HAVE the many flaws of “Uncle Dickie” reappeared in his great nephew, Andrew — minus Lord Mountbatten’s gift for generating flattering publicity?

On September 11 2025, a British Social Attitudes survey found public support for the monarchy has fallen to a historic low, while calls for abolition begin to rise:

“When the question was first asked in 1983, over four in five (86 per cent) people in Britain said it was ‘very important’ or ‘quite important’ to continue having a monarchy. In 2024, around a half (51 per cent) now take this view, the lowest level of support recorded since NatCen began tracking public opinion. Meanwhile, the proportion who say the monarchy is ‘not very important’ or ‘not at all important’ has risen from one in 10 (10 per cent) in 1983 to around three in 10 (31 per cent) in 2024.

“Support for outright abolition of the monarchy has also grown, from just 3 per cent in 1983 to 15 per cent in 2024.”

All this before the latest round of revelations about Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the royal formerly known as prince Andrew, duke of York.

I find the prominence of the Mountbatten name in his new plebeian nomenclature interesting. It is, of course the Anglicised version of the Germanic Battenberg, the name of Andrew’s father Prince Philip, and the name most associated with Lord Louis Mountbatten, Andy’s great-uncle.

It appears there’s a sizeable streak of Mountbatten running in Andrew; case in point, Lord Mountbatten’s well-documented vanity, self-importance, love of titles and countless sexual escapades, which in Louis’ case included homosexual paedophilia, something the Queen Elizabeth’s favourite son has not been accused of.

Mountbatten was more fortunate than his grand-nephew, avoiding in his lifetime much of the ordure heaped on Andrew; not only his alleged sexual crimes, but also his incompetence and high-handedness when foolishly handed power by the then governments of the day. A couple of examples were his disastrously botched WWII raid on Dieppe in 1942, and hasty exit from India, which left the subcontinent unfairly partitioned, with millions slain in the desperate rush to seek shelter in either the Hindu or Muslim states.

Uncle Dickie’s royal agony column

Despite this, Mountbatten was made governor-general of India, post-independence, and later made chief of the defence staff (1959-65). 

After retirement, “Uncle Dickie” (as he was known to many of the royals) apparently flirted with heading a coup against Harold Wilson’s Labour government, and took a hand in dispensing advice on sex and relationships to Prince Charles. 

This included urging the young prince to “sow his wild oats,” (Mountbatten supposedly inviting aristocratic gels to his Broadlands estate for his grand nephew to sample) but eventually marry a “sweet, charactered girl” who was (naturally) a virgin.

This, coupled with some of the more lurid tales regarding the late Prince Philip (who praised the “macho” air of his middle son), make one think the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree with Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

Despite the signs of growing public aversion to the royal family, there exists a cadre of former republicans who have swung behind the monarchy, whether through hopes of receiving honours, political expediency or media career finagling (or all three) is up for debate.

Still time to recant if the circumstances change drastically enough, though…

Who do these apostates include?

1. Liz Truss; given the absolute Horlicks she made of her brief tenure, the Tory former PM is unlikely to be on any royal honours list, but she’s probably daft enough to believe she deserves one. Despite beginning her political life as an ardent Lib Dem republican.

2. Spectator editor/former Tory minister the repulsively oleaginous Michael Gove, who at the beginning of his journalistic career, performed as “political satirist” on Channel 4’s A Stab in the Dark (1991). When anyone gets the idea of suggesting Gove for a gong, the palace should be sent the clip from the show where he compares the then-Prince Charles to Adolf Hitler.

3. Julie Burchill, the punk-era columnist, whose allegiance varies according to mood, so she may be back in the republican camp, for purely egotistical reasons. Naturellement.

4. BBC presenter Amol Rajan, who, as his corporation career advances at pace, is now worming his way step-by-step to becoming pro-monarchy, so as not to offend senior management.

5. Keir Starmer: the PM admitted as a young man he did call for the abolition of the monarchy, which he describes as part of his self-described “youthful indiscretions.” Still, he got his knighthood, didn’t he? A bit more brown-nosing and he might just become a Belted Earl.

6. Tony “Baldrick” Robinson: the Blackadder actor and Labour activist was supposedly won over to the monarchy by the stoic qualities of the late Queen. Rather the reverse of Sir Ian McKellen, who, in a 2024 interview with The Times, said Queen Elizabeth II was both “quite rude” and “mad at the end” on the occasions he met her.

7. According to social media, Nigel Farage once stated, “When I was 17 I was drawn in by republican rhetoric. As I have gone through life I have come to understand and appreciate the value the institution of the monarchy brings to the UK.” No word from Farage though on whether a dictatorship is preferable to either a republic or monarchy, thereby avoiding an eventual Mussolini/King Victor Emmanuel III-style fallout.