SARAH VINE: This is the sickening truth about Huw Edwards and his perverse sexual fantasies. It’s time someone said it – so I will

My father has been quite ill lately, and I’ve been thinking a lot about salvation. Of course, not everyone has the opportunity to make up for their mistakes. But in order to do this, you must first accept them.

Huw Edwards, the BBC’s one-time ‘voice of the nation’, appears to struggle with this notion. As he nears the end of a six-month suspended sentence for accessing indecent images of children, the only thing he intends to rehabilitate is his reputation and six-figure salary.

He is allegedly meeting with Channel 4 to do a ‘tell-all’ interview, giving his version of events and explaining why he believes it happened the way it did. HE He was as much a victim as anyone else of the vulgar saga of his collapse.

This obviously seems like an illusion, given that the photos and videos she willingly received were of a boy around the age of eight, and that the abuse the boy suffered was category A (the most serious). Somewhere, that poor kid (if he’s still a kid or even alive) is suffering, and it’s because of men like Edwards. Let’s be clear: That child is the only victim here.

So it is a measure of his arrogance to see him now on his high horse, claiming that ‘this would never have happened if I hadn’t suffered a complete breakdown after 25 years of psychiatric treatment.’ Hmm. Many people have meltdowns, but they usually don’t resort to child abuse imagery to get them through.

It’s not the good times, but the bad times that show what kind of person someone is. In times of difficulty, people’s true colors shine through. Mr Edwards’s is quite dark.

He clearly has not fully grasped the gravity of his mistakes and is too deluded to understand that the last thing the public wants from him is self-serving excuses.

Maybe it would help if I broke it down for him: he used his power, status, influence and generous BBC salary to satisfy his perverted sexual fantasies, while acting as the strictest of moral arbiters.

It seems an unpardonable arrogance to complain that Channel 5’s latest drama starring Martin Clunes has been too much for him (Edwards called it ‘one-sided’) and accuse the young man at the center of the scandal of blackmailing him. If he really wants to reveal his side of the story, he’s going the wrong way.

Edwards isn’t the first celebrity to fall from a great height. A number of household idols have appeared in recent years whose feet appeared to be more or less made of clay.

Russell Brand (multiple sexual assault allegations denied), Phillip Schofield (‘an unwise but not illegal relationship’), David Walliams (leaked recordings of derogatory comments about contestants on Britain’s Got Talent), Gregg Wallace (inappropriate language, racist comments, sexual innuendos).

The only person I sympathize with is Wallace. Not that I didn’t find him annoying and obnoxious on MasterChef, but that was part of his broad kid show.

I see him on social media now, spending time with his severely autistic son and long-suffering wife, sharing tips on downsizing and cutting expenses, and I think fair play should be given to him: he had it all, he lost it all, and he’s slowly trying to come back from the brink.

It is not yet known whether it will work or not. The same went for Michael Barrymore (the man who died face down in the swimming pool), who has now become a viral legend on TikTok.

In any event, no criminal charges were filed against Wallace. The same is not true for Edwards. And what I can’t stand about this man is StillHe seems to think that the normal rules don’t apply to him after all.

If you believe (as I do) that we came to this planet to learn an important spiritual lesson, then Edwards fails sorely. You can’t just order people to forgive you. You have to give them a reason to do it. First, acknowledgment of the wrong done, then atonement is required.

Edwards isn’t even close.

fear for Helen

What was most remarkable about swivel-eyed Friendly Tom Carroll’s disgraceful verbal attack on Dame Helen Mirren was not the vitriol, blind hatred and naked misogyny directed at him (we’re all too used to that sort of thing by now, sadly) but the fact that he himself posted the images online. Not only is he a disgusting piece of work, he is also a narcissist.

Dame Helen Mirren was verbally abused on the street by Tom Carroll over her support for Israel

I once got into trouble for buying a pair of elephant-shaped lamps from OKA for £134.50 per pair. I’m still being trolled about this, despite the MP’s expenses inquiry ruling that the claim was legitimate (but let’s not let the facts get in our way).

But however foolish my lighting choice may or may not have been, it pales in comparison to £2,618.16 for a pair of Lalique salt and pepper shakers, £3,500 for a silver wine coaster and £2,995 for a Smythson tea set. These are just some of the luxury items Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband Peter Murrell bought with the £400,000 he embezzled from SNP party funds. It makes my selection look stingy.

Hooray for Farmer Hodgson!

Thank you to the angry Lake District farmer who ended up spraying mud on dozens of cars parked illegally in his field. Hogg Hodgson (who should have his own Netflix series with a name like that) said: ‘I’m sick of people being abused when I ask them not to park on our land.’ Even after the cars were gone, he still had to pick up the trash left behind.

Like the idiots in Bournemouth and Brighton who leave their rubbish to someone else. Perhaps Mr. Hodgson could be assigned to teach them a lesson.

I appreciate that not everyone loves dogs. But to the guy who told me to ‘get off the curb’ the other day while I was walking my Lhasa Apso, Muffin, you’re not exactly a gift from God.

‘I don’t want your dog to touch me,’ he said. ‘I don’t think my dog ​​wants to touch you either,’ I replied.

A full and frank exchange followed, culminating in him calling me a ‘b****’. It got so disgusting that a passerby stopped to object to it. On the contrary, he was a true hero.

Sarah, the Lhasa Apso, was told to ‘get off the pavement’ by a passerby while walking in Muffin

When did I become such an early bird?

I’ve been a night owl my whole life. I was a sleep-deprived child who stayed up late. My 30s and 40s were filled with late nights.

But recently something changed: I started keeping toddler clocks. It’s getting close to 8pm – a time when I’m normally thinking about what I’m going to have for dinner – and I’m starting to wonder if it’s too early to start going to bed. Most nights I go to sleep at 22:00, 11 at the latest.

While it was once physically excruciating to get out of bed at 7.30am, now I wake up naturally around 5.30am or 6am. There is something magical about mornings; It is quiet except for the chirping of the birds, and the air is fresh and clear.

Is there something about aging that turns people into early birds? Is it because I’m running out of time/life that I want to see the sunrise? Or have I become an incorrigible old bore?

Answers on the postcard please.