Is there any real surprise in what we've learned from the latest Andrew trade envoy files?

So, we've found out Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor got the job as the UK trade envoy because his mum, the late Queen, pushed for it. It was the Queen's wish - she was very keen that he should have a prominent role.

We've learned he wasn't vetted for the job. We've learned that he was a brat - that he told them he preferred the ballet to the theatre, that he liked visiting more sophisticated countries rather than less sophisticated ones and that he should not be offered golfing functions abroad.

Now, this is no surprise whatsoever, is it? There's no surprise in this. We already know the Queen had a blind spot for her favourite child. We already know he's an entitled pain. And it surprises absolutely no one to learn that he didn't earn the job - he got it because his mum wanted him to have it. 

What he had done beforehand would not have qualified him for the job, would it? Other than being born a royal - that's the only thing.

Now, of course, a lot of republicans will be feeling reasonably vindicated by this because it shows nepotism in action. It lays bare the fact that huge amounts of taxpayer money are spent finding things for spare royals to do, to keep them in the news and amused.
But everyone else - and even some republicans - will probably be unmoved by this because yes, it is a story about an archaic institution trying to justify itself and probably stretching the limits of taxpayer tolerance

 But it's also the story of a mum who kept trying, for as long as she was alive, to protect her boy - who is a dropkick - and who couldn’t see all the way through just how much of a dropkick he really was.

In the end, that’s what this story is about. And that’s a pretty human story about a family, isn’t it?

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