Ephraim Hardcastle

THE Government’s decision to spend ten years gradually refurbishing Buckingham Palace (at a cost of £369 million) so the Queen won’t have to move out doesn’t seem to have impressed the monarch. She appears happier now at Windsor Castle and will be there this week for one of her favourite events, the Royal Windsor Horse Show. Surely moving to Windsor while the palace is refurbished – her preference – would have been more sensible. It might also have reduced the repair bill considerably and allowed the work to be completed in three years rather than ten. NORWAY’S King Harald and Queen Sonja celebrate their joint 80th birthdays with a series of events culminating in a grand banquet at the Norwegian Opera tonight. The crowned heads of Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden will be there. Our own monarch is represented by the Countess of Wessex. An indication of HMQ’s high regard for Prince Edward’s wife, Sophie, 52? Or, a relaxed approach by our monarch to young (in her eyes) Harald and Sonja’s 80th birthday knees-up? SCREEN siren Raquel Welch, 76, pictured, who appeared as a scantily-clad tribeswoman in the 1966 hit One Million Years BC, points out in an interview that she has never appeared naked, insisting: ‘They’d say “You’re going to be in the showers and you’re going to take your shirt off”. I just didn’t do it. In the Sixties a lot of people were doing it, very well-respected actors and actresses. That will never be my standard. That’s really bargain-basement time. Just throwing it out there.’ Quite so, but surely a small peek, artistically arranged, would not have sullied her reputation. EMMANUEL Macron wanted his victory party after winning France’s presidential election to be on the Champs de Mars, under the Eiffel Tower, but the mayoress of Paris (sexy Anne Hidalgo) refused. She wants to ‘keep crowds off the lawns’ until after the International Olympic Committee visits on May 14. Incidentally it’s said Macron ‘channels’ Joan of Arc. His wife, Brigitte, has joked: ‘It can be hard living with Joan of Arc.’ EUROPHILE Nick Clegg complains that Theresa May is pursuing a ‘hard’ Brexit after being mildly pro-EU prior to the referendum. ‘Does that mean everything she said to me year after year is not true?’ he complains to LBC’s Nick Ferrari. Is Clegg being somewhat hypocritical by complaining about being told untruths? The wretched Liberal Democrats were all but destroyed at the 2015 general election after his lies to students about not raising tuition fees when he was the Coalition Government’s deputy premier. PRINCE Harry flies to Sydney next month hoping to shore up the monarchy’s status there now there’s support for a republic in both houses of the Down Under parliament. But is Harry (sans girlfriend Meghan on this occasion) enough? William and Kate’s 2014 visit, with George, certainly boosted the monarchist cause but the arrival of Charles and Camilla a year later didn’t have the same effect.