IN Roman religion, the Lemures represented wandering and malevolent spirits robbed of a proper burial in life who visited vengeance on those responsible for their plight. They now appear to include Jeffrey Epstein.
The Epstein files have placed the semi-feudal British political system under the microscope in a way that highlights the corruption, patronage and immorality of the individuals and groups who use and abuse the networks and structures therein.
The breathtaking arrogance and entitlement of grifters like Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his semi-estranged wife and Peter Mandelson have been well documented for some time now, but the scale of their transgressions as exposed by the Epstein files has revealed the extent of their malfeasance, infinite arrogance and profligate moral corruption. Their collective relationships with a convicted paedophile and sex trafficker, not to mention his alleged close links with Israeli and Russian power brokers, have not only destroyed their questionable reputations but will now reverberate on people within and outwith their spheres of influence.
READ MORE: Wes Streeting in the spotlight over past links with Peter Mandelson
Having read Andrew Lownie’s book on The Rise and Fall of the House of York, none of the revelations in the Epstein files surprised me in the least regarding the vulgar and venal “Yorks” who lack any semblance of a moral compass, are completely and utterly mercenary and can be euphemistically described as educationally challenged. The questions that arise regarding the whole institution of the monarchy, their perceived role, and the judgement of the late Queen and present King in relation to the behaviour of the “Yorks” are now the ones under examination.
The late Queen sought to shelter her favourite son from any scrutiny following accusations by Virginia Giuffre, and firmly placed her family before country by conveniently providing Ms Giuffre with an alleged £12 million of taxpayers’ money to avoid any court appearance by her deviant boy. Queen Elizabeth is still revered by lickspittles and assorted crawlers throughout the UK who confuse tradition with relevance and whose self-esteem relies on her purported prestige as a symbol of a long lost British empire and the security of a class system that reminded you of your entire societal function.
In reality, the late Queen may have been more conscious of public duty than the rest of her parasitical family, but she utilised her position and a plethora of ancient laws to ensure her brood, “the Firm”, was more than just a going concern and ditched any sense of empathy or common humanity for the victims of her son Andrew when this endangered reputational damage.
READ MORE: Mandelson files 'will be huge' as McSweeney messages set for release
Similarly, the present King, no stranger to financial impropriety himself, continues to bury his head in the sand regarding the present scandal involving his brother and Sarah Ferguson.
He has, apparently, moved his brother’s residence several times in a display of lacklustre tokenism that is supposed to signify that he is taking action against a royal personage allegedly complicit in sex trafficking. In effect, by merely aping the unspeakable actions of the Catholic hierarchy, which over the years moved priests accused of sexual deviance from parish to parish, King Charles is abrogating his ethical responsibility to deal with his brother’s heinous deeds, fearing that a Pandora’s Box of misdemeanours will be unearthed within the royal circle itself.
In addition, Peter Mandelson may have run out of his political nine lives but he will surely drag others with him into the abyss, not least the UK Prime Minister who appointed him in the knowledge that he maintained relations with Epstein long after his imprisonment and infamy.
This ongoing tale of the Epstein files is a window into the privileged and depraved lives of the super rich and powerful. There is no doubt that, in the UK at least, retribution awaits those who chose to fall into Epstein’s domain.
Owen Kelly
Stirling
DURING the New Labour years Peter Mandelson was not, in my opinion, their worst example of corruption even though he was sacked twice, once for accepting a house loan from the Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson.
Nor is it the fact that three of Blair’s former ministers – Stephen Byers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt – were suspended from the House of Commons having been secretly filmed for the Channel 4 Dispatches programme touting their services to what turned out to be fake lobbyists. (Byers famously said he was “a cab for hire”, pricing his services at between £3000 and £5000 per day).
READ MORE: Keir Starmer should face confidence vote, says Ed Davey
Nor is it even the notorious “cash for favours” scandal of 1997, wherein Formula One was exempted from a ban on tobacco advertising at sports events shortly after Bernie Ecclestone of Formula One gave a £1 million donation to the Labour Party.
Worse than all of these, I’d say, is the fact that Tony and Cherie Blair accepted hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of free holidays in luxury accommodation, like Geoffrey Robinson’s Tuscan villa and Silvio Berlusconi’s mansion in Sardinia. Not to mention Cherie Blair’s well-documented greed for freebies which could, for example, run to thousands of pounds’ worth of designer clothing and shoes.
To think that the “Old Labour” PM Harold Wilson lived for several years in a semi-detached house in Hampstead and that each year he went on holiday to the Scilly Isles, where he lived in his three-bedroom holiday home. A relatively downmarket lifestyle such as this, considering his position, was obviously not for the Blairs.
Alastair McLeish
Edinburgh
Share