Young women like Princess Eugenie are transporting us back to the 1950s when it comes to getting engaged

Forget the ring and add the cash to your mortgage deposit fund – God knows you’re going to need it

Princess Eugenie has announced her engagement (PA)

So another royal hat wearer is about to get hitched, this one is quite far down in the pecking order to the extent that no one really knows how to pronounce her name.

It’s the younger one of Andrew and Sarah’s gals, the Eugenie one who walks exactly like her mother and has never knowingly spoken in public.

Listen, I’m sure she’s a sweet girl and I hope she lives happily ever after with this chap that everyone is referring to as “the barman”. Really? I haven’t seen a barman without a tattooed sleeve and a massive hole in his ear for years, but maybe that says more about where I drink than Eugenie’s beau.

But what really flummoxes me about this sudden rash of “announcements” is how a whole generation of young women have developed a sparkly ring fixation.

Even normal “common as muck” types are at it, misting up the windows of jeweller’s shops with their soya latte breath, giddily announcing the “good news” on social media and triumphantly waving the manicured third finger on their left hand into the camera lens.

It’s 2018, why is anyone still squealing like a 1950s debutante over a piece of jewellery? I just don’t understand the renaissance of this twee little tradition. You won’t turn into a pumpkin if you’re not engaged by the time you’re 30. Forget the ring and add the cash to your mortgage deposit fund – God knows you’re going to need it.

Get married by all means, even I tied the knot last year (for reasons of death duties and tax mostly) but I never had an official engagement and he certainly didn’t get down on one knee. For starters, he was 68 at the time of asking and would never have got back up, and as for an engagement ring, I’d rather have the shower room re-tiled.