Thinking of the Children

It is quite right that Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York has been removed as the Patron of several charities. She apologised privately for a public discourtesy. Where did she go to school?

But Jeffrey Epstein did not half get around, and his associates are in some far more important places than Royal Lodge, Windsor. Later today, Donald Trump will treat us to his opinion on neurodiversity.

Like, say, depression, autism is no more common than it ever was. Diagnosis is. That raises issues of its own. But that is the reality. Diagnosis of the very severe, stereotypical kind of autism has not gone up at all. We are now seeing the world as it always was. Now we need to work out how to deal with it as it is.

Efforts have begun. In forgiving the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk referred to her late husband's desire "to save the lost boys of the West". We are told that the world over, young men watched his funeral and decided to become Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, or seekers out of the Book of Common Prayer. No wonder they did.

Shakespeare is not sufficient to that salvific task, nor in principle even necessary. But he is always illuminating. Not only has Trump denied knowing Peter Mandelson, but Tyler Robinson stands accused of killing Kirk for the sake of a lover who was played by a man. There is a better way, and it is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He knoweth thee well, young man; fall to thy prayers.