Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Queen won’t now have to delay her Balmoral holiday to host a party for England’s World Cup team. Nor fly the flag of St George on Buckingham Palace for the final day – something she had come under pressure to consider but which has never been done before. Borrowing a St George’s flag – they don’t have one in the royal flag store – was considered. As was the possibility of illuminating the palace in its colours or the Three Lions. My source says: ‘That’s all in the dust now.’ MIGHT newly appointed Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, 44, be out of his depth? He endured a chaotic Commons debut yesterday when copies of the Brexit White Paper arrived belatedly during his speech, Earlier, on Radio 4’s Today show, he struggled to fill the shoes of his self-confident predecessor, David Davis, 69, who resigned after being side-lined in the Brexit negotiations. Presenter Mishal Husain bluntly asked: ‘You are in charge of this [the White Paper], are you?’ Raab, lamely: ‘The Prime Minister is in charge of the negotiations. I will be deputising for her.’ And for her civil servant Brexit fixer Olly Robbins, presumably. APROPOS the Today programme, wet host Nick Robinson asks listeners regarding the World Cup defeat: ‘Anyone else finding it odd how some people are carrying on as if nothing much happened?’ Then adding shamelessly: ‘Losing is like a bereavement... you grieve for shattered dreams.’ Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames responded appropriately on Twitter: ‘No. Get a grip.’ WHAT might the Queen offer Donald Trump as a gift? My House of Windsor source suggests one of her beloved labrador gundogs, pictured, from the Sandringham kennels, for the President’s 12-year-old son Barron. They explain: ‘Since President Thomas Jefferson [1801-1809] kept bear cubs, pets have been a White House tradition, but Barron has to make do with a life-size cuddly lion.’ NOTING that the late news anchor Sir Alastair Burnet – who died in 2012 – would have turned 90 this week, broadcaster Andrew Neil tweets: ‘The maestro (and my mentor). Britain’s greatest-ever TV news anchor, presenting ITN’s News At Ten in its heyday. Never been bested.’ When Burnet was once asked if it was true he enjoyed a bottle of whisky a day, he said the story was ‘rather too flattering’. SENSITIVE tycoon and The Apprentice host Lord Sugar, 71, is informed by BBC interviewer Victoria Derbyshire, (who turns 50 in October), ‘You’d expect me to ask you about the Senegal tweet’ after he likened their World Cup team to beach pedlars in Spain. Sugar responds: ‘No, I wasn’t expecting you to ask me about that, because I’m not going to talk about it. So move on!’ When she persevered – did he ‘regret’ the tweet for which he was ‘told to apologise’ – he warned: ‘I’m just telling you now, you ask me any more questions on that subject, I’m switching off. OK?’ So Miss Derbyshire backed off. Should the BBC sack the old blighter? (Sugar, that is).
Email: peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk