DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Andrew has become a dangerous liability

For the first time in four years, Prince Andrew was invited on Christmas Day to join senior members of the royal family for their annual public promenade to church at Sandringham.

This was seen by the king as a gesture to bring his younger brother back from the wilderness, with the intention of possibly rehabilitating him as a working monarch.

Given the way he has dragged the monarchy’s reputation through the swamp over lurid allegations about his personal life, that always seemed completely unwise.

Now, following the release in the US of copious court documents detailing Andrew’s links to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, this simply cannot happen.

This 900-page dossier brings the sordid case back into the public eye and once again highlights the Duke of York’s deplorable lack of moral judgment in involving himself in it.

Prince Andrew walked with Jeffrey Epstein in New York’s Central Park in 2011

He denies any wrongdoing and has not been convicted of any criminal offense. But after admitting his friendship with Epstein and making an out-of-court payment to a woman who claims she was directed by Epstein to have sex with him when she was 17, Andrew cannot escape the taint of sleazy.

When Queen Elizabeth was alive, Andrew could be dismissed as an errant son and of little consequence. However, with her death he becomes part of the ruling generation of the family.

For the sake of the future of the monarchy, Charles must put aside brotherly feelings and consider banishing his brother from ‘the Firm’ once and for all.

The institution is already under great pressure to modernize and downsize. Keeping Andrew close could damage the king’s reputation. To Queen Elizabeth he was an embarrassment. For King Charles he has become a dangerous burden.

Talking Britain down

Margaret Thatcher believed that the way to fight elections was to inspire voters with leadership and vision, rather than simply destroying opponents. “We want to govern because we can do better,” she once said, “not because we can’t possibly do worse.”

Judging from his miserable New Year’s speech, Sir Keir Starmer has taken the opposite view. Under the Tories, Britain is an “oppressed country” and “in despair”, he claimed. This was a ridiculous and insulting exaggeration. As has been proven over the centuries, we British are not oppressed.

There may be many things wrong with this country, but it is a vibrant and boisterous democracy, and not the hellhole he paints.

Under the Tories, Britain is an ‘oppressed country’ and ‘in despair’, Sir Keir Starmer claimed. This was a ridiculous and insulting exaggeration. As has been proven over the centuries, we British are not oppressed

And despite the efforts of his union friends to drive us into poverty with reckless strikes, the economy continues to defy all predictions of recession. There are indeed signs that the cost of living is declining.

The truth is that Sir Keir is running a negative campaign because he has no inspiring vision to offer. Until 2019 he was a hard-left Corbynite and now apparently a Blairite centrist. He is a shameless political shapeshifter who hopes to win power by default. If he does, perhaps we will soon know the true meaning of despair.

Stamp of incompetence

As Postal Secretary during the Coalition, Ed Davey was alerted to the Horizon scandal in 2010 by campaigning for postmaster Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, in a new ITV drama.

Mr Bates called for a meeting but was rejected by the current Lib Dem leader, who said it would ‘serve no useful purpose’.

Today Mr Davey regrets his serious mistake, claiming he was misled by Post Office bosses about the computer glitch, which led to the pursuit of thousands of innocent postmasters and mistresses, many of whom were convicted of thefts that never happened. have occurred.

There is another interpretation: he was either totally incompetent, or sleeping on the job – or both.