Ephraim Hardcastle

WINDSOR, Maidenhead & Ascot Magazine, a free publication in Berkshire, prints an unedited version of a Q&A interview, from 2005, with local MP Theresa May. They’d toned it down originally, editing out the following exchanges. Interviewer: ‘Have you ever said “I love you” without meaning it?’ Mrs May: ‘That’s a question no woman should answer.’ Interviewer: ‘What would your motto be?’ Mrs May: ‘Don’t let the b******s grind you down.’ Untethered Theresa! SYLVIA Peters, pictured in her 1952 prime, who presented BBC coverage of the Coronation in evening gown and pearls, has died aged 90. She was a formative influence on the Queen and helped with the first Christmas broadcasts. Sadly, she wasn’t honoured, although Peter Dimmock, in charge of broadcasting the Coronation, got the CVO, as did Sir David Attenborough, who produced the Christmas messages. EX-Chancellor George Osborne, who once hoped to succeed David Cameron, is now criticised for failing to hold surgeries in his Tatton constituency. ‘While he found time to hurtle around the UK drumming up support for the Remain campaign, he seemingly did not feel it necessary to visit Tatton, and voters consequently failed to heed his dire warnings and voted to leave the EU,’ says a letter in his local paper. Where did it all go wrong? DEPUTY Labour leader Tom Watson, keen to condemn David Cameron’s ‘crony list’ of resignation honours, declines to criticise the CBE reportedly bestowed on Remain campaign leader Will Straw, 36. Instead he says: ‘Will Straw deserves a peerage. He’s a great man.’ Really? ‘I was being tongue in cheek with you there,’ the shifty fellow tells Sky TV. ACADEMIC Camille Paglia identifies ‘an absurdist, almost Dadaist quality to [Donald] Trump’s candidacy,’ adding: ‘I laughed out loud when I heard Trump tag an ABC reporter as “a sleaze”. It’s been a long time since any major politician had the chutzpah to tell the arrogant, doubledealing East Coast media what most of the country thinks about them.’ Dadaism is the 100-year-old arts movement which rejects reason and logic, embracing instead chaos and irrationality. PARTY members in Labour MP Kate Green’s Manchester constituency voted 76-42 for Jeremy Corbyn, standing against Owen Smith in the leadership contest. How embarrassing for Miss Green – she’s Smith’s campaign manager. Discussing typical Corbyn supporters, my source says: ‘I’ve never seen so many social workers and supply teachers in one place.’ RE Will Straw, is he really getting a CBE? He is hardly a distinguished figure – unless leading the defeated Remain team is considered a distinction. His mother Alice – chairman of the Post Office – is a Companion of the Bath. Only his father, ex Labour home secretary Jack Straw, is gongless, after being caught lobbying in a media sting last year. However the Straws are constituents of David Cameron’s.