Rémy:

Yes… there are various things in the online and offline reports that don’t seem quite right.

Perhaps the bottom, er, line… is: why would Linley risk his job as chairman of Christies International, his marriage and custody of his children, police inquiries into supplying a class A drug, and much else, for a paltry 50 grand - especially since he’s just raised nearly £15m selling off some of the family (and nation’s) heirlooms through his own auction house.

In his position, I’d have quickly paid over, oh, a very small fraction of what I’d just made flogging off the Annigoni portrait of my mum (through my own auction house, possibly to my own sister, who was so furious about the sale she applied to bid on her own behalf).

Then there’s the repeated suggestion that the claims against Linley were only ‘one element’ in the allegations made on the tape. And what’s Linley doing knocking round with royal servants, anyway?

And I think the furniture is overpriced and boring. As with the trophy royal job at Christies, it’s just a way of selling the name he happened to be born with.

And as I say - I would have thought that the name, his main asset, was worth a paltry $50,000 to protect. Good investment.

So what’s REALLY going on?

Please let it be the George Smith tape after all!

PS: why a TAPE anyway? If it’s recent stuff, why on earth would it be on TAPE rather than DISC??????

Remember it was La Repubblica which broke the ‘banned’ Fawcett story.