Epstein and the English connection...
As I rest between packing belongings to leave our home of 18 years I wonder about a conversation that I had in England last year. I had flown to England for the wedding of one of my sisters - her third, and hopefully her last - the airfares are expensive. She was marrying a former Metropolitan Police officer. On the evening before the wedding, the groom's friends, plus me, sat outside in the courtyard of a 15th century coaching inn, in Oxfordshire. It was a beautiful summer August evening. I found myself amongst, I'll say a dozen, current and retired officers of the Metropolitan Police (the police force for London). It is not a situation that I have been in before, but as the drink flowed, I relaxed. The man sitting to my right was a former 'terrorism investigator'. His job, as he told me, was to interview terrorist subjects. If there is a 'good cop, bad cop', he was definitely the good cop. A nicer, more pleasant guy, you could not wish to meet. This did not stop us, essentially interrogating each other. A gentle skirmish that I felt that I definitely won, when he visibly flinched when I told him that I was a socialist.
Now to the point of my story.
I then began talking to the woman to my left. She told me that she wasn't in the police but was a former partner of one of the police officers there. I stated, that one of my concerns, was the abject failure of the Metropolitan Police, to investigate the numerous British connections that Epstein had. I raised things along the lines of - 'can there be a more serious issue than child abuse, yet it isn't being investigated?' I thought that I would be pushing at an open door. I was interested to know what her response would be. To my surprise she argued back, stating that there was no evidence that Epstein had been operating illegally with British citizens. I pointed out the obvious one - the former resident of Buckingham Palace. She was having none of it. The discussion went to and fro. She was clearly well informed on the topic. However I completely failed to persuade her of the need for an investigation.
Was it the booze?
Were my powers of persuasion failing?
I was perplexed.
It was only the next morning that I was informed that she was a criminal barrister, employed by the Metropolitan Police.
Wow!
John Rothery 😎 (Tauranga)
(Photos - we move in three days time)
