Pom in Oz with Derek Goforth: Royal scandal involving former prince Andrew is unsurprising and predictable

The latest scandal surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the man formerly known as Prince Andrew, should not shock anyone. Not really. If anything, it should prompt a tired sigh and a quiet, here we go again. Because this is not just about one man. It is about a system that breeds detachment, entitlement and a warped sense of consequence. The modern royal family is the purest surviving example of inherited privilege. Not earned. Not chosen. Inherited. A relic from a bygone era where bloodlines mattered more than behaviour and titles counted for more than character. We dress it up in pageantry, tradition and tourist brochures but underneath it is aristocracy at its worst. What do we honestly expect when someone is told from the moment they can walk that they are royal, special and above the rest of us. When doors open automatically. When consequences are softened, delayed or quietly redirected. When people bow, defer and protect. That is not a recipe for humility. It is a petri dish for arrogance. Most people grow up learning limits. You mess up, you pay for it. You say the wrong thing, you answer for it. You hurt people, there are consequences. That slow and sometimes painful process is how character is formed. Remove it, and you remove the guardrails that keep behaviour in check. The royal system does exactly that. It insulates. It cushions. It signals, subtly but constantly, that the rules apply differently. Not because you are better but because you are born lucky. Over time, that does something corrosive to the human psyche. It creates people who confuse status with worth and immunity with innocence. And before anyone says tradition matters, it does. The past matters. Institutions can provide stability and continuity when they are grounded in responsibility and service. But tradition without accountability is just nostalgia with a crown on top. Respect for history should never require blindness to reality. The Andrew saga is not an outlier. It is a symptom. When privilege is absolute and lifelong, it disconnects people from ordinary moral boundaries. It encourages recklessness, secrecy and the belief that someone else will always clean up the mess. Most parents work hard to teach their kids the opposite. You are not special because of who you are. You are valuable because of how you act. Funny how the so-called commoners seem to grasp that lesson better than those born into palaces. You see the same pattern playing out in modern politics. We have drifted a long way from engineers, tradespeople, farmers, teachers, and people who actually built, fixed, or ran things for a living. In their place sits a professional political class that has known little outside universities, party offices, and taxpayer-funded careers. Privilege is no longer the exception, it is the norm. Many have never had a pay packet depend on performance or a business survive on good decisions. And it shows. Standards slip. Accountability evaporates. Mistakes are explained away, not owned. When people grow up and rise through systems that protect them from consequences, whether palaces or parliaments, the result is the same. Lower morals, softer standards and a quiet assumption that someone else will always carry the cost. So no, this scandal is not surprising. It is predictable. When a system tells people they are royal before they are responsible, this is exactly the sort of thing you get. And until the mythology is stripped back and replaced with genuine accountability, it will not be the last time we are told to look shocked. Derek Goforth is an expat and father of three living and working in Geraldton