Following up on the comments in the Forums (Point 5) about the royal family being answerable to nobody, what can any sane person think about the ‘pranks’ of our two young princes who by now should be old enough to know better?

Take William first. He is training supposedly as an RAF pilot, yet he was able to borrow a big, double-rotored Chinook helicopter just to visit  his  girlfriend’s   home!  This ‘borrowing’ was not authorised by the RAF, the cost to taxpayers was considerable, and any ordinary RAF trainee pilot doing the same thing would have been cashiered.

Or take the case of Harry. He is a young Army officer and yet he is permitted to refer openly to colleagues as ‘queer’, ‘Paki’ or ‘raghead’. This is within an institution that is reported to be making great efforts to turn itself into a highly inclusive organisation. Anyone else would be sacked for such behaviour.

Was any MP allowed to raise these issues in Parliament? Of course not! When will our MPs dare to ask questions on such matters?

Then there’s the case of a more mature prince: Andrew. For reasons that are not immediately obvious he was appointed (by whom?) as Britain’s ‘Special Representative for International Trade’. In this role he incurs enormous travelling expenses paid for by British taxpayers. Does anyone question whether

(a)  his job is necessary

(b)  he is the best person to be carrying out this role

(c)  he is any good at it

(d)  all his expenses are fully justified?

One of our Parliamentary Select Committees should call Andrew to appear before them so that  they can get to the bottom of this business. And this should be done without delay.