Double standards and mixed messaging around the role of the British monarchy contributed to the creation of a phenomenon like Andrew. We should not be surprised that he took it as licence to behave with impunity, writes Carlos Alba.

If you ever wondered what it would be like to be stripped of any semblance of humanity and treated like a semi-visible, inorganic object, you could do worse than working for Andrew Mountbatten Windsor at the height of his royalty-era pomposity.

Back in the bad old days, when he was better known as His Royal Highness (HRH) Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom; The Duke of York; Earl of Inverness; Baron Killyleagh; Colonel of the Grenadier Guards; Colonel of the Royal Irish Regiment (27th (Inniskilling) 83rd and 87th and Ulster Defence Regiment); Commodore-in-Chief of the Fleet Air Arm, Royal Colonel of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland; Honorary Air Commodore of Royal Air Force Lossiemouth; Admiral of the Sea Cadet Corps; Admiral and President of The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, he had no truck with ordinary plebs like you or I.

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Stories are legion of his boorish and entitled treatment of royal staff, whom he reportedly bawled out for the merest infraction, or when things weren’t going his way.

It’s said he summoned footmen at all hours of the night to lift a toilet seat or pull........

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