheduled to become public in 2026/2027 due to documents involving England's monarch being kept under lock and key until 5 years after their death. However, apparently there's a "worrying trend" of censorship going on when it comes to the release of royal secrets. And the beef seems to be between an Advisory Council and the Cabinet Office.
"The Cabinet Office are the knee-jerk ones who react all the time," Dr. Bendor Grosvenor, former advisory council member, said. "The system does need to be changed, because the advisory council has on it people who really know what they are talking about and they should be trusted.” He went on to say the Cabinet Office (who work closely with the royals) is acting as a "bottleneck."
Last year, the council wrote the Cabinet Office to—as The Guardian put it—"seek a more uniform and transparent approach in Whitehall following frustrations that documents mentioning members of the royal family are often kept secret for spurious reasons and held in limbo for years."
Researcher Dr. Alison McClean, meanwhile, explained in part that there's "an increasing reluctance to release any historical public records relating to members of the royal family" and a "worrying trend of withdrawing access from records that have previously been released.."
A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office somewhat curtly said “All records are released in line with the Public Records Act.”
Guess there's nothing left to say but: release the Synder cut records!
