Epstein episode a step on the way to equality

ALTHOUGH dead, Jeffrey Epstein is making a deep impact on the British monarchy and elite.

Influential men must be shaking in their handstitched shoes at the thought of possible revelations.

The set-up of wealthy men using go-betweens to find young women for them is hardly new. In 1963 it was Stephen Ward. Now it is Ghislaine Maxwell. Attitudes change.

In the ancient world it was an acknowledged link. The advent of Christianity made both predators and their instruments keep relatively quiet.

Moving on, Charles II (died 1685) employed a valet, Will Chaffinch, to bring women to him. The following century Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress, wished to leave the royal bed but keep her influence. She found girls for him.

Ottoman sultans regularised these types of behaviour and endowed them with ritual. The harem women would line up. The sultan would stroll up and down, at last dropping a handkerchief at the feet of the concubine he intended to favour that night.

The trouble is that generations of male financial power have encouraged men to think that their superiority, invulnerability and right to young women will go on forever.

However, the cracks have been showing.

In 2017, Harvey Weinstein unintentionally created the Me Too movement by pushing his luck with the casting couch.

These clashes and scandals occur when the past collides with the present and future – when women acquire enough independence of wallet and mind to blow the whistle, hold exploiters to account and reform the whole system.

So, in a peculiar way, Prince Andrew’s current misfortune is a sign of progress – an illustration of the transition to a more equal society.

There is still a long way to go, but as the late Chairman Mao said, a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. And this episode has speeded it up by a good many steps.

Margaret Brown, by email