- Massage table part two - 18th December 2025
- Massage table part one - 17th December 2025
- Strictly poison part two - 16th December 2025
During a 42 year journalistic career our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, has always tried to focus on exposing scandals and controversies, so this is put centre stage by a book in the Summer about the former Prince Andrew, called ‘Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York’, which would make the subject of a good party game!
They seem to have come thick and fast recently.
We have had the appalling Jeffrey Epstein affair, the goings-on of the aristocrat formerly known as ‘Prince Andrew’, as well as an incredible number of scandals at the BBC, to name just a few of them.
Let’s look at the second one first (you can learn more about the Epstein case from yesterday’s story) – concerning the man now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
At Christmas, the adults in the Royal family present one another with gag gifts, such as the one at a past party where Prince Harry supposedly gave the late Queen a singing Big Mouth Billy Bass.
Hilarious. How we laughed!
No need to shop around for Mr Mountbatten Windsor, though, because there is such choice.
Perhaps he could have a large plastic girl, or a picture of himself with his arm round a real one provided for him by a convicted sex offender.
Or what about a tape recording of that disastrous BBC Newsnight interview where he said he didn’t sweat?
You could even give him a model of that humungous house he lived in at a peppercorn rent (Royal Lodge).
On the the theme of parties, you could also imagine a leaving do for the former BBC Director-General (DG) Tim Davie who warned MPs looking into what’s gone wrong at the giant corporation that “we may see more things coming out” after being asked for assurance there will not be another “scandal of BBC talent abusing their position”.
That would be a heck of a party, and you can imagine one of the executives helping him or herself to too much rum punch before reminding the erstwhile boss drunkenly of all the controversies that have happened on his watch.
The ones we know about include:
- Gregg Wallace who was booted out for “inappropriate behaviour”.
- Revelations that he and his broadcasting colleague John Torode were fired after a report into their conduct on MasterChef upheld allegations against them.
- Welshman Wynne Evans, who was dropped by the BBC after apologising for using “inappropriate language” during the launch of the Strictly tour.
- The former presenter Jay Blades who has been charged with (and denies) two counts of rape, as well as the Huw Edwards and Jimmy Savile scandals, with the full extent of what Savile did only emerging relatively recently.
There have been many more though (the Russell Brand business comes to mind), so how about a ‘Whoopee cushion’ for Mr Davie because whenever he sits down something unfortunate happens?
It is after all Christmas and we have to think of appropriate presents!
The memories of Phil’s extraordinary decades long award-winning career in journalism (including his years at the BBC) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in another major book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
It would make a great Christmas present – Nadolig Llawen!
Tomorrow – why new evidence emerging today of huge scam networks around the world, highlights once more how The Eye too have been targeted by hackers.
