Ephraim Hardcastle
FIRST Secretary of State Damian Green, 61 appears to be in the clear over accusations that his computer contained pornography. One sign of this was that beleaguered Green attended a Privy Council meeting on Tuesday. My source says: ‘It would be a breach of protocol to put him in close proximity to the monarch if he was still under investigation or had been found guilty as charged. He was superfluous to requirements as five counsellors were present. Three is a quorum.’
REMAINER rebel Tory MP Heidi Allen, 42, was saved by Theresa May after a de-selection plot earlier this year by dissatisfied party members in her South Cambridgeshire constituency. How did she repay the PM? After June’s general election she publicly announced that Mrs May wouldn’t survive ‘any more than six months’.
STRIPPED of her Freedom of Dublin award on Wednesday, discredited Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 72, has also lost her Freedom of Oxford and had her portrait removed from St Hugh’s College, which she attended. Difficult for her sons, Alexander, 44, and Kim, 40, who spent many years accepting accolades on her behalf before the massacres of the ethnic Muslim Rohingya people. She still has more than 120 international accolades including the Nobel Peace Prize.
FEISTY Tory MP Nadine Dorries, 60, pictured, ridicules Remainer colleagues after they sabotaged the PM’s Brexit negotiations, remarking: ‘I just love these former ministers and their “I’ve never rebelled once”. No, you didn’t when you were in a ministerial position and being paid a handsome ministerial salary – you were loyal to your wallet and your status.’ Might this be a reference to embittered, sacked Attorney General Dominic Grieve and ex-transport minister Stephen Hammond, who both insist that they ‘never normally rebel’?
APROPOS the Harry-Meghan wedding next May: will it be sold to a celebrity magazine – as the nuptials of the Queen’s grandson Peter Phillips were in 2008, for a reported £500,000? My royal source says: ‘I think not. Although the Royal Family knew of the Peter Phillips deal no one had any idea of the free range he’d given photographers to cover the wedding and reception. This led to the Queen banning such deals.’
PRINCE Charles is attending the full state funeral in Romania of King Michael, who died last week in Switzerland aged 96. Suggestions that Charles might become King of Romania persist. He enjoys his regular communing-with-nature visits. Not so consort Camilla. As well she might after hearing how a local aristocrat, Count Dracula, sucked blood from lady guests.
THE BBC’s festive series of ten Celebrity Masterminds, starting on December 27, features a profusion of Z-list celebrities barely known outside the confines of their homes. Says my source: ‘With the possible exception of rhymer Pam Ayres, the presenter John Humphrys, 74, is the only real celebrity among them.’