Ephraim Hardcastle
OUR Brexit plans are studied by the Queen. Former lib Dem leader Sir nick Clegg claimed that tory minister Michael Gove, while lord chancellor, said HM admitted supporting leave. Her chief concern is northern ireland losing its position in the Union. During a Silver Jubilee speech in 1977 – when the then labour government was pressing on with devolution plans – she let it be known: ‘i cannot forget that i was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and northern ireland.’ THE 1965 book Night of Camp David: What Would Happen if the President of the USA Went Stark-Raving Mad? is republished. It concerns a plot to remove a mentally ill commander in chief who rants against the media. Fancy! MARGOt Robbie, pictured, who plays Queen Elizabeth i in the forthcoming film Mary Queen of Scots, says playing the 16th-century tudor monarch was ‘very alienating – i felt very lonely’. Others on the set, she says, ‘wouldn’t even get close to me’. Judging by Margot’s winsome looks, did her male co-stars (including David tennant, Guy Pearce and ian Hart) fear being reported to the #Metoo movement?
HARRY and Meghan’s appearance at Monday’s Royal Variety Performance will be the prince’s second. On his 2015 debut he was teased by comedian Jack Whitehall, who said he got a VC ‘for stepping out of the shade in Afghanistan’. Monday’s host, Greg Davies, is likely to tread more carefully given the presence of pregnant Meghan.
HAVinG come to the throne aged 25 and 30 respectively, Elizabeth and Philip have gone from inexperience to seasoned monarch and consort before our eyes while the heir, Charles, has had to live out a biblical three-score-and-ten as HM’s understudy. At his age now, in 1996, the Queen began reducing her commitments.
BEFORE joining the Foreign Office, Dan Chugg, our man in Burma (now Myanmar), wrote a 5,000-word essay on the song Wonderwall by Oasis for a master’s degree. He is seen entertaining embassy staff by performing the 1995 hit in BBC2’s three-part documentary Inside The Foreign Office beginning tonight. Foul-mouthed rockers Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis idolised by diplomats! It’s not the FO most of us imagine.
DAn Johnson, who co-ordinated the scandalous coverage of the police raid on Sir Cliff Richard’s home in 2014 – it cost the BBC more than £2million in court costs – has landed a new high-profile job as a ‘Washington correspondent’. A broadcasting source explains: ‘if the BBC had dumped Dan, executives involved in the Cliff fiasco might have been asked to fall on their swords.’