If Prince Andrew thought the passage of time would wash away the stain on his reputation from his links to the late disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, he was wrong. The unsealing of 900 pages of court documents in the United States this week has brought his entanglement with Epstein back to the front pages — and with it a very unpalatable stench indeed.
New details further weaken Andrew’s case that he had no inkling of the behaviour of Epstein and his socialite fixer Ghislaine Maxwell. It is alleged that Andrew spoke with Epstein once a week. We know already about his use of Epstein’s New York townhouse. This all adds up to the obvious conclusion that Andrew should have reached years ago: the shame of his association with Epstein means he should have no place in public life.
His surprise reappearance among the members of the royal family on Christmas Day (his first such appearance in four years) was a mistake. The King now faces a simple choice. It will no doubt be personally difficult for him, but it is necessary for the sake of the monarchy. The King must banish his brother from public life.
As other powerful figures such as Bill Clinton are finding, the Epstein stench is not going away any time soon.
Met poster shame
What exactly is going on at New Scotland Yard? The Metropolitan Police has a difficult job, but it does not seem to know how to help itself. The latest low is the display of posters at Heathrow airport asking those returning from the Israel-Palestine region for information about war crimes.
The Met does have a responsibility to help the International Criminal Court with investigations of this nature, and one such investigation was opened in 2019. But that responsibility does not extend to the putting up of posters. That is a bizarre choice that has allowed former prime minister Boris Johnson to accuse the Met, with some justification, of “worrying politicisation”. London’s streets have been the scene of some very ugly antisemitic behaviour. Community tensions are high. Londoners deserve far better than inflammatory posters put up at airports by those who are supposed to be protecting them.
New-age dinosaurs
It was thought that 65 million years ago the last dinosaurs were wiped from the face of the earth. But are we so sure? Baron Bailey recently made positively prehistoric comments about Carol Vorderman, saying that because she talks about politics she can’t also post Instagram photos of her appearance. Vorderman rightly calls him out on our pages today. Wake up, Shaun, it’s 2024.
