So: is the game up? Looking at the former Prince Andrew’s slumped posture, corpse-grey face and thousand-yard stare in the snatched photographs of him leaving police custody, you might be tempted to think so. He looked like Ebenezer Scrooge confronted by the Ghost of Christmas Future. The future certainly doesn’t hold anything very uplifting for this wretched, silly specimen – but will he take the monarchy with him?

The Firm gets away with being secretive in all sorts of ways – not least around money. That must change

The Firm gets away with being secretive in all sorts of ways – not least around money. That must change

There are two separate cases here, I think. One is: does the former Prince’s disgrace present a rational case for the abolition of the monarchy? The other is: does it create such a foul smell that the institution won’t be able to survive? That’s the difference between “should” and “will”. One case is to do with principle; the other to do with PR.

The latter is, unfortunately, the one that monarchists need to worry about. That in itself is a funny thing. After all, traditionally the whole point of a monarchy is that the people don’t get a say. When we break the law, we do our bird at His Majesty’s pleasure. Yet now, there seems to be a consensus that His Majesty holds his position, to some extent, at *our* pleasure. That has been the case a bit since the Abdication crisis, and it has been the case a lot since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The principled case can be marked, I think, “not found”. As far as the family goes (because the royal family is an institution and also a family), the King and the wider royal family so........

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