A-Infos (en) UK, ACG: The Stench of Corruption: Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Mandelson Arrests (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The arrests of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Peter Mandelson are 
cosmetic moves to cover for the whole British establishment. This was 
expressed clearly in the Spectator magazine which argued that the rest 
of the royal family are willing to sacrifice Andrew in order to "at 
least draw a line under things".  Remember that the arrest of Andrew was 
around  "misconduct in office", and not around his association with 
Epstein and his abuse of under-age girls and young women. Similarly with 
Mandelson.

Mandelson was a chief architect of New Labour in the 1990s, which 
introduced the ideas of neoliberalism into the social democratic 
institution of the Labour Party. More recently, he was behind moves to 
rid Labour of the surviving taints of Corbynism, working with Morgan Mc 
Sweeney of the pressure group Labour Together. This group was key in 
removing Corbyn and replacing him with Starmer. Mandelson still had 
considerable influence within Labour, thanks to the support of Keir 
Starmer. He was allowed to vet the list of Labour candidates for the 
2024 election.

Mandelson also had a key role in getting Whitehall to rely more and more 
on the Palantir tech company, with its close links to the Israeli state 
and its war plans. He had close links with Epstein for many years and 
eased the way for Andrew to become international trade envoy in 2001. 
They both linked important information to Epstein, so that he was able 
to profit financially. Epstein lavished his informants with lucrative 
rewards.

Among information passed to Epstein from Andrew, was a memo on 
investment in Helmand Province in Afghanistan, where gold and uranium 
had been found. Andrew gave strong support to the Al-Yamanah arms deal 
of 1985 and criticised the Serious Fraud Office investigation over 
corruption around this. Epstein  was himself connected to the deal 
through its two main brokers, Douglas Leese and Adnan Khashoggi, both 
clients of his firm, Intercontinental Assets Group.  The alleged 
corruption concerned the payments to Saudi commissions through illicit 
resource transfers to keep them outside of regular financial accounting.

When Starmer appointed Mandelson as UK Ambassador to the USA, he was 
aware of his reputation but went ahead despite warnings from officials. 
Now Mandelson has been removed, but as of yet has not been charged, and 
has been rewarded with £75,000 as a payoff. As to Morgan McSweeney, a 
long-term aide to Starmer, he too was forced to resign as Starmer's 
chief of staff, because of his involvement in supporting Mandelson. 
Another Starmer aide, Tim Allan, also resigned shortly after for the 
same reasons.

Charles and William must have known what Andrew was up to for a long 
time but remained silent and failed to act. Elisabeth herself protected 
Andrew, her favourite son,  by paying around £7 million of the £12 
million to settle the sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre. 
Additional payments are alleged to have come out of the estates of 
Philip and Charles,  with other royals contributing smaller amounts, 
clearly indicating Charles' role in attempting to close down the affair.

Alongside all of this, we have had the resignation of Josh Simons. He 
was one of those Mandelson-approved MPs who came into Parliament in the 
2024 intake and became Cabinet Office Minister. He was instrumental in 
the above-mentioned Labour Together. Before the 2024 election, Labour 
Together paid at least £30,000 to APCO Worldwide, an American public 
affairs firm, to investigate two Sunday Times journalists who were 
investigating undeclared donations to Labour Together of £730,000 from 
millionaire venture capitalist millionaires  and businessmen between 
2017 and 2020. The organisation was later fined and found guilty of over 
20 separate breaches of the law.  APCO provided personal and often false 
information on these journalists and falsely linked them to Russian or 
Chinese disinformation.

There are also claims that the same Cabinet Office tried to squelch 
complaints against its new chief, Antonia Romeo. The Sunday Times 
alleged that the ethics and propriety team of the Cabinet Office broke 
into a safe to get and destroy a report about her.

All of this shows that this intricate  web of corruption, profiteering 
and sexual abuse, is not down to a few "bad apples" but is part and 
parcel of a worldwide system. Even the right-wing Spectator had to admit 
that "the stench which surrounds both politics and the palace will only 
contribute to the concern that the whole edifice of the British 
establishment and its leading institutions is rotten."

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2026/03/16/the-stench-of-corruption-andrew-mountbatten-windsor-and-mandelson-arrests/
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