Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Sultan of Brunei’s new law fatally stoning gay people poses a dilemma for the Queen. What should she do about the personal honours she’s festooned him with? Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and Knight Grand Cross of the same order. He’s also honorary admiral and air chief marshal. And what about her beloved Royal Windsor Horse Show next month? The Sultan partially finances it through his Dorchester Collection of luxury hotels.
UNLIKE our Royal Family, the Belgians disclose annual security costs – £12 million last year with 195 police guards and 34 military personnel. Such transparency is never possible here, where Parliamentary conventions prohibit discussion of royal matters. But isn’t it a drop in the ocean compared with the estimated £100 million a year for our bespoke PC Plods?
PICASSO’S biographer Sir John Richardson refused Queen Mary’s request to donate his Joshua Reynolds portrait of Frederick, Prince of Wales, to the Royal Collection. Richardson, who died in New York last month, may have softened and left it to the Queen in his will. Royal fingers crossed!
AMBER Rudd, pictured, linked with Boris Johnson to the so- called ‘Bamber dream ticke t ’ , declines to withdraw her 2016 Boris putdown as the ‘life and soul of the party, but not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening’. Shown footage on BBC2’s Politics Live, she says: ‘Well, I don’t think I’ve changed my position very much, actually!’
LONDONER Laleh Shahravesh’s plight, facing prison in Dubai for calling her exhusband’s new wife a ‘horse’, recalls late Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens’ experience with a female constituent who asked for a signed photo. Geoffrey inquired of his secretary, ‘Did you get my note about sending a signed photo to Mrs Horseface?’ ‘Yes, I posted it,’ came the reply. Dickens added cheerily: ‘Did you find out her real name?’ ‘I assumed it was Mrs Horseface.’
FOREIGN Office minister Sir Alan Duncan refuses to publish minutes of the meeting between Prince Charles and Cuba’s president Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel during last month’s royal visit, insisting HRH’s conversation remain private. Odds-on the banter was along the lines of – ‘nice for the time of year’.
SIR David Attenborough’s profusion of fans want him to live for ever but the BBC is not so sure. Confirming his work on three-year project One Planet, Seven Worlds, David says: ‘When you’re 92 you’re given a contract for three months ahead!’
WOMBLES composer Mike Batt is furious at Sunday night’s televised Olivier Awards obscuring the list of deceased luvvies with a gaggle of prancing performers from Cats. ‘What an insult. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL,’ he fumes.