Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service at St paul’s Cathedral today involves the Queen, prince Charles and princes William and Harry. Might this be why the acting Bishop of London, republican-minded ‘pete’ Broadbent – who calls the Windsors ‘philanderers’ and the monarchy ‘corrupt and sexist’ – has left organising the service to the Bishop of Kensington, Graham Tomlin?
WITH four of the 20 women accusing Donald Trump of inappropriate sexual behaviour renewing their attack in TV interviews – and pressure mounting for an official investigation – the chances of the US president getting to meet the Queen when he arrives here in February have faded. Officials now dread a photo of them together, fearing the mockery opportunity this might provide for disrespectful comics. HM has a new ally – her grandson Harry’s fiancee, Hillary Clinton supporter Meghan Markle, is a trenchant critic of Mr Trump.
TIPS for Ms Markle, who is joining the Queen at Sandringham for Christmas. Ladies require a long frock, jewellery, a tiara for Christmas Eve and FOUR outfits for Christmas Day, plus reserves, to avoid possible clashes with the Queen or Camilla. Guests arrive at Sandringham in order of precedence, with Charles and Camilla last. They must be prompt for meals and drinks. Timetables are left in their bedrooms. after 12.30pm cocktails and lunch at 1.15pm, the family gathers around the TV to watch the Queen’s Christmas Broadcast, the monarch having disappeared to view it on her own. afterwards they stand for the national anthem. When HM returns, no one must mention her broadcast – unless she does first. Isn’t royal life grand?
CURRENTLY touring America, former child star Petula Clark, now 85, remembers singing for British troops during the Second World War: ‘We would arrive at the camp but we never knew where we were. We were travelling in the dark because [due to German bombers] no light was allowed in the trains. We’d sleep in the luggage racks.’ Ms Clark, pictured in her heyday, made her radio debut in October 1942 as a nine-year-old while attending a BBC broadcast with her father. She was there trying to send a message to an uncle stationed overseas, but the broadcast was delayed by an air raid. During the bombing, the producer requested that someone perform to settle the jittery theatre audience, and she volunteered. She was sometimes on the same bill as another child star, Julie Andrews, now a dame aged 82. Doesn’t the admirable Ms Clark CBE also deserve to be a dame? Surely she does. I doubt if we’ll remember any of today’s singing stars 20 years hence, let alone 70.
TORY Mp Sir Nicholas Soames, 69, says of defeated Republican senatorial candidate for alabama Roy Moore, 70, who arrived for his vote on horseback: ‘Deplorable seat [a reference to Moore’s clumsy riding posture], deplorable candidate, but transport good.’ Former cavalryman Soames campaigned on horseback in his Mid-Sussex constituency at June’s general election.