Ephraim Hardcastle

WHILE Prince Harry’s girlfriend, actress Meghan Markle, has yet to meet the Queen, a royal source insists: ‘They are not engaged formally but there is an understanding. The engagement announcement is still tipped for August 4 and is unlikely to come earlier. Why so? Because the general election (June 8), the formation of a new government (June 9), the State Opening of Parliament (June 19) and the state visit of King Felipe of Spain (July 12-14) cannot be overshadowed.’ IF IT isn’t Meghan, does another American wait in the wings? In a TV interview with Harry last year, NBC presenter Jenna Bush Hager – former president George W Bush’s daughter – offered him the phone number of her unmarried twin Barbara, 35, pictured. When Harry’s aides went online to check Barbara’s assets up came photos of her grandmother, ex-first lady Barbara Bush, 91. LABOUR’S manifesto pledge to ‘end the hereditary principle’ worries courtiers. The monarchy’s our last surviving institution dependent on heredity. The flunkeys also fret about Labour’s manifesto undertaking to widen the scope of the Freedom of Information Act, from which royals were exempted by Tony Blair. It’s a little known fact that the Queen and Charles can – and sometimes do – exercise a right of veto over legislation affecting their interests. ITV’S well-connected news anchor Tom Bradby, 50, attacks his BBC rivals, complaining: ‘The BBC’s failure to credit other news organisations when they get scoops is utterly inexcusable.’ No news organisation – far less ITV – enjoys puffing its rivals. The point to bear in mind here is that BBC’s News at Ten swamps ITV’s so-called rival in the ratings, with around 4.6million viewers to ITV’s 1.9million. THERESA May’s joint chief of staff, Nick Timothy, 37, who is alleged to have had ‘expletive-ridden’ clashes with Chancellor Philip Hammond, has been accused previously of clashing with other Cabinet ministers. He and fellow chief of staff Fiona Hill are accused by anonymous sources of behaving ‘like deputy prime ministers’. Most senior No 10 aides are resented by ministers jealous of their access to the prime ministerial ear. But, like Tony Blair’s retired mouthpiece Alastair Campbell, they can look forward to crying all the way to the bank after they’ve sold their memoirs and/or diaries. NOVELIST Susanna Johnston, 81, confides in an amusing new memoir, ‘Hugh Honour and John Fleming – Remembered’: ‘My ageing uncle, Robin Chancellor, alone in his Northamptonshire pavilion, began to yearn for a companion. He surfed the net and believed that he might have found happiness in a sex condominium outside Bangkok. Off he toiled to meet his “date”– a Thai grandfather called Prim. Prim, as it turned out, after a brief experiment, refused to share the only bed in the bungalow with Uncle Robin on account, he said, of Robin’s loud snoring. He (Prim) had to sleep under the table in the kitchen.’ Same-sex romance for the elderly is evidently no bed of roses.