'Useful idiot' Prince Andrew is being ground into the dirt - character is fate

Talk about kicking a man when he's down. Not to mention grinding his face in the dirt. And maybe delivering a sucker-punch to the kidneys into the bargain. God knows what state Prince Andrew is in as you read this. Another terrible week for the not-so-grand old Duke of York. The allegations about his perfidy, stupidity and snobbery just keep coming.

This time, they're courtesy of a new book about the late Queen's supposedly favourite son: "Entitled: The Rise And Fall Of The House Of York", by respected historian Andrew Lownie. If you haven't read it, or the abridged versions flying around, trust me, it's AWFUL. Awful for Andrew, that is. One begins to wonder if the cloud of shame and derision hovering directly over his head will ever dissipate, or if it is destined to follow him, darkly, to his grave.

It's not so much that we learn anything especially new about Andrew's general character or personality in the book. It's just the abundance of dreadful detail, one story stacked on top of the other like a great pile of dirty dishes.

The time a courtier referred to "the Queen Mother", for example, rather than her full, formal title of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Andrew pounced in full bully-mode. "You are a f****** imbecile! GET OUT!"

Richard and I personally were told - in confidence - about the duke's appalling treatment of a freelance aide who was hired to assist Sarah Ferguson and the couple's two daughters.

The freelancer, a friend of ours, was so insulted - not to mention astonished ("I've never known such rudeness"), he walked out on the spot and never returned.

In the new book, we hear about oafish, coarse remarks about women, not suitable to print here. And of course, details about his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

"The Prince was a useful idiot who gave (Epstein) respectability, access to political leaders and business opportunities... he found Andrew easy to exploit," Lownie writes. Character is fate. Andrew is reaping the whirlwind of his own making.

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Phubbing. That's the big new risk factor for the modern marriage, apparently. What does it mean? 'Phubbing' is snubbing your partner by staring down at your phone instead of lovingly - or even with a degree of moderate interest - into your other half's eyes. Snub/phone = phub, geddit? Hmm.

We might all be in trouble, then, if researchers from Anna University, India, are right. I plead guilty. I know I definitely look at my phone when I'm talking to my husband, unless what he's telling me is REALLY important. And come on, how often is that?

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So here we are: computer and phone-tapping citizens of this brave new scientific, technological, Artificial Intelligence-dominated nuclear age... and yet we are still as superstitious and fearful of the supernatural as our ancestors.

Those poor, benighted ancients who sincerely believed thunder was the drumbeat of the gods, and lightning bolts were javelins callously hurled by divine beings from their palaces in the clouds.

Scientists have found, in a study of more than 500 people, that 499 admitted to being in thrall to at least one bonkers, absurd superstition - mostly to ward off "bad luck" (another potty concept. No such thing).

Knocking on wood. Tossing spilt salt behind left shoulders. Rescheduling events set for Friday the 13th. I smiled, superciliously, until I read of two hugely popular rituals I realised I've followed my entire life. To the letter.

NEVER opening an umbrella indoors (why, for God's sake?) and NEVER putting new shoes on a table (WHY!... Surely dirty shoes would be worse?).

The Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin, who conducted the survey, say we can't help it. We're hard-wired to believe in the supernatural. No wonder AI is poised to take over the world.