SIMPLY saying sorry is something many of us are taught at an early age.

The problem is we don’t want to say it as it means it is an admission of a mistake.

This week Prince Andrew probably conducted the worst interview of any famous person in recent times.

Now, anyone watching it on BBC Newsnight could well have wanted to know this – why not just say you deeply regret hanging around with a convicted paedophile?

How difficult would it have been to apologise to the victims and express some level of remorse?

What we saw was a brazen member of the Royal family telling us he actually thought it was OK knowing this chap because he managed to make some great contacts in the business world.

That actually had to be the lamest excuse anyone has come up with anywhere.

What you will find is that a lot of people at certain levels, and unfortunately they tend to have a more money than the rest of us, live in a ‘yes sir’ bubble.

One can get almost a little detached from the real world because we only hear what we want.

If you don’t agree with the advice you can dismiss it. But do so at your own peril.

Whilst people are blaming the advice given to the Prince, I think we need to be quite blunt about this.

At the end of the day he gave the interview and had the chance to show some remorse. It does not mean he was guilty but it does show that he realises that there are far more important things in life than reputation.

What I also found a little disconcerting during this week is how things are unlikely to change any time soon.

The Prince later sent a note of apology but why not simply say this earlier?

Similarly, during the election campaign the words ‘I could be wrong’ or ‘sorry’ are non-existent.

The leaders election debate was shrouded by the Conservative party changing their press Twitter account to one that replicated a fact checking one. Are we living out a storyline in an episode from a 70s sitcom?

And a few senior politicians actually tried to defend it.

Human nature dictates that if you say ‘sorry’ you are in some way admitting that you were wrong.

There have been countless cases in the past week where party leaders have avoided saying this in case the opposition pick up on this weakness. The point is it will probably have the opposite effect.