Ephraim Hardcastle
WHEN Imran Khan became Pakistan’s PM in July, his ex-wife Jemima – mother of his sons, Sulaiman, 21, and Qasim, 19 – sent congratulations. Now she attacks him over Christian mother-of-five Asia Bibi, cleared of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, pointing out: ‘Pakistan caves in to extremist demands to bar Asia Bibi from leaving Pakistan, effectively signing her death warrant.’
AMERICA’s outspoken, Trump- supporting commentator Ann Coulter, pictured, appears to be competing with our own, Australian-born feminist Germaine Greer, who ridicules the #MeToo movement. Ms Coulter says she has ‘fond memories’ of ‘being pushed further than I wanted to go’ by a man, adding: ‘I like being sexually assaulted.’
PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s new wall on the Mexican border is described as impractical. We planted a 1,500-mile Inland Customs line across India in the 1840s in the form of a thorny hedge up to 12ft high. One of the Raj’s unsung triumphs, apparently.
BBC TV’s brief revival of Tomorrow’s World reminds me that it once had a royal patron, Prince Charles, who gave an award for industrial innovation and production. Shown the bulky prototype of a mobile phone, he inquired, ‘How small can they be?’ The smirking inventors said they could never be smaller than ‘the distance between ear and mouth’. Wrong!
HISTORIAN Sir Max Hastings, asked by The Oldie about where he went on honeymoon, says: ‘Hong Kong – that was to my former wife in 1972. I did it very unromantically. Having no money, I offered her a choice – either we go together to somewhere like Paris or Rome or, if we go to Hong Kong, we can only afford it if you fly commercial and I’ll hitch a ride with the RAF. She settled for Hong Kong.’ How does one hitch a ride with the RAF? Do tell.
BORIS Johnson and a flunkey were flown to Washington DC – at a cost of £16,846 – so he could pick up an award from a local Right-wing think-tank, says the pro-EU New European. The hotel bill was £1,459 for Boris, £994 for his bag- carrier. ‘Boris had a bigger bed,’ suggests my source.
THE Lady magazine asks actor John Session the one thing that would improve his quality of life. ‘A beautiful, 27-year-old Cambodian man,’ he replies. Might such impudence have them levitating indignantly in Largs, Ayrshire – his birthplace?