Sarah Ingham: Has politics transformed Prince Andrew from Duke to ‘dead cat’?

Dr Sarah Ingham is the author of The Military Covenant: its impact on civil-military relations in Britain.

 That great Victorian man of letters Walter Bagehot would be unimpressed.

In The English Constitution  (1867) he divided the country’s governance: the “dignified” aspect was monarchy, the “efficient” Cabinet and Parliament.

Alas, “efficient” is not the first word that springs to mind in connection with 21^st century government.

In the foreign policy context alone, successive administrations have overseen a war of questionable legality in Iraq, misadventure in Libya, three wasted years of dithering over Brexit, two wasted decades in Afghanistan and now kowtowing to China. Somehow, this also involves espionage and the Chagos Islands handover. These days, thankfully, there is no British Empire for inept ministers and officials to run and ruin.

The other side of Bagehot’s constitutional equation has hardly been living up to “dignified” in the past week, let alone doing its job “to excite and preserve the reverence of the population.”

As Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a title dating back to 1558, the Monarch is expected to be more than C and E (Christmas and Easter). In our supposedly secular age, the King must be as surprised as his subjects that the Kingdom is riven by religious sectarianism. How long before this self-styled defender of faiths sets off to another part of the fractured country in a one-man unite-the-nation operation?

On Monday the King went to Manchester, first visiting the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue,  site of the Yom Kippur attack, and then Greater Manchester Police HQ. The visit was partly to “show solidarity with the Jewish community”. He also met local faith leaders and discussed community relations.

The King’s invaluable role as a symbol of national unity has been upstaged, thanks to the endless controversy besetting the former Duke of York. By association, Andrew is harming the dignified – and unwittingly helping the efficient.

Wall-to-wall media coverage of the late Queen’s second son diverted attention from the ugly truth about Britain’s second city. Banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Aston Villa implies that Jews are not welcome in parts of Birmingham. (Would Bournemouth council demand a similar ban?)

Similarly, while attention is on Royal Lodge and royal titles, it is drawn away from the byzantine Chinese spy saga. Its only graspable details are that it allegedly involves two men named Chris and that we are expected to believe that one official unilaterally sets Britain’s policy in connection with the ever-rising economic and military superpower.

At the centre of the royal scandal is the late Virginia Guiffre.

Her hauntingly titled memoir Nobody’s Girl details the alleged abuse she suffered. It is beyond irony that Labour MPs have demanded justice for this posthumous victim. Too many in the Party spent years downplaying the existence of grooming gangs, while this week four survivors quit the proposed inquiry, saying they had no confidence in safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.

A political dead cat, a phrase allegedly coined by campaign guru Sir Lynton Crosby, is a distraction technique. Throw one on the dining table and it’s all that will be talked about. With one calamitous Budget bringing the country to its economic knees and another imminent, no wonder Labour is keen to keep the Andrew saga simmering.

Thanks to airwaves Andy, most missed the recent Found Out Now poll which put Conservatives two points ahead of Labour. Yes, Reform was still way ahead; yes, this could be a rogue finding. But repeated, it would further damage morale on the government benches.

Andrew: Labour’s dead cat? – discuss.

Bagehot warned, “Above all things our royalty is to be reverenced, and if you begin to poke about it, you cannot reverence it. When there is a select committee on the Queen [or King], the charm of royalty will be gone.”

On Wednesday the former Trot (Baroness) Margaret Hodge, once keen to fly the Red Flag over Islington Town Hall, told Radio 4’s Today that the Royal finances must be poked about, not least funds from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. And at PMQs, bandwagon-jumping Sir Keir supported an inquiry into Andrew’s tenure of Royal Lodge.

Traditionally the party of Crown and Church, Conservatives should be zealous defenders of contract. Many voters live in leasehold property rent-free, with conditions such as “full repairing and insuring”.

If Andrew is turfed out, what legal precedent will be set?

All this comes just as Labour’s Renters’ Rights bill becomes law, which is prompting landlords to sell up. Instead of huffing about one property in Berkshire, ministers should focus on their failed housing targets across the country.

Prince Andrew has not been convicted of any crime. Greed, poor judgement and an empathy by-pass are not criminal.

Helped along by politicians, he has dragged the monarchy into politics, muddling the dignified and the efficient.

“The world and all the glory of it, whatever is most attractive, whatever is most seductive, has always been offered to the Prince of Wales of the day, and always will be.” Bagehot again. Today, it still applies to all princes. And princesses.

Before her abdication last year, Queen Margrethe of Denmark removed the princely titles from her second son’s children. It is a blueprint, but ideally expanded, for 21^st century Britain.