Ephraim Hardcastle

SNOOTY commentators who deride Donald Trump’s $3billion-plus fortune (more than £2.4billion) – and that of his family and associates – forget that an earlier, much admired American president, John F Kennedy, was the scion of another arriviste family. Patriarch Joseph Kennedy, an alleged Prohibition bootlegger, officially left $500million, now worth around $3.4billion, when he died in 1969, sponsoring the political careers of three sons, John, Bobby and Edward, as well as several of their children. DRUG-taking author and journalist Julie Burchill, pictured – now reformed at 57 – recalls her self-indulgent, Eighties social life, remarking in an interview for Stylist magazine: ‘Wherever I was, the party went with me. I’d take cocaine with my second husband, Cosmo Landesman, my best friend, Toby Young, and impressionable youngsters who worked for my magazine, The Modern Review.’ Surely Young, 53, now un homme serieux as director of the Governmentbacked New Schools Network, won’t appreciate her lamentable candour about their coke-snorting antics. THE £10billion hole in the Ministry of Defence’s finances won’t be filled by getting rid of the Army’s 500-plus horses – at least not while the Queen is alive. HM wants to save ceremonial units such as the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery and Household Cavalry, whose horses rack up huge bills in food, farriers and veterinary bills. ‘There are now twice as many horses as tanks but there won’t be major changes during the Queen’s reign,’ my source advises. APROPOS the royals and the Army, Prince Philip and his uncle, the late Earl Mountbatten of Burma, are now blamed for disgraced disc jockey Jimmy Savile, whom they both admired, becoming the first civilian to undertake the demanding Marines’ commando test and be awarded its coveted green beret. At his funeral, a detachment of Royal Marines bore Savile’s tasteful gold coffin. He was buried holding his green beret. JOHN Cleese, 77, facing a backlash after his supportive comments about Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly, who is accused of sexual harassment, responds: ‘I’d like to add my name to the list of people sexually harassed by Bill O’Reilly. Apparently, you can get 2 million (dollars) even if nothing happened.’ Cleese, who increasingly resembles The Simpsons’ misanthropic Krusty the Clown, explains: ‘If I have to start making jokes for people with no sense of humour, it’ll spoil it for the people who have.’ The old fool has a point, doesn’t he? ANDREW Marr, 57, is replaced by silvertongued BBC colleague Eddie Mair, 51, of Radio 4’s PM show, on his Sunday TV interview slot. ‘Eddie Mair definitely a step up from Marr,’ remarks one viewer. Another adds: ‘Can we let Eddie Mair take over the Marr show?’ Designed of course to infuriate Marr, who, I am sure, generous soul that he is, is tickled that Mair filled in for him so successfully! Email: peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk