Ephraim Hardcastle
HARRY and Meghan continue to toy with royal rules as they launch another website, but will the King remove their titles? ‘Not likely, that would involve Parliament and might easily misfire,’ says my reliable royal source. Many of Charles’s subjects – particularly those in the older age groups – are tired of the Sussexes but young people might find such a move unfair, particularly if the Duke of York is allowed to keep his titles. However, my source adds: ‘King William might think otherwise.’
AS THE Monty Python feud proceeds – Eric Idle having accused Terry Gilliam’s daughter, Holly, of mishandling the troupe’s business affairs – chief Python John Cleese enters the fray. ‘I have worked with Holly for the last ten years, and I find her very efficient, clear-minded, hard-working, and pleasant to have dealings with,’ Cleese announces. He playfully concludes: ‘Terry Gilliam is also in agreement with this.’
DEFENCE Secretary Grant Shapps is reportedly ‘furious’ over the military’s ‘woke’ recruitment policies, calling them ‘nonsense’. Which world has he been living in? A £1.6 million recruitment campaign in 2018 posed the questions ‘Can I be gay in the Army?’, ‘Do I have to be a superhero?’ and ‘Will I be listened to?’ The often-derided defence secretary at the time, Gavin Williamson, threatened to resign over what he felt was ‘dumbed down’ recruiting. A plan to recruit princes William and Harry as poster boys was ditched because they were considered ‘too posh’.
MINISTERS have been urged in the House of Lords to approach Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr, both pictured, to advise touring musicians with their tax forms. The late George Harrison would have been amused. After accountants warned the group: ‘Two of you are close to being bankrupt, and the other two could soon be’, Harrison composed a bitter ditty, Taxman, for their Revolver album. ‘Taxman was when I first realised that even though we had started earning money we were actually giving most of it away in taxes,’ he explained.
TRIVIA-loving DJ Steve Wright, who has died aged 69, was known for his ‘factoids’ – useless information with a twist. Examples include actor Hugh Grant’s middle name is Mungo, and Amanda Holden’s first TV appearance, aged 19 in 1991, was as a contestant in Cilla Black’s Blind Date. She wasn’t picked.
AFTER failing to be selected as a Labour parliamentary candidate yet again, this time for Brighton Pavilion, transgender performer Eddie Izzard’s ‘one-woman’ Hamlet in America has not impressed the New York Times. ‘One comes away with the sense that Eddie Izzard did not perform Hamlet so much as became defeated by it,’ sighs the paper’s critic. Oh dear.