It’s shameful to heap more stress on the Queen…both as a monarch and a mum
I FEEL so bloody sorry for the Queen.
She should be nestled in the comfiest chair in her beloved Balmoral Castle with a couple of corgis warming her feet and the satisfaction of a job well done.
Instead she’s stuck in Windsor reading lurid headlines about the running sore of Prince Andrew’s entanglement in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal.
This has been flung into sharp focus with the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell earlier this week over accusations of grooming and abusing girls as young as 14 for the deceased convicted sex offender.
Maxwell was a close friend of Prince Andrew and allegedly introduced him to Epstein.
If found guilty, she is looking at 35 years in jail and could decide to sing like a canary to cut a deal and ensure a reduced sentence.
For all we know she might well have incriminating photos and videos that will have several high profile individuals sweating profusely.
One of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has accused Prince Andrew of having sex with her on the night that infamous photograph was taken of the two of them, with a smirking Maxwell looking on in the background.
In his car crash interview with the BBC, Prince Andrew said he cannot recall meeting Virginia or having that photo taken, and he has repeatedly denied any of the allegations.
All of this has to be giving Her Majesty sleepless nights, and she doesn’t need it at her time of life.
She had to effectively sack her own son and kick him out of the Royal Family, which must have been devastating.
There’s now a renewed clamour for Andrew to give evidence to the FBI, and I happen to think the Queen is the one person who could make this happen with a couple of phone calls to both parties.
It might just be the way forward.
Meanwhile Andrew insists he has tried to cooperate and is currently “bewildered”.
He’s not the only one.
I find it baffling that Epstein was able to get away with his disgusting behaviour and that Maxwell was able to evade the law for so long.
Under oath
I’ve said since the very beginning, that this scandal will not go away and even someone as arrogant as Prince Andrew with his inbred sense of entitlement cannot keep burying his head in the sand.
He must give a full statement under oath to the FBI.
If, as he emphatically declared, he is completely innocent then he has nothing to fear.
He could have evidence that will help prosecutors finally give Epstein’s victims justice and closure, which is the least these poor women deserve.
Meanwhile the Queen will be braced for more hurtful and damaging headlines, with all of the added stress of possible new revelations still to come.
Which is why as a monarch and as a mother she has my deepest sympathy.
A true TV treat
A WELCOME bright spot amid the relentless bad news is that Hamilton, the musical, is on TV tonight.
I know a hip-hop history lesson about US founding father Alexander Hamilton doesn’t sound exciting, but this is an exhilarating and bloodthirsty tale of war, sex and duels to the death – all done at a blistering pace, with stars rapping their a**es off.
I was hooked by the opening lines when Hamilton is described as the “bastard orphaned son of a whore and a Scotsman”.
If you want to be uplifted, educated and entertained, do not miss this special production on Disney+.
Paris has a pop
PARIS JACKSON has grown into a stunning woman, who looks like a cross between Madonna and Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas.
The 22-year-old is launching a pop career, dating a fellow musician and seems in a good place.
It’s more than brave of Paris to follow in her dad Michael’s footsteps.
Lisa Marie Presley had a pretty successful shot at her own pop career, but Elvis and Michael Jackson are the toughest of acts to follow.
I wish Paris good luck and health and hope she is allowed to paddle her own canoe.
China's rule so brutal
I’M watching events unfold in Hong Kong with a very heavy heart.
The brave young men and women being arrested for wanting to live in at least some sort of democracy could end up spending the rest of their days in jail.
The Chinese have taken advantage of the world looking the other way, preoccupied with Covid-19, to crack down on any sort of dissent, above.
It’s shameful and disgusting.
But what can you expect of a regime which has already crushed the spirits of the people of Tibet and are suspected of forcing Muslim Uighur women in Xinjiang to be sterilised or fitted with contraception to limit their population.
Donald Trump will grandstand and Boris Johnson will bluster, but in the end nothing will be done to help the desperate people in Hong Kong from being flattened by Chinese tanks.
Jewels in The Crown
INSPIRED casting by the makers of The Crown – who have announced Lesley Manville will take over the part of Princess Margaret in the final season of the hit Netflix series, which deals with the dark days of the 1990s when she was in poor health.
The princess, who died in 2002 just weeks before the Queen Mother, was previously portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, who had a rare old time playing the part.
Lesley has said she’s delighted to be starring opposite her friend Imelda Staunton, who replaces Olivia Colman as the Queen.
Apart from Helena, I found the last season a little underwhelming, to be honest.
But I reckon The Crown will roar back to top form with these two actresses, who are both at the height of their powers.
Boozy blowout threat to the NHS
TONIGHT A&E departments all over England are bracing themselves for a tsunami of drunks – peeing, pooing and spewing, complete with broken appendages and various cuts and bruises.
For this is what’s being described as “Super Saturday”, when pubs dust off the cobwebs, throw open the doors and welcome customers back with open arms.
Now I have enormous sympathy for those who own or are employed in bars and restaurants.
The last four months have been a nightmare, and some venues have already gone out of business.
But just imagine you are an exhausted paramedic, doctor or nurse and dreading having to deal with emergency rooms bursting at the seams with people who have been on all-day benders.
It’s going to be like a zombie apocalypse unless people screw the nut and don’t act like utter idiots.
I really don’t want to be a killjoy, but there’s a section of the public who have no interest in having a civilised drink in a beer garden while socially distancing.
They want to get absolutely hammered, bladdered and blootered.
Even PM Boris Johnson has rolled back on his “party time” attitude and asked everyone to turn the music down and behave themselves.
But at this late stage will people listen and obey the rules?
'A PLEA FROM THE HEART'
It depends on how much they drink.
After five or six pints or a bottle or two of Prosecco, any idea of keeping even a couple of inches away from one another will evaporate completely.
After closing time, people will be cuddling, snogging and declaring undying friendship and love for one another, until someone says something “out of order” and the brawling begins.
I feel so sorry for our overstretched police, who will have to deal with the immediate fallout, and for anyone unlucky enough to live close to busy pubs and suffer the inevitable noise and mayhem.
I do realise there are responsible owners running local village establishments who will ensure customers behave themselves.
But in bigger towns and cities, it could be like Bank Holiday Benidorm meets New Year’s Eve Newcastle with bells on.
So a plea from the heart.
Please don’t drink on an empty head.
This virus hasn’t suddenly taken the day off.
It’s still here and people continue to catch Covid-19 and die.
So if you clapped for our carers and have one iota of admiration for our health workers then remember social distancing and don’t treat tonight like one big p***-up.
This is a really crucial time.
We’ve already seen a local lockdown in Leicester and if today backfires spectacularly then more of these could rear their ugly heads over the next few days and weeks.
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Many people have made enormous sacrifices, so please don’t throw all that away on a drunken blowout.
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If you are in England or Northern Ireland (where pubs opened yesterday) and heading out tonight, drink responsibly, don’t make a clown of yourself and stick to the rules.
If not for your own safety then for our overworked NHS heroes.
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