No contrition from the man who believes he is the victim

There were many things that were desperate about Prince Andrew’s performance on Newsnight: the fact he had clearly assumed he was a match for Emily Maitlis; the lack of compassion or contrition expressed towards the young girls who were abused by his friend Jeffrey Epstein; the mentions of strange medical conditions that stopped you from sweating; the euphemistic positive action he spoke of that made most viewers’ skin crawl. And we haven’t even got to Pizza Express in Woking (an “unusual” place for him to be forced to visit, was the implication), or his nonchalant descriptions of “standard shooting weekends”, as if the rest of this Brexit-wracked country went on them all the time.

But it was the mention of his mental health towards the end of the interview that felt the most desperate act of all. This most important of causes, which his young nephews have championed tirelessly, had been wheeled out like an invisibility cloak for him to hide behind. He was the victim of all of this, not the women forced to have sex with his friend Epstein while they were still children. “It’s about my mental health,” was just about the most offensive thing he could have said, after claiming that it was his tendency to be “too honourable” that had led him to behave so appallingly. No, Andrew. This was not about your mental health. It was about your friendship with a convicted sex offender and the young girls he abused.

If anything comes out of this God-awful spectacle, then I hope it is this: I hope that from now on, we stop vilifying the young members of the Royal family who have done so much to improve the mental health of this country, and start focusing elsewhere. He’s been there all along, hiding in plain sight, and if we want to scrutinise how the monarchy use public money, then may I suggest we start with Prince Andrew?