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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a young woman who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have no known about her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical funds to resolve a protracted legal case.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the monarchy acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft flights from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which expected deference when he entered a space or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any importance to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least whole and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an era when submission and discretion is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously indecisive king was pressured more. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to lose his titles in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's vast property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief statement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the accuser's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that reality.