The Andrew thing is mind boggling. His most recent statement is so bad as to be laughable. I have to wonder about the advice the royal family, particularly the queen, are getting right now. Or, are they riding roughshod over any advice?
The queens admission of her annus horribilis didn't juat happen. One assumes she had people advising her. I actually think the current situation, with all of them(K&W, M&H etc), is a sign of not just terrible direct advisors but a lack something - gravitas? Credibility? Sincerity? - more generally around them up to and including the prime minister. I always got the sense that while prime ministers loved to comment on how great the queen was as a sounding board that they also acted as advisors to her. But the recent and current lot are just so pointless. And that goes for many others in positions of political, economic or other types of power.
There's this real dumbing down of people and positions of power. Older people who should have experience to bring to bear are just shallow and out of touch. And younger people might have the right mind set but don't have the experience or the deep understanding of systems and processes yet.
Sorry for this long rambling commentary. I'm just terrified that what's happening with the royal family is actually a sign of how screwed things are generally.
Sadly, it also makes me wonder if the queen is just too old and out of touch. In one of the videos at the Chelsea garden show some middle aged woman was showing the queen around and speaking in that awful patronising tone people use on old people. Obviously that's on her, not the queen, but I can't help thinking that if this is how she's being treated generally then there's no way she can.properly engage with her subjects.