The Duke of York will no longer use his title, the Palace has just announced

When I heard he was being stripped of his dukedom I felt this was absolutely wrong. Titles of honour are a form of land. 

Lord Melbourne liked the Garter because there was no damned merit in it.  

The same should go for dukedoms. 

Actually I'm pleased to say, the Duke will not cease to be a duke but will be called simply Prince Andrew. 

He will be stripped of the Garter though. 

I shared a tiny room in the House of Lords, with no natural light, with a very lovely man, John Bartrip, whose job it was to have custody of the Great Seal and place it on the document that created this dukedom. 

He kept the secret from me admirably. 

Forty years later...

To Hades with that harridan Emily Mathis, whom I am very ashamed went to my college. Her interview with the Duke which got him into this mess was sadistic.

Is my old friend Andrew Lownie's new book the proximate cause of this? I expect so.  

Rod Liddle was right when he said Prince Andrew had the IQ of a corgi. That was a propos  an embarrassingly  stupid speech he gave to a British Chamber of Commerce in some remote country in which he said everyone bribes. 

But dukes don't have to be pleasant or intelligent, though some are.  

Our monarchy sadly is democratic. 

England becomes more and more egalitarian. 

American but without America's buzz, though happily without America's huge corruption.