Ephraim Hardcastle
WAS Boris’s penultimate pre-Brexit deal remark to Tories MPs – that he was close to the summit of Everest – notable? Jennifer Arcuri, his pneumatic ‘technology adviser’, quotes Johnson as saying: ‘You are the Mount Everest every man wants to climb.’ Doh!
BURIED beyond page 800 in his Margaret Thatcher biography, Charles Moore refers to the ex PM’s husband Denis and his ‘intimacy’ with Profumo affair showgirl Mandy Rice-Davies. ‘Yes they were good friends,’ confirms Moore. ‘He was a director of a firm called Attwoods and so was Mandy’s husband.’ He would say that, wouldn’t he!
ENTERTAINING chums with drinks at his Leader of the House cubby-hole in the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg toasts predecessor Andrea Leadsom with West Country cider. Noticeably all Andrea’s family snapshots have been removed from the office and a striking portrait of Jesus has taken their place. Sacre Bleu!
JACOB ticked off political opponents during yesterday’s Commons session, explaining: ‘This is Business Questions, this is not a general debate. We’ll never get on to the Queen’s Speech if this is turned into a free-for-all. It’s very important to remain orderly.’ Up pops Squeaker Bercow: ‘For the avoidance of doubt... the arbiter of order is the Chair, the arbiter of order is not the Leader of the House. I’ll judge order.’ He’ll not be missed.
JANE Seymour, pictured, recalls struggling to force fake tears when at drama school, explaining: ‘They said you had to think of something terrible that happened in your life that would make you cry. I remember getting very angry... I went home to my parents, saying: “I’m going to fail at acting, because you made my life happy. I’ve nothing to cry about!”’ Four divorces later, she admits: ‘I’ve got plenty in the well now.’
WESTMINSTER University’s chancellor Lady Sorrell endorses the banning of Morbid Books from the university’s publishers fair this weekend. Why? Perhaps Morbid’s entry for a competition at the Edible Book Festival didn’t assist: two noodles on a dinner plate arranged in the form of a swastika entitled ‘Chow Mein Kampf’.
POIROT’S David Suchet wisely ignored career advice from his brother John about taking on the role of Agatha Christie’s Belgian snoop. ‘Don’t touch that with a barge pole,’ warned John. Whatever happened to him? As Beethoven’s biographer, he now mewls on Classic FM.
IS Baroness Hale about to get the ultimate accolade? Whispers from Glastonbury hint the Supreme Court President might make a guest appearance next year. Unless organiser Michael Eavis has confused the spider-brooched Lady with Diana Ross’s old group.