Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Prime Minister’s official biographer, Sir Anthony Seldon, 62, complains that new claims about David Cameron’s university indiscretions in Lord Ashcroft’s tome are frivolous. Seldon isn’t above silly behaviour himself. YouTube features him prancing about in a ridiculous hat on the occasion of his departure as master of Wellington College earlier this year. His tuneless version of Pharrell Williams’ 2014 hit Happy has attracted a derisory 20,000 hits. HAVING been cleared (controversially) by the Standards Commissioner of seeking fees for lobbying activities, former Tory MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Labour ex minister Jack Straw are said to be in line for deferred peerages. Sir Malcolm’s seems secure – the Prime Minister has welcomed his clearance – but Straw has another obstacle. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wants all appointments to the House of Lords frozen until reforms are made. LORD Sugar, 68, is busy promoting his latest memoir, boasting that it tells how ‘the East End boy turned multimillionaire... coped for ten years in the art-farty world of television’. The book celebrates ‘some of his famous putdowns in the boardroom’ and recalls the time Sugarlump, pictured, told a ‘baggyjumpered, beanie hat-wearing young director that he will not be spending all day filming a five-minute trail’. Aren’t the old goat’s grumpy antics becoming rather tiresome? PROMOTING his new book, Sir Alex Ferguson, 73, says he makes a point of giving advice to young managers about handling themselves in front of the television cameras. The former Manchester United boss is not remembered for his diplomatic skills in such circumstances, stubbornly refusing to speak to the BBC for seven years after it ran a documentary on his son Jason’s dealings as an agent. ‘Fergie offering media advice is akin to Attila the Hun offering lessons in international diplomacy,’ I’m told. REFLECTING on the embarrassing claims about David Cameron’s student days, lavishly coiffured Tory MP Michael Fabricant, 65, cheekily announces: ‘Glad no one’s written a book about me at university: Sex, drugs and rock and roll.’ Michael, a graduate of Loughborough University, adds: ‘Just hope that photo of my bottom, the funnel and the bottle of wine doesn’t surface.’ A little of Fabricant goes a long way, don’t you think? JEREMY Corbyn is under mounting pressure to dump Lord Watson from his Shadow Cabinet. Watson, appointed to the education portfolio, is best known for his pyrotechnic talent, having served eight months in prison for setting fire to an Edinburgh hotel in 2004. Tory MSP Murdo Fraser has leapt to his defence, saying: ‘Who among us hasn’t got drunk and tried to incinerate the house and occupants?’
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