Instant Opinion: Prince Andrew ‘entitled, obtuse and shamefully silent’

The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.

1. The Guardian Editorial view

on Prince Andrew

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Entitled, obtuse and shamefully silent over Epstein’s victims

“Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this disastrous interview was that an entitled lifestyle, and its consequences, formed part of Prince Andrew’s case for his own defence. According to Ms Giuffre’s legal team, ‘you could not spend time around Epstein and not know what was going on’. But people often acted differently around royals, observed the prince. Perhaps Epstein had changed his behaviour patterns. And living in an institution like Buckingham Palace, one grew used to lots of people coming and going without really taking it in. This at least rang true. Prince Andrew came across as a man rendered incapable by privilege of normal processes of discernment, moral judgment and empathy.”

2. Stephen Bush in the New Statesman

on the prime minister’s predicament

How the ongoing Jennifer Arcuri scandal exposes a difficult paradox for Boris Johnson

“Some senior Conservatives think that if Johnson wins big – big enough to mean that Labour is out not just for five years but for ten – then you can also expect Tory MPs to say to one another: look, he’s done his job – it’s safe to hand it to someone younger and cleaner. While merely repeating Theresa May’s June 2017 result isn’t going to be good enough, getting the result that May thought she might get in April 2017 might not be the best outcome for him personally either.”

3. Julie Burchill in The Daily Telegraph

on generational debt

Our arrogant war on cash is hurting the elderly most of all

“Old people are regularly being conned out of their life savings - the fact that they would once have had to visit a bank in person, dealing with staff who recognised them, would have helped deter con-men. Now banking can be done online, by pressing a few buttons, everything’s up for grabs. That the banks have arrogantly dared to make life more difficult for this specific group speaks volumes about how we view the elderly: no better than they should be - rich, lucky, lazy - and thus convenient whipping boys in a society where the long arm of the Thought Police protects the more easily offended.”

4. Dean Obeidallah for CNN

on a diminished president

Trump's magic is evaporating on the campaign trail

“Overall, since Trump took office, Democrats have flipped nine governorships from New Jersey to Kansas, taken control of the House of Representatives and won more than 400 state legislative seats. And with Trump's average approval rating at an anemic 41%, Republicans in close races in 2020 must ask if embracing Trump will serve them well — or be an albatross which drags them down.”

5. Borzon Daragahi in The Independent

on three decades of global upheaval

Like the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago, global civil unrest is finally stripping the political elite of power

“Thirty years ago, the Cold War came to an end. Instead of building upon the spirit of joy that came of that moment, the inheritors of the new order botched it badly. They built up an economically unjust world increasingly kept in line with police-state tactics. That world is now bursting at the seams with popular dissatisfaction over obvious and damning failures by world leaders of the type who gather annually at ski resorts. Yet the same elite political and corporate order remains largely in power, from Berlin to London to Washington. They have yet to pay a price for their mistakes, incompetence and corruption.”

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