Photo: Simon Dawson https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/54354501680
The arrests of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Peter Mandelson are cosmetic moves to cover for the whole British establishment. This was expressed clearly in the Spectator magazine which argued that the rest of the royal family are willing to sacrifice Andrew in order to “at least draw a line under things”. Remember that the arrest of Andrew was around “misconduct in office”, and not around his association with Epstein and his abuse of under-age girls and young women. Similarly with Mandelson.
Mandelson was a chief architect of New Labour in the 1990s, which introduced the ideas of neoliberalism into the social democratic institution of the Labour Party. More recently, he was behind moves to rid Labour of the surviving taints of Corbynism, working with Morgan Mc Sweeney of the pressure group Labour Together. This group was key in removing Corbyn and replacing him with Starmer. Mandelson still had considerable influence within Labour, thanks to the support of Keir Starmer. He was allowed to vet the list of Labour candidates for the 2024 election.
Mandelson also had a key role in getting Whitehall to rely more and more on the Palantir tech company, with its close links to the Israeli state and its war plans. He had close links with Epstein for many years and eased the way for Andrew to become international trade envoy in 2001. They both linked important information to Epstein, so that he was able to profit financially. Epstein lavished his informants with lucrative rewards.
Among information passed to Epstein from Andrew, was a memo on investment in Helmand Province in Afghanistan, where gold and uranium had been found. Andrew gave strong support to the Al-Yamanah arms deal of 1985 and criticised the Serious Fraud Office investigation over corruption around this. Epstein was himself connected to the deal through its two main brokers, Douglas Leese and Adnan Khashoggi, both clients of his firm, Intercontinental Assets Group. The alleged corruption concerned the payments to Saudi commissions through illicit resource transfers to keep them outside of regular financial accounting.
When Starmer appointed Mandelson as UK Ambassador to the USA, he was aware of his reputation but went ahead despite warnings from officials. Now Mandelson has been removed, but as of yet has not been charged, and has been rewarded with £75,000 as a payoff. As to Morgan McSweeney, a long-term aide to Starmer, he too was forced to resign as Starmer’s chief of staff, because of his involvement in supporting Mandelson. Another Starmer aide, Tim Allan, also resigned shortly after for the same reasons.
Charles and William must have known what Andrew was up to for a long time but remained silent and failed to act. Elisabeth herself protected Andrew, her favourite son, by paying around £7 million of the £12 million to settle the sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre. Additional payments are alleged to have come out of the estates of Philip and Charles, with other royals contributing smaller amounts, clearly indicating Charles’ role in attempting to close down the affair.
Alongside all of this, we have had the resignation of Josh Simons. He was one of those Mandelson-approved MPs who came into Parliament in the 2024 intake and became Cabinet Office Minister. He was instrumental in the above-mentioned Labour Together. Before the 2024 election, Labour Together paid at least £30,000 to APCO Worldwide, an American public affairs firm, to investigate two Sunday Times journalists who were investigating undeclared donations to Labour Together of £730,000 from millionaire venture capitalist millionaires and businessmen between 2017 and 2020. The organisation was later fined and found guilty of over 20 separate breaches of the law. APCO provided personal and often false information on these journalists and falsely linked them to Russian or Chinese disinformation.
There are also claims that the same Cabinet Office tried to squelch complaints against its new chief, Antonia Romeo. The Sunday Times alleged that the ethics and propriety team of the Cabinet Office broke into a safe to get and destroy a report about her.
All of this shows that this intricate web of corruption, profiteering and sexual abuse, is not down to a few “bad apples” but is part and parcel of a worldwide system. Even the right-wing Spectator had to admit that “the stench which surrounds both politics and the palace will only contribute to the concern that the whole edifice of the British establishment and its leading institutions is rotten.”