The Observer.

Hello, I'm Alexi Mostris, and you're listening to the slow newscast from The Observer.

This week, we're talking about Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Mandelson.

But first, a little bit of Sigmund Freud.

In his book, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, the famous psychoanalyst talked about something

called repetition compulsion. It's the human tendency to repeat traumatic or destructive experiences.

You know the sort of thing. A child has an emotionally distant parent. As an adult, the same person

chooses romantic partners who are equally unavailable. And there seems to be a lot of repetition compulsion in the Epstein

files. Take Gilane Maxwell, Epstein's partner in crime. Back in the 90s, Galane's father

Robert, this infamous newspaper baron, was described variously as a rogue, a crook, a bully, and a possible spy.

Exactly the same words were used to describe Geoffrey Epstein three decades later.

Incidentally, both men died in mysterious circumstances, but that's a show for another time.

It's not just Maxwell.

Epstein himself returned to the same pattern of abusive behavior and manipulation over and over again.

And then there's Peter Mandelson.

Epstein was just the latest controversial character he got close to.

Some might say that Keir Starmer should have brushed up on his Freud before appointing Mandelson to the position of U.S. Ambassador.

Or read Winston Churchill's speech to the Royal Society in 1944

when he said,

The farther backwards you can look, the farther forwards you are likely to see.

Right, onto the show, reported and produced by Ada Barume and Poppy Bullard. This week on the slow newscast,

it's my best pal, Mandelson and Epstein. I hope you enjoy it.

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