Incredible news for residents of the likes of Prince Andrew Drive and Prince Andrew Way, who in recent years have sought name changes from their local councils to remove the unfortunate association with You Know Who. Thanks to last night’s historically dramatic action by the king, the dignity of those aforementioned small stretches of Britain has been restored. (If anyone happens to live in Andrew Mountbatten Windsor Close, my commiserations.) But has the dignity of the British monarchy – current custodians: the House of Windsor – been restored? No, I reckon. In fact, this has made it worse.
By way of background, the royal family’s crises have not been external for some time. It is not beset by marauding forces, or rival claimants to its throne, or parliamentarian revolt. All its greatest crises in the past few decades have come from within. Those crises have been marital, financial, even clinical – and have just avoided being criminal. The royal family has proved its own worst enemy. The things that have happened have not happened to it, but because of it. The call’s coming from inside the castle.
