Stupidity and Regal Arrogance Ruined Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet

It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling move by someone who had openly asserted to have never been aware of her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of monarchical money to resolve a long-delayed court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which required subservience when he appeared in a space or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the crown, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an age when deference and discretion is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known hesitant sovereign was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the loss of titles and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The primary monarch to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's large estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some type of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still records in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is restricted. The statement from the institution was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the king, and notably other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief communication showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's account of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.