If the Kaiser of Chaos is expecting a respite from the Epstein-Maxwell scandal by paying a state visit to the UK, he should think again. The British media is all over the Epstein story because of its links to recently fired ambassador to the court of The Darnold Peter Mandelson and the dissolute and degenerate Prince Andrew. Hence the featured image.
The release of a cache of Epstein’s personal emails led to Mandelson’s firing. The Observer’s Andrew Rawnsley, who is the leading expert on the Blair-Brown New Labour government that Mandelson helped create, chimed in on his latest and likely fatal scandal:
He has been the comeback king of our politics. Over more than 30 years of observing the remarkable rises, sensational falls and subsequent resurrections of Peter Mandelson, I learnt never to assume that he had used up his last life. No previous scandal, however terminal it seemed at the time of revelation, was capable of finishing him off for good.
He played a pivotal role in the creation of New Labour. Tony Blair liked to quip that his mission to transform the party would be complete when it had “learnt to love Peter Mandelson”. It never quite did. Yet Blair, his best friend in politics, then felt he had no choice but to fire the other man from New Labour cabinets – not once, but twice. Only for Mandelson then to rise again in the guise of an EU commissioner. Gordon Brown, close friend turned bitter enemy turned ally of convenience, brought him back from Brussels as deputy prime minister in a desperate and ultimately vain attempt to save the fortunes of his Labour government.
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It has always been a weakness of Mandelson to be beguiled by the worlds of big money, influence and glamour – or the patina of it. What did for him was the content of a cache of emails which have exposed undeniable and unsurvivable details about his relationship with America’s most notorious paedophile. It has been revealed that Mandelson encouraged a man he described as his “best pal” to “fight for early release” after Epstein’s convictions for soliciting a child for prostitution in 2008. Even more damningly, he added: “I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened. I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.”
Mandelson was wrong about that. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was wrong to send him to Washington to flatter and brown nose President Pennywise. Starmer’s position on Trump has made him vulnerable. The Mandelson-Epstein mishigas may prove to be as fatal to Starmer as it was to the man they call the Prince of Darkness.
Starmer’s defenders say that his appeasement of Trump is an attempt to keep the erratic American on Team Ukraine. It seems to have had limited success: the Insult Comedian still claims that Ukraine started the war. Instead, the memes about Tony Blair as W’s poodle are being applied to Starmer. This cartoon could be called the Klimt clinch:
Labour’s victory at last year’s election was rooted in anti-incumbent sentiment. It hasn’t eased since they took power. Instead, the right-wing populist Nigel Farage’s Reform UK leads Labour in the polls. Farage is, of course, a Trump fan and his movement is equally stupid and destructive as MAGA. That’s the last thing the UK needs after the disastrous Tory governments of Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, and Sunak.
Trump is being paid the rare honor of a second state visit as part of Starmer’s appeasement campaign. Apparently, King Charles is not amused. Neither are Labour supporters including this American fellow traveler. I expected Starmer to be a safe pair of hands instead of a bungler who’s going Neville Chamberlain on the American dictator wannabe.
Repeat after me: Appeasement never works.
Back to the Epstein-Maxwell scandal; more emails including exchanges with Prince Andrew are expected to be published soon. Bloomberg News has them as do some British news organizations who are salivating at the prospect of taking down the dissolute and degenerate royal. I hope it happens while the madman is still across the water.
I realize this post is more about British politics than the Trump visit, but a good title is a terrible thing to waste.
The last word goes to Elton John: