What Harry must learn from useless Uncle Andrew

He has been accused of sleeping with underage girls and consorting with a known paedophile. his reputation, what was left of it, is in tatters. he is in danger of becoming a national laughing stock, complete with his mad, hanger-on ex-wife and two daughters with no visible means of support.

his standing has never been so low, the levels of opprobrium aimed at him so high. What next for Prince andrew, the ageing royal playboy with no one left to play with?

Well, if nothing else, surely he serves as a flesh-and-blood warning to his nephew, Prince harry? a ruined totem of the fate that might await; the shambling evidence of a pointless royal life badly lived; of a misspent mid-life crisis dabbling in fleshpots with the wrong people at the wrong time? Prince andrew should have known better, but it appears that he never did.

Yet there are some people, mostly men, who see andrew as a tragic figure. In some ways he is. The 54-year- old prince is perhaps the ultimate victim of second-son syndrome. since birth, he has been doomed — like harry after him — to be the spare and never the heir.

he is the runner-up in the lottery of royal life, the perennial booby prize; a prince who may be part of the monarchy but is generally overlooked and definitely unimportant.

While his big brother inherits the throne and all that goes with it, andrew is relegated to a ceremonial life on the sidelines. so close, and yet so far!

It must be agony. and this fate is harry’s fate, too. For unlike Charles and William, andrew and harry are not the top-tier prized first-born. They will never be the gilded centrepiece displayed on the Windsor mantelpiece. Instead, they are on the second shelf of the royal pantry, stored in a dusty Tupperware box marked Just In Case. and that can hurt.

Yet while this might be difficult for them, it is hardly a tragedy. Contracting ebola, being born with a debilitating disease, finding oneself on a plummeting plane, falling foul of bloodthirsty terrorists on a Parisian street — these are all tragedies.

Being born into a world of extraordinary privilege, at the heart of one of the richest families on the planet, is very far from anyone’s idea of tragic.

It is what you do with your good fortune that marks you out as a prince worthy of admiration and respect among your loyal subjects. and it is here that andrew has been such a total failure.

he seems to have done nothing of note for anyone except himself. It is no secret that andrew has an overdeveloped sense of entitlement and has never found a meaningful role for himself since leaving the Navy in 2001.

his greatest achievement has been getting his golf handicap down to four. he could turn professional, people said. Well, it would have been nice if he could have been professional at something.

he wasn’t even any good at being a trade envoy, the kind of ritualistic nonjob given to lesser royals to make them feel important.

a Wikileaks dump four years ago produced evidence that andrew was even a disaster at this; boorish, rude and an all-round pest.

Yet it was only after he was photographed with his disgraced pal Jeffrey epstein that he was finally stopped from blundering around the globe in our name.

This week, his Royal Badass cut short his skiing holiday and put on that special, grim victim’s face when he arrived back in the UK.

The Prince has denied having sex with a 17- year- old associate of epstein’ s . however, he is still marooned on the slippery slopes. In fact, he might never get off them. his current situation packs a powerful warning for Prince harry, his fellow second- string royal with an equally keen interest in the ladies.

It’s not too late for harry. I hope he looks long and hard at his uncle’s difficulties, as andrew desperately tries to slalom through the sleaze. I hope he ensures the same problems do not engulf him in middle age. I hope he stays away from Las Vegas pool parties and stays in the army for as long as possible!

Please harry — be diligent, be charitable but most of all, be good. The Royal Family might not survive another scandal like this one.