Just before he got himself into trouble with an offhand comment about Grace Tame this week, Anthony Albanese was remarkably frank about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Towards the end of an event in Melbourne on Tuesday, the prime minister was asked to give one word answers about a list of personalities appearing in the news. When Sam Weir, the editor of the Herald Sun, raised the former Prince Andrew, Albanese called him a “grub”.

Even a few weeks ago, such a blunt statement about the brother of King Charles would be unthinkable from the cautious and deferential Albanese. So complete has been Andrew’s downfall, due to his close friendship with the paedophile sex trafficker and financier Jeffrey Epstein, barely anyone blinked.

But despite the moral morass that is the Epstein scandal reaching the top of the royal family, the saga has so far failed to spark any serious reassessment of Australia’s ties to the British crown.

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Why is it that even allegations of self-dealing, abuse of office and sexual abuse of vulnerable women and girls can’t shake our self-respecting nation out of decades of constitutional complacency?

Like so many of the big questions facing the country today, the answer comes down to a lack of ambition and imagination.

Seeking to shake off days of reporting about IS-linked Australians returning from Syria, Albanese was quick out of the blocks this week offering support to the British government for removing Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession. Stripped of all his titles and honours and kicked out of plush,........

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