🔗 Share this article Foolishness and Monarchical Hubris Ruined Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy. In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion beamed suggestively in the backdrop. Absent that image, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who declared she was transported across the sea and forced to have brief relations with a individual of the monarchy? A strange, telling gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have not known about her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical money to avert a drawn-out legal case. A Long Period of Scandal Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light. Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant? Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces. Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds. Trips were listed in public records: private aircraft travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer". A Life of Privilege Furthermore the entitlement which required respect when he walked into a area or the profound awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his associates. He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago. Latest Events Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his companions. Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his relationship with a notorious figure. The public (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance. Monarchical Concerns The wiser family members recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least intact and untarnished. For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their subjects. He was placing all that in danger in an time when submission and secrecy is no longer enough. The Fallout Finally, the well-known hesitant monarch was pressured additional. There was no other option. The palace had lost control of the account. Currently the stripping of titles and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most severely. Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor Historical Precedent: The initial member to forfeit his honorifics in modern times Naval Career: Notably stinging given his duty in the Falklands war He continues to be a counsellor of state, theoretically able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever occur. Coming Developments Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Sir, Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast grounds at a monarchical property. There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend. This is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed. Unresolved Issues This is not over. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be revealed. Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators request additional information Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of public money Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The statement from the institution was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired. A Shift in Position No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the brief communication showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the victim's version of events. Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him." Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.