With outrage in the air, the Epstein scandal offers us the chance to rebalance the rotten relationship between the people and power, Neil Mackay argues.
It's said the Profumo scandal killed the age of deference. It wasn’t just the smart kids on TV shows like That Was The Week That Was who slit the throat of a culture of bowing and scrapping to power and wealth.
The man and woman in the street wielded the blade proficiently, determinedly and righteously as well.
The Profumo scandal told a story of stately homes, swimming pools and sex parties to a nation of two-up-two-downs, the never-never, and egg and chips for dinner.
Before Profumo, folk like my grandfather were expected to tip their cap every time they saw one of their ‘betters’ in a pinstripe suit; folk like my grandmother were meant to be grateful for jobs cleaning their homes.
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After Profumo, the average Brit was as likely to tell a lord to ‘f**k off’ as they were to say ‘yes, sir’.
The Profumo affair was mere gossip in the steamie, though, compared to the Epstein scandal. Profumo will be an interesting footnote in history books charting British politics in the 20th century; a moment of cultural inflection.
Epstein marks a sundering that will reshape the relationship between power and the people throughout the rest of the 21st century.
This dreadful story of the abuse of girls, power, wealth and influence will still be talked about centuries from now. There’s no equivalent scandal in modern history. The Dreyfuss Affair which rocked France to its foundations in the late 19th century doesn’t come close. Nor does Watergate.
Richard Nixon’s sins are nothing - simply meaningless - compared to stories of child abuse involving the richest, most powerful men on Earth.
A curtain has been pulled back on a bloody chamber. We now see the rich and powerful for what they are: creatures of impious impunity, consequence-free crime.
Royalty, politicians, and tycoons are shown to live lives of such venal, cruel immorality that if our own children behaved this way we’d disown them, we’d call the police on them.
There are passages in the Epstein files which make the blood run cold, and fury throb within you.
One email to Epstein - from a redacted account, because of course the guilty are still protected - reads: “Thank you for a fun night … Your littlest girl was a little naughty.”
In another email, Epstein writes to a redacted account: “I loved the torture video.”
Another email to Epstein - again from a redacted account - reads: “Hi Jeffrey, I met [redacted] today. She is like Lolita from Nabokov, femme miniature.”
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Yet another - again redacted, again to Epstein: “I found at least 3 very good young poor.”
Who are these men shielded and why?
You read these emails and are forced to wonder: what else happened? Has this always been happening, year after year, decade after decade, with different Epsteins in different countries all over the world? Are other Epsteins still out there?
How deep does the horror go?
And soon you cannot help the worst thoughts crashing in. Children were abused. Girls were disposable. How can thoughts of even worse crimes not rise to the surface of your mind when monsters hold such influence in the world, when psychopaths call the shots?
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You and I fear a parking ticket. They feared nothing, even punishment for raping children. Now you can almost feel them quake with fear as the people’s anger awakens.
Anger isn’t the right word, though. Neither is rage. Both are too insipid to explain the public mood. There’s cold simmering vengeance in the air.
Most often, vengeance is an ugly emotion. Today, it’s entirely understandable, indeed even necessary. A reckoning is required for us to move on.
There are many, for instance, who want to see Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor jailed. That could happen. The notion would have been ridiculous once. Now, it’s entirely possible. Support for the monarchy is plummeting.
Trust in politics has never been lower. Politicians are now looked upon as a caste apart - stained, corrupt, and deserving of punishment simply for being politicians.
The age of impunity is over. The relationship between power and the people is changing before our eyes. Ordinary people have a brief chance to reshape power in our interests.
If we seize this moment we can rebalance society. We cannot let this be a mere ‘vibe shift’. The system itself must change. If it doesn’t then we’ll allow another Epstein to rise, and more children to be destroyed.
Government - from the monarchy to your local council - needs remodelled for the people. There should be public confirmation hearings for all official non-elected roles: from council chief executives to ambassadors.
A representative of the people - a citizen watchdog - should be installed in every public institution, from cabinet office to council. They could even be elected, rather than appointed, and they should have no political links. Any political or business affiliation should render them ineligible.
They would be legally obliged to put us - the people - first, and have oversight of every decision taken, from the Prime Minister and Monarch down. Any action contrary to our interests would be brought to public attention.
Political donations must end. We’ve allowed our country to be bought and sold by the rich, and harnessed for their interests. In such an environment, crime and corruption prosper. Little wonder Britain is rapidly slipping down the ranks of the global index on corruption.
These are just a handful of suggestions that are being mooted at the moment. Perhaps you agree with them; perhaps you don’t. Perhaps you’ve ideas of your own to improve our democracy and protect the people from predation. Good - speak up.
What matters is that such suggestions are emerging. People are thinking about concrete change, rather than allowing this moment to be one of anger but inaction.
We’ve the chance to take this sordid horror story and harness it for some good in the world: to refashion power so it works for the people and most importantly the powerless, like those little girls who were raped by Epstein and his gang; men who thought they were masters of the universe but will soon learn, if we do what’s needed, that we’re in charge.
Neil Mackay is the Herald’s Writer-at-Large. He’s a multi-award winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, extremism, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics
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