Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Easter Brexit ceasefire at Westminster has been mirrored at ITV’s News at Ten where bumptious political editor Robert Peston has been stealing the thunder of oldschool Europe editor James Mates by providing inside information from his Brussels contacts. To restore order, editors slotted James ahead of Robert in the programme line-up so Peston’s muchtrumpeted EU moles didn’t contradict James’s inside info. Last week Peston predicted a short exit extension, Mates a long one. In the end, the October 31 deadline was halfway between the two. Result? Peston 1 – Mates 1.
THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge feature on the front cover of France’s Closer magazine, headlined: ‘Kate: All the times Wills has humiliated her!’ The rag has clearly not learnt any lessons from the £85,000 fine imposed for publishing topless pictures of Kate in 2012.
GaFFE-prone Labour MP David Lammy, 46, who has sparked outrage after stupidly comparing leading Tory Eurosceptics to Nazis, is forever haunted by an ill-fated appearance on BBC1’s Mastermind in 2008. When asked by host John Humphrys who succeeded Henry VIII, flustered Lammy responded: ‘Henry VII.’
BEING one of Julian Assange’s former legal eagles shouldn’t jeopardise an eventual damehood for Amal Clooney, pictured, now a Foreign Office special envoy at Jeremy Hunt’s behest despite Downing Street misgivings. The celebrity lawyer and friend of the royals should soon follow in the Jimmy Choos of Angelina Jolie. She was made an honorary dame after she became a Foreign Office emissary.
WILL Jacob Rees-Mogg vote for sister annunziata if she stands in the European constituency incorporating his somerset home? ‘If she was standing in somerset I would vote in London,’ he tells LBC’s Nick Ferrari. ‘If she were standing in London, I would vote in somerset. I’m not going to vote against a member of my family, but I’m not going to vote for the Brexit Party.’
THE man who wrote the deliberately opaque Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, ex-diplomat Lord John Kerr explains the UK’s position in the Brexit shambles: ‘We were trying to leave the tennis club but saying we’re not going to pay the dues, we’re not going to wear tennis whites, but we do want to play every Saturday morning between 10 and 11 in our jeans.’ Theresa in denims, Johnny? Never!
THE Queen has been outed as an EastEnders fan by cast member June Brown, 92, who claims that after receiving her MBE in 2008 HM told her she enjoyed the BBC soap. ‘For some reason,’ she tells Radio Times, ‘I replied, “I didn’t think you’d see it because it clashes with your dinner!”’