Each Sunday we hear: "Let us now call to mind our sins", and I duly do so. In this contemplation, Sarah, Duchess of York, has proved to be a helpful prompt. "Isn't she awful?" cry the tabloids. "Isn't she greedy, selfishly extravagant, feckless, lustful, and a shame to the royal family? Cut her off! Banish her, along with her disgraced husband!"
Gloatingly, her sins and misdemeanours are recounted over and over. Most recently, she is charged, at the bar of public opinion, with hypocrisy and mendacity. She told the Evening Standard that she had cut all ties with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but subsequently, it has been revealed, she addressed him in messages as "a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family".
