I was planning to begin this column by saying how relieved I was to be mentioned in the latest Epstein files. Finally! After all, Jeffrey Epstein’s list of acquaintances reads like a Who’s Who of the global power elite. How embarrassing would it be to have lived in the same city as him from 1995 to 2000, as I did, and not even receive a glancing reference?

But I realise this is a subject that shouldn’t be made light of. The revelations about Lord Mandelson are genuinely shocking, even to someone as jaded as me, and raise important questions about what Sir Keir Starmer knew and when. They may also concern me more directly since, in an effort at damage control, the Prime Minister has called for the House of Lords’ code of conduct to be overhauled so people who bring it into disrepute can be stripped of their titles. That’s a rule change that could have a chilling effect on free speech in the Upper House, so I will be opposing it.

There’s also the fact that plenty of people named in the latest batch of documents are completely innocent of any wrong doing, yet will nevertheless be dragged through the mud. I’ll come to some of them in a minute, but........

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