Ephraim Hardcastle
THERESA May, under pressure from some of her backbenchers to repeal the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act and call a General Election, is warned that failing to do so might be repeating a mistake made by ‘bottling’ Labour PM Gordon Brown in 2007. There’s another inducement: repealing the Act would restore the Queen’s role in the democratic process. Fixed terms, David Cameron’s gesture to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg in Coalition, removed HM’s role in dissolving Parliament. The 2015 General Election was the first (out of 16) in which the monarch hadn’t taken part. HM would be pleased to have her starring role back. COMEDIAN Jack Whitehall, 28, about to tour south-east Asia, accompanied by his father-cum-straight-man, theatrical producer Michael Whitehall, 76, is sometimes derided for his jokes being too middle class. He does nothing to alter this perception by remarking: ‘I always say sticks and stones may break my bones but I’m with Bupa.’ FRANCE’S lame duck president, Francois Hollande, 62, retires in May with his pension, permanent security detail and fragrant companion, actress Julie Gayet, who is almost 20 years his junior. At the weekend, the local media focused also on his meeting with Iris Mittenaere, 24, pictured, France’s first Miss Universe since 1953, instead of the ‘charm offensive’ visit of our unofficial royal Brexit Ambassadors, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Be that as it may, France is getting the full royal treatment this spring. Princes Charles, William and Harry will be there next month commemorating the centenary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. MRS Brown’s Boys writer and star Brendan O’Carroll, 61, boasts in the Radio Times that the Queen’s staff asked for an advanced copy of the slapstick, crossdressing, expletive-prone show’s Christmas episode. ‘They’re mad about the show,’ he claims. Can this be true? The palace neither confirms nor denies which shows are watched. But my source on royal matters says: ‘The Queen certainly is known to enjoy some cross-dressing comedy. She used to watch Dick Emery when her diary permitted.’ THE new editor of the Evening Standard, George Osborne, 45, offered information to favoured journalists on the strict basis that ‘nothing unflattering ever appeared about him’, said Janan Ganesh in his 2012 biography of the ex-chancellor. Such as? He dropped one trusted scribe for the not-very-serious offence of revealing that he was having £100-an-hour vocal coaching to lower his public speaking voice. SIR Nicholas Soames, 69, the formerly rotund but now much reduced Tory MP, enjoys goading feminists. His weekend message to them via Twitter stated: ‘Driving back to watch rugger and listened to really vintage [Radio 4’s] Woman’s Hour. Rape, tampons etc. A veritable cornucopia of gloom.’ Isn’t it time they hauled the old warthog onto ITV’s daytime slanging match, Loose Women, and gave him a going-over?