These are things the couple must discuss between them.If, as was reported this weekend, the most emotionally unhinged people in the world, a pair at perpetual loggerheads, Prince Charles and Diana, can actually meet for drinks to discuss their son’s future with his new housemaster at Eton, then Hilary and her ex would be a truly sorry pair if they couldn’t act grown-up just for an hour or so to sort this problem out together.The rejected fatherI used to have an excellent relationship with my little son despite the fact that his mother and I have always lived apart. It could be her toothbrush, or just something of hers that he can hold and touch so that he feels he has a bit of her with him through the day.Ultimately, of course, it’s unlikely that simply insisting her son goes, despite the tears, will do any harm once he learns that he always returns and always has a reasonably good time. Similarly, giving the child something of his mother’s that he knows she will need later could reassure him that she knows he will return. Giving the child a watch and showing where the hands will be when he returns would help. For the next few access days, perhaps her own mother or father could act as temporary go-between, to make the transition less painful.
Meanwhile, what bizarre fears do these visits now hold for the child? Perhaps, since his dad used to be away for long periods, he fears that a visit to his dad means he might not return to his mother for months. A maternal pull which demands her son’s interests must be paramount over all of hers.

In the long-term, it’s far better for him to have a relationship with his dad. So three very strong emotions are tugging Hilary in the direction of denying access. But there’s another emotional pull at work – or there should be. The child expresses all her own primitive feelings of fury and loathing while she can remain dry-eyed, innocent and apparently saintly in the background. But it’s also immensely flattering, let’s be honest, to be so needed.

And if the person who wants to take him off you is a man who’s done you wrong, it’d be a dishonest woman who denied she got a flicker of vengeful pleasure out of the whole agonising situation. But since that first summer, we’ve had nothing but bad luck here, my business seems blighted.”First you put it down to other things, the recession, whatever. But in the end, however sceptical you start off, you think it’s the house. So now, we think we ought to go.”To somewhere with gas, presumably.. It’s heartbreaking when a small child clings to you, begging not to go away.

“Well, at first, I was determined to find out what was going on. Also we were prepared to put up with quite a lot to stay here, and it never seemed to affect the children. Though I have to say he is quite happy to pay for what he reckons he has used.”And in the meantime, as the law takes its course, the Richs are looking around for somewhere else to live.”People often ask why we have stayed here so long, especially now we’ve got three children,” says Bill. The solicitor was intrigued.”It was an interesting case,” says Glyn Maddox, of Gabb and Co, in nearby Crickhowell. “The law generally does not take account of the spiritual world.

I didn’t mention in my letters to Swalec possible psychic causes. My contention is that it was beholden on them, as suppliers, to explain how the Richs’ electricity usage can work out at £7 a day when the company itself admits it should be closer to 40p. Fortunately, they have agreed not to push Mr Rich for payment, and have stopped sending him bills. And he said – can you believe this – it was more than his job was worth.”Eventually, after months of trying to pluck up courage – “I hadn’t dared before because I was embarrassed, I suppose” – Bill approached a solicitor to take his cause to Swalec.