🔗 Share this article Just When Prime Minister Starmer Believed He Had Gotten Jeffrey Epstein Off His Plate – See Who Is Coming to Dinner An urgent development on the Prime Minister’s government of “countrywide revival”: after dismissing his deputy and housing secretary due to negligence to pay required stamp duty, the prime minister has also lost the ambassador to the US over strong ties with a known child trafficker. Meanwhile, a growing group of people think the answer lies with Andy Burnham assuming control, implying he could stand in a constituency that has only notionally become free because the previous Labour MP was barred by Labour after being found to have sent messages wishing constituents would soon be dead/“run over”, and is now apparently “off sick”. Adding to this, US officials are arriving. President Donald Trump touches down in the UK tonight just before of what may become the most terribly unlucky formal meal since the days of the vomiting scene in a famous film. It feels impossible to imagine the nation could possibly feel any more refreshed. Emails Involving Mandelson Several days since Lord Mandelson’s messages to Jeffrey Epstein were made public, and the more I’ve thought about them, the more I come back to a particular less noticed comments. Writing in apparent anguish just before of Epstein’s incarceration in 2008, he opines to him: “It just could not happen in Britain.” Maybe that was accurate, intentionally or not. The UK is extremely skilled at a kind of institutionalised looking away. Maybe he was – unwittingly or otherwise – describing a dark trait about the nation that moralistic old Keir Starmer would no doubt be deeply offended to be caught up in. Except, the prime minister is involved in it – in fact, he’s at the very centre of it. He remains the one who looked away. An Administration Under Fire It’s hard not to sense there is a decaying quality and defeated about a government whose head would select someone he knew had been deeply connected to the criminal, who the entire world by that point knew was – apologies for repeating the words – a child exploitation ringleader. Association with him was by then known to be such a horror show that the Queen Elizabeth had to sack Prince Andrew for it. What’s worse is the PM’s shocking disinterest as the facts closed in, up until the bitter end, with No 10 hesitating for an incredibly extended time about a series of highly career-ending communications, while he fannied about supporting his ally at the dispatch box. From Opposition to Embarrassment That happened to be the different podium to the one at which Starmer plied his holier-than-thou reputation in the opposition. There’s an old internet saying that states that if you correct someone for their writing errors, you will inevitably end up making your own mistake while you’re doing it. Starmer spent his years in the opposition criticizing the Conservatives at each opportunity, rather than – for example – coming up with a innovative and clear plan for economic expansion. As expected, we now seem to be locked into observing him and his administration deserve a daily telling-off, as offences and immoralities mount up. Why does this repeatedly occurs to him, etc? The Mystery of Epstein As for Epstein, we know that at the time Mandelson was writing to him urging him to seek early release, police in Palm Beach, Florida had identified 36 girls who the “financier” had exploited. But for all the many years of grim and grotesque disclosures, it still seems as though we know remarkably little about him. What was his story, this mysterious Gatsby-like figure, and how did all his money come from? Soon after his death, New York magazine published a compelling story in which real investment managers expressed pointed bemusement over how Epstein made his money, since none of them had really had any transactions with him. According to a big fund manager, an expert, stated: “I went to my institutional brokers, to their trading desks and asked if they had ever traded with him. I repeated this a few times up to the date when he was arrested. None professional trading team, major or minor, had ever traded with Epstein’s firm.” He had said to a reporter: “He reminds me who is similar of Madoff that no one trades with.” Or as investor remarked: “It’s difficult to make a billion dollars quietly.” But he had made little impact at all in the investment community. They could barely find one investor. The widespread belief was that the “hedge fund” was simply a cover for a extortion operation. Unwelcome Presence Perhaps most amazing, truly, is the fact that Epstein will be a ghost at the dinner this evening for several guest, as Trump continues to downplay his lengthy and intimate association with exactly the kind of criminal his Maga followers are certain controls the world. He is a figure who truly fit the very template of their darkest conspiracy theories – wealthy and influential, involved in the trafficking of minors, linked in a web of many of the wealthiest people in the world. These are all the kind of stuff they’ve been discussing for years – yet who should keep appearing in the story, but their own beloved president. Isn’t it intriguing how many of them currently just can’t bring themselves to believe it? A topic to discuss over the starter tonight at the royal residence, maybe, as long as everyone can keep their food down.