AMANDA PLATELL: The unpalatable truth about Eugenie’s announcement

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson haven’t had much to celebrate in recent times and so we can only assume they have been buoyed by the news that their daughter Princess Eugenie is expecting her third child.

In her post announcing the pregnancy on social media, Eugenie shared an adorable picture of their two sons – taken from above so their faces can’t be seen – holding a picture of mum’s baby scan.

I have no desire to diminish any parent’s joy over such a happy event, but what is most shocking to devout monarchists such as myself is that the baby – who, unlike its mother, won’t be eligible for the title HRH – will still be 15th in line to the throne.

This means the child will bump its great-uncle Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, down to 16th place and Princess Anne, the late Queen’s second child, to 19th place in the royal hierarchy.

In what kind of modern world do we think it decent or reasonable for the newborn child of a non-working royal – Eugenie works part-time in an art gallery – to be elevated above two of the hardest-working royals.

Thanks to the vagaries of our labyrinthine succession system, Eugenie’s two sons – August, five, and Ernest, two – are already listed 13th and 14th in the royal line despite the fact they will never be expected to spend a single day of their lives working for ‘the Firm’.

The unpalatable truth is that the Royal Family currently consists of just 11 senior working royals: King Charles, Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Princess Anne, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester Prince Richard and his wife Birgitte, the Duke of Kent Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra.

Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank are expecting their third child. The couple are pictured this week leaving a restaurant in London

In her post announcing the pregnancy on social media, Eugenie shared an adorable picture of their two sons holding a picture of mum’s baby scan

And yet, Eugenie’s ‘Baby Brooksbank’, as she described her child on Instagram in a reference to her married name, will benefit from their royal association without lifting a finger, just as its mother has done her entire life.

I can’t be the only one wondering if Eugenie’s announcement, coming just a day after her husband’s 40th birthday, which she marked by posting a cute snap of the Tequila brand ambassador and property developer with their son August, represented incredibly fortuitous timing.

After all, when your hideous parents have been rightly pilloried for their appallingly inappropriate relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein – and you have suffered an element of guilt by association – what better way to distance yourself from your parents and rehabilitate your reputation than by highlighting your own wholesome family life.

The King was even gracious enough to celebrate the news on Buckingham Palace’s official website in a statement that included the line: ‘His Majesty The King has been informed and is delighted with the news.’

It’s intriguing that there was no mention of Queen Camilla’s delight, a rather startling omission given that one of Charles’s favourite refrains is: ‘The Queen and I’.

I have the utmost respect for the King, but his congratulatory words in no way reflect the mood of the nation.

Far from being ‘delighted’ at the impending arrival of another royal hanger-on, who will enjoy all the perks associated with the Royal Family without putting in any of the hard yards, many of us see it as an event that shines an unwelcome spotlight on the iniquities of the centuries-old rules of succession and the way they perpetuate an egregious system of class privilege.

At a time when the monarchy’s popularity levels among Gen Z languishes at 30 per cent and the disgraced former prince Andrew remains eighth in line to the throne despite being stripped of all his titles – not to mention his dignity – this latest addition to the Brooksbank clan being above Princess Anne in the pecking order seems wildly inappropriate in today’s world.

11 senior working royals: King Charles; Queen Camilla; the Prince and Princess of Wales; Prince Edward and wife Sophie; Princess Anne; Prince Richard and his wife Birgitte, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent; and Princess Alexandra

King Charles and Queen Camilla last week in New York during their triumphant US state visit to mark 250 years of American independence

Andrew is still under police investigation in this country and persona non grata across the pond, thanks to his steadfast refusal to appear in front of the US House of Representatives’ oversight committee, which would like him to answer some troubling questions about his friend Epstein and his industrial abuse of young women and girls.

Meanwhile, as extraordinary as it might sound, Prince Harry remains fifth in line to the throne despite abandoning his duty of service in favour of making millions from a tawdry memoir and TV enterprises that have included a scurrilous interview with Oprah Winfrey and a Netflix series which, in parts, disparaged the late monarch herself.

How shameful his record looks when compared with that of his father, who carried out 532 royal engagements last year – and only last week pulled off a triumphant state visit to the US.

Then there is the sterling work of the ever-industrious Princess Anne, the second-hardest working royal who performed 478 engagements, her brother Prince Edward, who carried out 313, followed by his wife Sophie. How ludicrous that these three Trojans will be pushed yet further down the line of succession by the birth of Andrew’s fifth grandchild.

And I regret to say that this absurd state of affairs has its roots in an act of weakness by the King. While he stripped his disgraced brother of all his titles, had him evicted from the sprawling Royal Lodge at Windsor and exiled him to a cottage on his Sandringham estate, His Majesty held back from engineering his removal from the line of succession, claiming it would require an act of Parliament.

Charles is reported to have said at the time that he did not believe it was an appropriate use of Parliamentary time. This was then, and remains, a complete cop out, since we the public would surely endorse it however long it took, if the result was a piece of legislation that stripped the vile Andrew of such a prestigious position.

Since Charles became King, his heir the Prince of Wales has made much of his passionate desire to slim down the monarchy, with a view to making it fit for purpose in the modern world.

A world, presumably, in which non-working royals, such as Eugenie and her children, would have no place in the line of succession.

I’m no expert but you don’t have to be a constitutionalist of years’ standing to deplore the possibility of the passing of an elderly King and Queen coinciding with a disaster befalling the Wales family, resulting in an outcome no sane subject of this country could possibly welcome.

Yes, you got there before me, the ascent to the throne of King Harry and Queen Meghan.