WE SHOULD ALL BE HIT HARD BY THE HORRORS OF HOLOCAUST, CORBYN
JRMY wife will hate me for saying it, because she is the most modest woman I know, but at Tuesday’s National Television Awards she looked SENSATIONAL. Judy’s my picture of the week. No apologies. Well done, hon.
I FOUND the anniversary of the Holocaust almost unbearable this year. It’s always moved me to tears; our youngest two children went to school in Golders Green, a predominantly Jewish suburb. The curriculum
RI BUMPED into an old journo friend at the National Television Awards on Tuesday night. I’ve known him since my own days as a newspaper reporter and have always held him in high regard.
We fell to talking about so-called journalistic instinct; how it sharpens with age and experience.
Personally I’ve discovered that pretty early on in a developing story I can privately predict reasonably accurately how it’s going to spool out.
For example, I remember that when the Chris Huhne saga (the government minister who persuaded his wife to take his speeding points) first surfaced as barely more than a paragraph in the papers, I told Judy: “He’ll go down for this.” And he did – eight months for perverting the course of justice.
“So what do you think of the Prince Andrew shenanigans?” I asked my friend. “Where’s all that going to end up?”
My friend and I agreed without demur on what the future might hold.The murky waters currently swirling around the Queen’s second son may get a lot deeper and darker in the coming year if lawyers follow up on their promise to use all the legal options at their disposal to get him to the witness box.
This week the Met confirmed it is likely to re-open its investigation into Prince Andrew’s paedophile friend, Jeffrey Epstein.
It says a “pre-investigation” – code for a feasibility study – could
JHAPPY Brexit, everyone! Don’t know what you did to celebrate last night, but we followed our usual New Year’s Eve protocol, and went to bed early.
I don’t feel that parties, triumphalism or Big Ben bongs are in order, considering how many furious arguments were still splitting families like ours as recently as Christmas.
But I’m not holding my breath for future tranquility. Climate wars are just beginning, I’m afraid. The young will unite under the flag of St Greta, and once again we baby-boomers will be the source of all evil.
We can’t really win the generation war – but never mind. We had a good run. be begun “in the light of current revelations and further victims coming forward”.
Ominously, the Met went on: “There has been a renewed focus on Mr Epstein’s friends and associates which could potentially instigate further criminal and/or civil investigations against these individuals.”
On Monday the FBI claimed that Andrew has offered “zero co-operation” following its requests for an interview about his friendship with Epstein, despite the prince saying in his disastrous Newsnight interview that he would talk to investigators if required.
But now it seems the FBI is ramping up its investigation.
Geoffrey Berman, the senior US attorney who revealed the bureau’s frustration with Andrew, confirmed the investigation is now looking at possible “conspirators” who worked with Epstein, saying: “He couldn’t have done what he did without the assistance of others.”
Then on Tuesday another US attorney representing women who say they were victims of Epstein’s depravity announced she would be seeking to subpoena the Duke, forcing him to face questioning as a witness.
Andrew is slowly being manoeuvred into a three-way steel trap between the FBI, the Met and rottweiler American lawyers who want this reportedly unwilling witness to help their respective cases and investigations.
We’re nowhere near the end of this.
RI WROTE here months ago about the insanity of our new so-called smart motorways, where the old hard shoulder – a sanctuary in a breakdown – is turned into an “active” lane. These are stupid motorways, not smart ones; guaranteed death-traps.
This week we learned 38 souls have been lost in five years after their vehicles stalled on what used to be the hard shoulder and were struck from behind. Madness.
Thank God Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has finally seen the (glaring) light and halted any more “smart” roll-outs. scarves of blue-and-white striped cotton, echoing the garb they were forced to wear in the camps, sobbing as they recalled the epic cruelty they endured.
I hope Jeremy Corbyn and his anti-Semitic supporters felt as moved as I was. But I doubt it.