Ephraim Hardcastle
ONE of the pleasures of appearing in the Honours Lists – having a gong bestowed by a member of the Royal Family – could soon be a rare event. With the King and the Princess of Wales out of action the shortage of working Royals has prompted the drafting in of Lord Lieutenants to share the burden. Yesterday at Windsor Castle Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire Andrew Try made his first appearance dispensing honours. Recipients of the MBE, looking forward to either William or Anne must have been deflated.
IT’S taken more than 30 years but Alastair Campbell has finally apologised for hitting Guardian journalist Michael White after he mocked the death of his then proprietor Robert Maxwell. ‘I wish I’d never hit him,’ he tells Radio 4’s Young Again. ‘We weren’t at all sure about our futures. That’s why I got angry, not because I had any great love for Robert Maxwell.’ He doesn’t mention that White hit him back, saying afterwards: ‘The majority of outraged Fleet Street moralists thought it a better story if the gallant employee were seen to trounce the cad.’
HAPPY 80th birthday to Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, pictured, who reveals an unexpected passion for the music of You’re The First, The Last, My Everything crooner Barry White. ‘I love Barry’, she trills. ‘I listen to him in the car. I don’t sing with him but I sort of plonk along’. The Maori opera maestro meets the Walrus of Love!
SPECTATOR magazine chairman Andrew Neil angrily claims that George Osborne is trying to sell the magazine to the highest bidder on behalf of Redbird IMI’s Jeff Zucker. ‘He doesn’t know anything about British media but wants to ditch the troublesome Spectator and concentrate on the Telegraph, which is what his Arab bankrollers really want,’ claims Andrew. ‘Osborne doesn’t care who gets the Spectator as long as it’s a lot of money, since that will boost his fees as Zucker’s hired hand. Such a “parcel of rogues” as Robert Burns once said.’
MAYFAIR hatters report a dip in sales of £295 fedoras following the parliamentary resurrection of ‘fedora fool’ MP George Galloway. Customers are switching to the homburg favoured by Churchill and Eden. But titfer traders hope that the Galloway dip will be offset by next week’s Cheltenham National Hunt Festival.
IS This the Way to Amarillo warbler Tony Christie, still performing with autocues after a dementia diagnosis, recalls being conferred with the freedom of the Texas town by mayor Trent Sisemore Junior III. ‘He presented me with a stetson and a pair of suede boots,’ he remembers. And his freedom rights? ‘He said you can have my wife but don’t touch my horse!’