Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Dukedom of Connaught, one of the titles suggested for Prince Harry after he marries, was given by Queen Victoria to her third son, Arthur, on May 24, 1874. It became extinct when Arthur’s grandson, Alastair, the 2nd duke, died aged 28 in mysterious circumstances 75 years ago this week in Ottawa. While serving as aide-de-camp to the Earl of Athlone, Governor General of Canada, he was found unconscious after falling out of a window while inebriated, or otherwise incapacitated, dying subsequently from hypothermia. Unmarried Alistair was then 12th in line to the throne (Harry is sixth) but he would have been in direct line of succession if a strange rumour had ever been substantiated – that George V committed bigamy, meaning his son, George VI was illegitimate, and that the current Royal Family have no rightful claim to the throne. LABOUR’S absurd Diane Abbott tells BBC News: ‘Who can have confidence in (Home Secretary) Amber Rudd to make farreaching changes in the Home Office if she doesn’t seem able to get basic facts right?’ Ms Abbott’s own grasp of ‘basic facts’ led her to claim that Labour would spend £300,000 to recruit 10,000 more police officers, having failed to work out that this would mean offering the new bobbies annual salaries of £30. WRITER Ray Connolly, marking the 45th anniversary of his screenplay for That’ll Be The Day starring Ringo Starr, 77 – shown on Sky Cinema this week – says the Beatles drummer, pictured in the film, was a gifted actor but, lacking confidence in his talent, declined to take part in the follow-up movie Stardust. Says Connolly, 78: ‘He was supposed to play the Billy Fury role in That’ll Be The Day but was so funny that we created the part of Mike for him and he was a natural.’ FORMER French president Francois Hollande, 63, scorns President Emmanuel Macron’s ‘bromance’ with President Donald Trump, telling the French TV show Quotidien: ‘This behaviour is strange. Emmanuel Macron is rather what one could call passive’ – to some, code language implying that he was ‘odd sexually’. Hollande might be jealous of Macron’s much-applauded speech to the joint houses of Congress, in which he roundly trashed a number of Trump policies. DAWN Butler, 48, shadow secretary of state for women, says constituents of hers who occupy serial killer Dennis Nilsen’s old home in Melrose Avenue, Willesden Green, north London, plan to open the property to ghoulish tourists. It’s where ex-police officer Nilsen murdered and burned the bodies of some of his 12 (or more) male victims. Ms Butler says: ‘They want to capitalise on its notoriety but personally I wouldn’t want to be there.’ DAISY Goodwin, the writer of the ITV’s Victoria, says in Radio Times: ‘In Queen Victoria’s time, a royal prince would consult the Almanach de Gotha, the stud book of European royalty, to find a qualified bride. Today’s princes need look no further than the TV listings if they want to find women who have the training to cope with the demands of being a 21stcentury royal.’ A trifle unkind, surely.