Ephraim Hardcastle

AS he approaches 70, Prince Charles’s restructuring of his sprawling charity portfolio is seen as a tacit admission that his son Prince William isn’t interested in taking them on as Prince of Wales. William prefers to concentrate on The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, centred on mental health and sustainable development. Charles’s Royal Drawing School, his Prince’s School of Traditional Arts and keeping up Dumfries House don’t set the junior royals’ pulses racing. RE the review: It mirrors a similar exercise carried out in 1996 by his mother – then reaching 70 – assessing her workload and patronages in preparation for old age. Team Charles seems to be preparing to manage his own OAP status, although no one would dare say that to his face. He’s notoriously prickly about age, especially as he once thought that royals should retire from official duties at 70. UNLUCKY in love heiress Jemima Goldsmith, 43, pictured, proved to be in less than festive mood as the new year approached. On Twitter, she described New Year’s Eve as the ‘worst night of the year’, and Auld Lang Syne as the ‘suicide inducing Scottish ditty’. Having had illfated romances with the likes of Hugh Grant and Russell Brand, might striking Jemima manage to meet a more agreeable suitor in 2018? JOURNALIST Toby Young has been appointed to the Office for Students, the new higher education watchdog, prompting Corbynista Paul Mason, former BBC Newsnight economics editor, to rage on social media: ‘Toby Young despises working-class kids who try to make good through education.’ Toby, 54, whose father, Labour peer Lord Young, helped found the Open University, replies: ‘I’ve helped set up four state schools that when full will educate nearly 2,000 children. What have you done to help working–class kids Paul?’ Touché. THERESA May personally intervened to cut through red tape to ensure Bernard Kenny, who tried to help the murdered MP Jo Cox, received the George Medal and the two policemen on the scene the Queen’s Gallantry Medal. And just three months after PC Keith Palmer was murdered at Westminster he received a posthumous GM, an unprecedented turn of speed. Yet more than six months on from Grenfell Tower, London Bridge and Manchester Arena the heroes of these events are still waiting on the ponderous ruminations of arcane committees. Have the snail-like honours system bureaucrats got the upper hand on Mrs May? VETERAN sexpot Britt Ekland, 75, takes bitter aim at Roger Lewis, biographer of her late husband Peter Sellers, disparagingly claiming on Twitter: ‘Roger Lewis tends to embellish, well he had to, especially as I refused to contribute to his book about PS!’ Roger responds sweetly: ‘Peter comes across as a total monster in her book True Britt. I didn’t need to “embellish” anything. Perhaps she is confusing me with the HBO film, where she was portrayed by Charlize Theron – who was better at being Britt than Britt ever was.’