Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Prince of Wales is hurt (says my Clarence House source) that he is getting less credit than naturalist Sir David Attenborough for the campaign against single-use plastics. Months before Sir David’s broadcast, Charles teamed up with round-the-world yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur to launch the New Plastics Economy Innovation Prize with £1.5million in grants available to the winners. He said: ‘As scientific consensus deepens on the impact of plastic waste on biodiversity, on the food chain and, dare I say it, on human health, it becomes ever more urgent that we find ways to deal with this escalating ecological and human disaster.’ Are his messages too long-winded?
HOME Secretary Sajid Javid, 48, enjoys sending up his ‘slaphead’ appearance, say pals. He’s chosen an image of his ‘lookalike’ – children’s TV character Morph, pictured – to adorn messages sent from his phone. Screenwriter Nora (When Harry Met Sally) Ephron said: ‘When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you. But when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it’s your laugh.’
CHANNEL 4’s Steve Jones asked fourtimes F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel at the Azerbaijan race: ‘Would you rather be attacked by a lion or a shark?’ Also: ‘What’s your favourite karaoke song... could you survive if lost in a wilderness for a month... would you eat food if it’s past the expiration date if it smells OK?’ Former model Jones makes his co-hosts – sphinxlike ex-F1 racer David Coulthard and elfish ex-F1 team boss Eddie Jordan – seem like Fellows of All Souls by comparison.
THERESA May joked at a Westminster Correspondents’ Dinner earlier this year: ‘I was able to catch up with David [Cameron] and, as ever, he had some excellent advice – don’t worry about Boris, don’t worry about the chancellor, worry about ambitious female home secretaries,’ adding: ‘Lovely to see you tonight, Amber.’ Now the Home Office is without a female leader for the first time since 2010 and the number of female Cabinet ministers is reduced to four.
INTERVIEWING less-than-hypnotic Transport Secretary Chris Grayling on Radio 4, Nick Robinson points out: ‘Theresa May has lost her majority, she’s lost her deputy, she’s lost her defence secretary, she’s lost her home secretary.’ Robotic Grayling, 56: ‘We’ve had some unwanted noise in the last few months.’ Robinson: ‘To describe losing three key ministers in the space of a few months as “unwanted noise” is a pretty positive bit of spin, isn’t it?’ A hopeless attempt at spin, surely.
A STRANGE story from Deborah, Lady MacMillan, 72, widow of choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, who died in 1992 while backstage at the Royal Opera House during the opening night of his ballet Mayerling. She tells Radio Times his hobby was knitting, adding: ‘He’d make these terrible garments, which he expected me to wear. As he began choreographing the ballet, the tension would get tighter and tighter, so they’d go all out of shape. He’d throw them away when the ballet was finished, thank God.’