Ephraim Hardcastle
GIVEN the recent disclosure of the shameful treatment of some of the Windrush generation, shouldn’t a royal have attended Friday’s Westminster Abbey service? the Queen, head of the Commonwealth, was at Royal Ascot. But last year she managed to open Parliament and be back at Windsor to change and take part in the Ascot carriage procession. Charles, who has been anointed the next Commonwealth head after much arm-twisting by his mother, went to Salisbury. the Commonwealth’s new youth ambassador, Prince Harry, was in Lesotho. those in the abbey had to make do with the Queen’s representative in London, LordLieutenant Sir Ken Olisa.
KENSINGTON Palace made much of Prince William and Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan bonding as they watched a recording of England’s World Cup group match after the heir had arrived in Amman on his Middle East tour. But where was Hussein’s dad King Abdullah II? Belying the much ballyhooed closeness of the two royal families, the king wasn’t there to welcome William. He was in Washington meeting Donald Trump.
PRINCESS Anne enjoyed a day trip to Canada on Sunday. the Princess Royal, an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Elgin, Moray, flew to toronto to open Rotary International’s convention before flying straight home. Has she been infected by her brother Andrew’s enthusiasm for air miles?
AMAL Clooney, 40, pictured, tells the Luminato arts festival in Toronto: ‘I am a refugee. If I had not had a hand extended to me by the UK government when my family was escaping the war in Lebanon, I wouldn’t have been able to grow up in a safe environment, get the education I have, or do any of the things that I have done.’ She was two when her father, a wealthy travel agency owner, took the family to live in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, where the average house price is around £1million. Not quite what most of us think of when we hear the word ‘refugee’ these days.
INSISTING to Radio times that he hasn’t deliberately held on to his North Country accent, Melvyn Bragg says of Stockport-born Joan Bakewell: ‘She jokes that when she went to Cambridge she locked herself in a lavatory and came out speaking in RP [received pronunciation].’
GYLES Brandreth, 70, has nominated his friend and Just A Minute presenter Nicholas Parsons, 94, as David Dimbleby’s successor on BBC1’s Question Time, saying: ‘David is only 79. Surely it’s time he made way for an older man.’
WHILE much of the nation obsesses over the World Cup, sexpot author Kathy Lette, 59, recalls: ‘I used to go out with a soccer player. He treated me just like a football... ie – dropped me as soon as he’d scored.’ Surely the rascal should be named and shamed!