From the desk of ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI

IT is impossible to suppose how Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — having been stripped of his royal Style, Titles and Honours — must have felt when he woke to face the harsh reality on his first day as a private citizen.

Were his waking thoughts self-pitying — lamenting the loss of his royal symbols; or were they of profound repentance for having squandered the unique opportunities gifted him at birth. For those who grew-up revering royalty as a caste apart, this historical event was unimaginable.

There is no modern precedent for such a loss of royal status. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is a direct descendant of England’s founding family — the House of Wessex, King Alfred the Great, and a rightful successor to William the Conqueror.

The Royal Family are not celebrities. They are symbols of national unity and pride. The shamelessness with which he wasted a life of unique advantage is obscene. He is a pathetic victim of gross hedonism and tedious self-aggrandisement and deserves the full-weight of public opprobrium. Having lost sight of his raison d’etre, Andrew’s egomania has led him down a thorny path — parading in the company of paedophiles, sex offenders, human traffickers, law-breakers, dictators, spies, and dubious parvenus. He and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson have a history of doing whatever to solicit lump-sums of money to satisfy their avarice and unmanageable accumulated debts.

It would be fascinating to know exactly how the bovine former prince perceived his role in the royal family and the broader community, and how his megalomania and blatant lack-of-regard came to pass. Guilt or innocence notwithstanding, to have been so contemptuous of public expectations, and so reckless with the rank to which he was born, is cause to contemplate his appropriateness.

The clout to effect permanent change — to markedly alter the colour of other people’s lives; to meaningfully contribute to the relief of suffering and to help bring an end to misery; and the infinite capacity to raise funds for charity, is a remit gifted to few. To have heeded so little, and to have squandered so much, is indefensible. What should have been the years of greatest influence and social contribution will now be wasted, languishing in one of The King’s privately-owned grace-and-favour cottages at Sandringham, Norfolk.

Always, The Crown takes precedence. It was The Queen not his mother, who commanded The Prince of Wales to seek a divorce. Likewise, it was The King, not his brother, who used his Royal Prerogative to issue the Royal Warrant and Letters Patent to abolish Andrew’s dukedom and to strip him of his princely title and royal honorific. The rancid gossip and reportage engulfing Andrew and Sarah Ferguson continues to test the public’s forbearance and tarnish The Crown.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s hubristic indifference to communal expectation and his cavalier approach to royal duties has done more for republicanism than the traitorous regicide Oliver Cromwell. Democracy is neither the ultimate nor necessarily the best form of government but weighed against other imperfect representative systems Australia’s constitutional monarchy is desirable. Categorically, in exercising the Royal Prerogative, The King has demonstrated a greater concern for his 15-Sovereign States and their peoples, than for any headstrong family member who brings the system into disrepute.

Andrew’s ultimate humiliation is a salutary lesson. Hopefully, The King’s steely decisiveness will provide the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with reasonable cause to deliberate.

Roland can be heard with Brett Macdonald radio 3BA — Monday 10.40am. Contact: [email protected]