Ephraim Hardcastle
SHOULD the Government lose the big Brexit vote next week, Theresa May has 21 days to return to the Commons and outline the next steps. So the Christmas plans of MPs are up in the air – as are those of the Queen, who might have to return to London from Sandringham. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 – which removed her dissolution of Parliament role – isn’t helpful. HM still has a duty, and a right, to become involved if there is a constitutional crisis. But who decides when it’s that?
AS Head of State, the Queen is expected to intervene as a focus of unity in times of political upheaval. A week before the Britain joined the then EEC, on January 1 1973, HM, pictured, delivered a Christmas Day message designed to reassure the Commonwealth, saying – more in hope than expectation, no doubt – ‘The new links with Europe will not replace those with the Commonwealth.’ How will she phrase her Christmas message this year if Brexit has to be mentioned?
EX chief whip Mark Harper warns the PM he’ll vote against her Brexit deal. As immigration minister in 2014, Harper, 48, was responsible for the notorious ‘go home’ advertising campaign targeting illegal immigrants. He later had to resign when it emerged that his foreign cleaner didn’t have a visa. His boss? The then home secretary, Theresa May. No love lost there, evidently.
PRINCESS Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, 60, says in an Amazon documentary, The Diana Story: ‘She never actually wanted a divorce [from Charles]. She said, “I’ll have a separation, but I don’t want a divorce, for the children’s sake”.’ Burrell adds: ‘The Queen wouldn’t hear of this ... she wrote to Diana and said, “For the sake of the monarchy, the country and the Church, it’s best if you and Charles divorce.” The princess was furious. She said, “This is my marriage, not theirs! It’s nothing to do with the Church! It’s to do with me, Charles and the children!’’ In the end she succumbed.’ Surely the elephant in the room here is Camilla. Charles couldn’t have married his mistress if his marriage to Diana wasn’t dissolved.
ASKED what kind of grandmother she is, Dame Joan Collins, 85, admits: ‘A laissezfaire one... [fifth husband] Percy loves to take them to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. I went once and said, “I really don’t think I can do that again”.’ Assessing Dame Joan’s family skills, her son Alexander Newley wrote somewhat cruelly: ‘My mother wasn’t a monster; she was a narcissist.’
WOULD BBC2’s low-rated Newsnight survive if it had to be justified by a commercial company instead of being publicly financed? On Tuesday, in a Brexit discussion, it had pundits sticking badges of politicians’ faces on a model of Big Ben. There were lots of complaints from viewers, some angered by the paucity of creativity this revealed. ‘I can’t take any more!’ protested one. ‘Newsnight’s decline continues,’ said another.