Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Duchess of Sussex reneged on her pledge to jettison her US passport on Donald Trump’s election, prompting fanciful speculation that she might, one day, run for the White House. But there remains an impediment to that ambition in the shape of a constitutional amendment to the Emoluments Clause. This proposes stripping US citizenship from anyone accepting a foreign royal title. No non-citizen can run for the presidency. On the table since 1810, it has so far received 12 of the 38 votes it needs from state legislatures. And with no time limit on the voting process Meghan might keep her fingers crossed!
SIR Keir Starmer could be a beneficiary of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn’s disastrous Dissolution Honours List proposals. Boris Johnson has been in touch offering him the chance to nominate his own candidates for peerages to replace Corbyn’s. The much-delayed list, with around 30 peerages, will be ready for publication in the autumn. No former Labour leader has taken ermine since Neil Kinnock. What would anti-Lords Corbyn do if Sir Keir puts him on his list?
IN the news after the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey, former communist Maxine Peake also rails against capitalism, declaring: ‘We’ve got to save humanity. We’re being ruled by capitalist, fascist dictators. We’ve got to the point where protecting capital is much more important than anybody’s life.’ Latest accounts for actress Maxine’s firm, Flat Cap Ltd, show it has assets of £532,464 – an increase of £155,000 on the previous year. That’s a chunk of capital that’s certainly worth protecting.
OH TO be a fly on the wall when Michal Berkner, pictured, wife of Robert Jenrick, next bumps into Richard Desmond. He’s a regular supporter of Jewish Care, on whose business group fundraising committee sits lawyer Mrs Jenrick!
A BIOGRAPHY of delusional LSD proponent Timothy Leary recalls his arrival in Afghanistan with socialite Joanna Harcourt-Smith, when he declared: ‘We’ll have all the Afghan hash we want and the king will visit us and treat you like a royal princess.’ His Highness promptly deported them on an extradition flight to Los Angeles, perhaps interpreting literally Tim’s mantra: ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out’.
COMEDY actor and one-time Young Ones star Adrian Edmondson, 63, tastelessly ‘jokes’ about the pandemic: ‘Just had a quick check around. None of the people who get the parts I think I should have got have died. Is there no upside to this virus?’
SIR Alan Ayckbourn doesn’t bear any animosity towards fellow luvvie Dame Diana Rigg. And why should he? For it was Alan who in his salad days poured a bottle of red wine down the young Miss Rigg’s cleavage at York Opera House when she declined a drink from him. ‘Like a Laurel and Hardy sketch she sat there for some seconds without reacting,’ recalls the playwright. ‘Nobody moved, no one could believe it. Then the men around her threw me out on the pavement.’