Why Prince Andrew must give up Duke of York title and lose ‘freedom of city’ status – Andrew Vine

Prince Andrew must front up over sex claim costs, relinquish York dukedom and give up all public roles to spare victims and Queen – The Yorkshire Post says

They are also right in their call for him to be stripped of his title, the Duke of York, because for as long as he bears it, this great and historic city of ours risks being tainted by association.

There is no place left for the prince in public life, and in the absence of a clear-cut procedure for removing the dukedom, it would be an acknowledgement of York’s unease for Andrew to voluntarily renounce it.

He should have the good grace to do so, especially before the likely vote by York Council next month to withdraw the freedom of the city it bestowed on him in 1987.

And in the year when the country is celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, it would be an act of monumental self-regard for Andrew to distract from the celebrations by remaining the source of unhappiness in a city with such historic links to the monarchy.

On the day the recently-married prince was granted the freedom of York, crowds of 200,000 people gathered near the Minster to greet him as he went on walkabout. That day now feels like it belongs to a lost era, and the man at its centre a very different individual from the one York took to its heart. The ugly scandal engulfing Andrew for more than a decade has seen to that.

However much he is paying to bring it to an inconclusive end – possibly $12m in some estimates – the final account must include a settlement with York.

The dukedom has become devalued and sullied in Andrew’s keeping. For as long as he hangs onto it, he casts a shadow across York’s sense of pride and civic probity.

Though he has not been a frequent visitor to York, the title carries with it a sense that he is an ambassador for it, just as Prince Charles is for Wales and his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, was for Scotland.

The city does not deserve this. It offends its residents, and the many who are doubtless horrified at any association of York’s name with sexual abuse – vehemently and consistently denied by Andrew – have an absolute right to demand the breaking of that link.

York Central MP Rachael Maskell has launched a petition calling for a change in the law to allow titles to be removed, which she intends to present to Parliament.

That will only increase the pressure on Andrew to do the right thing by the city. And if he will not of his own volition, 
then his family must bring pressure to bear.

The title of the Duke of York is no doubt especially dear to the Queen. Her beloved father held it until the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII, brought him to the throne.

But in this, of all years, the Royal Family must not lack the courage to act against one of their own.

The Platinum Jubilee is a moment to look both to the past and the future. In reflecting on the Queen’s extraordinary 70-year reign, thoughts will also turn to her three generations of heirs – Charles, William and George.

Increasingly, the day-to-day fortunes of the monarchy lie in the hands of Charles and William. They surely must have sympathy with the sentiments being expressed in York. The Royal Family does not need a discredited prince any more than the city.

Andrew has no future in the work of his family, nor in the activities of the many good causes and charities which so value royal support.

It would be cruel to deny him attendance at the memorial service for Prince Philip on March 29, but after that he should disappear from public life altogether.

The longer Andrew hangs around – and the longer the opaqueness over how he is to pay his accuser continues – the more harm he does to the monarchy and the greater distraction he proves to the jubilee.

York finds itself speaking for the vast majority of Britain’s people who support the monarchy and admire – and probably sympathise with - the Queen.

Andrew’s usefulness to city, country and the institution into which he was born is over. It can even be argued that it was over the moment he associated himself with a paedophile and his equally revolting partner, convicted of being complicit in sexual abuse.

In his car-crash Newsnight interview in 2019, Andrew characterised himself – with breathtaking arrogance – as a man with too much honour.

He has a way of demonstrating that a shred of honour remains – give up the dukedom, free York of the taint he brings and then vanish from public life.

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