Ephraim Hardcastle
QUEEN Victoria biographer AN Wilson breaches the universal paean to the life of Prince Philip, criticising his role as a parent. The author observes: ‘His first-born was bullied and misunderstood by his father from the first.’ He adds: ‘The recent troubles of the Duke of york are really only the grotesque culmination of a story of atrocious parenting stretching back over 70 years.’ In his mainly positive reflection in the Times Literary supplement, Wilson recalls Philip’s reaction to news of his Prince Consort biography: ‘Not another bloody book on Prince Albert.’ Could AN be settling an old score?
ORCHESTRATING his own funeral service, Prince Philip avoided the fate of the Queen Mother when then Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey was criticised for his over-long, cloying sermon. Banning any eulogies, the duke was mindful of his mantra that sermons should be only eight minutes long, saying: ‘The mind cannot absorb what the backside cannot endure.’
THERE was a sense of deja vu at Prince Philip’s funeral when his many titles were intoned by the magnificently attired Thomas Woodcock, Garter Principal King of Arms. The previous night on Have I Got News For you, host Adrian Dunbar read out the same long list, adding irreverently: ‘Mother of God, how long is that headstone going to be?’
BROADCASTER and former Labour frontbencher Gloria De Piero, pictured, now confirmed as the latest recruit to soon-to-be-launched TV channel GB News, was a well-known favourite of Tony Blair during her days as GMTV’s political editor. A Downing Street aide indiscreetly let slip at the time: ‘You do realise Tony fancies her?’
PRINCE Philip’s biographer Gyles Brandreth notes the stress of Corporal Louis Murray driving the funeral Land Rover at Windsor: ‘The poor driver had quite a struggle because he had to keep it at 2mph, and it’s not built to go that slowly. so he was on the clutch all the time.’
NEW Lord Chamberlain Baron Parker of Minsmere has had a baptism of fire, organising Prince Philip’s funeral. His predecessor, Earl Peel, never had this sad duty in 14 years in post. And Andrew Parker has also become adept at picking up gongs: knighted in 2019, made a peer in 2020 and when appointed Lord Chamberlain granted a second knighthood, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. Membership of the Privy Council will also be thrown in.
Jeremy Vine, criticised for asking on his Channel 5 show if 30 white people at Prince Philip’s funeral was a ‘problem’, now describes the Queen’s funeral appearance as ‘such an intense moment’. Ex-sky presenter Colin Brazier sarcastically tweets back: ‘sufficiently diverse?’ Vine, grudgingly acknowledging his mistakes, retorts, equally caustically: ‘But you carry on, Colin.’ Boys!