A prince, prime minister and a tennis star. What have they in common? They thought they were above the law. They thought because of their standing in society, they could do as they please and get away with it.
Let’s start with the man with royal blood flowing in his veins. Prince Andrew had the world at his feet, but he left the stifling world of royalty and Fergie and went for the fast life of America where the lecherous Jeffery Epstein, a convicted paedophile, befriended and seduced him to a raunchy lifestyle.
Being a prince royal, women queued up to go to bed with him. One of them was Virginia Giuffre, who has a lawsuit against him for sexual assault.
As soon as news spread that the judge had given Giuffre permission to proceed with the lawsuit, the Queen, shocked and embarrassed, stripped him of his military and HRH titles. Normally, mothers are very protective of their children but the Queen had no choice but to demonstrate to the British public and the world that her son was not above the law.
Prince Andrew cannot claim that it was youthful indiscretion and indulgence. He is an elderly man, and should have had more sense. He has shamed the royal family. Now he has to face the court as an ordinary man. No wonder he is called randy handy.
Also in a pickle is the leader of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, himself in deep trouble over his booze parties during lockdown. It has now been established that besides the BYOB (bring your own booze) party on 20 May 2020, there were others as well at 10 Downing Street.
The most insensitive being two parties on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral where the staff drank, danced and let their hair down till the early hours of the morning is that the Queen followed the rules of social distancing and sat alone in the pew for Prince Philip while her prime minister and his staff were having a ball during a time of national mourning. How brazen, insensitive.
Boris Johnson has since apologised to the Queen and the nation, but it is not enough. Fresh allegations have surfaced that there were wine parties every Friday during the pandemic for staff to let off steam at the end of the week. The British public are angry. Some of them couldn’t visit their dying parents and relatives in hospitals, but here was the prime minister flouting the Covid rules and having a ball of a time with his staff.
He’s been mocked on social media and has lost the moral authority to govern. Pressure is mounting on him from both the opposition and his own party to resign.
And far across the oceans in down under, another superstar thought he was above the law and could flout the Covid rules of Australia. World number 1 Novak Djokovic has been knocked out of the Australian Open even before he could set foot on the court. The Australian Federal Court sitting with three judges has unanimously dismissed with costs an urgent application brought by Djokovic and his legal team upholding an earlier court’s decision to cancel his visa.
Not only has he been deported from Australia in disgrace, but he faces a three-year Australian ban. Arrogance, selfishness and dishonesty have cost Djokovic a tenth Australian Open title which would have taken him above Roger Federer’s and Rafael Nadal’s 20 Grand Slam titles. His sponsorships also hang in the balance. High up in the clouds, he had forgotten a simple rule: when in Rome, do as Rome does. To run salt into his wounds, the Australian premier said that his country would be safer without him.
So there you have it, a prince, a prime minister and a tennis star biting the dust. They never learn, do they?
T Markandan, Kloof.
Daily News