Andrew’s Reputation is Already Dead and Buried

The Mail on Sunday has stuck the knife into Andrew again.

It reports its sources have confirmed the ex Duke of York is still on the secret list of royals marked for a grand old funeral.

What! Surely not. He is now a private citizen.

These lists are compiled years ahead and - it seems - revised when somebody in Whitehall remembers, or a paper reminds them of a cock-up. Such as now.

Andrew is Charles younger brother by over decade. He will most likely outlive the King, living with cancer, so the problem is never likely to reach Charles’s desk. It will probably reach William’s, and I cannot see him signing it off.

William, I’m told, has been a driving force behind the moves against his uncle. Strippimg him of all his titles and royal bangles.

He is not going to get all sentimental when his uncle passes.

William has a wife, three children and an institution to hand on. Epstein cost the monarchy more than anything in living memory.

I doubt Andrew expects a bells and whistles funeral anyway.

… And he is alive.

We are discussing where to put a living man, and stirring it up.

I have no sympathy for him, never had much.

But this one - and all the outrage - is near the knuckle.

Somebody should just take a pen to that list, or a match. Simple.

Huge royal funerals – state, royal or ceremonial – should consigned to the past.

They should be limited to the sovereign, or a national hero of the stature of Churchill or Nelson. Not many of them.

One thing is certain. Andrew doesn’t need a ceremonial funeral, he won’t get one.

His reputation is already dead and buried.

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