Ephraim Hardcastle
OUSTED No 10 joint chief of staff Nick Timothy, 37, comes across all touchyfeely in The Spectator, sobbing: ‘At times like these, you find out who your true friends are, and you realise that the people who are hurt most by the criticism are your loved ones... The biggest lesson of the past week for me has been a reminder of the importance of friends, family and love.’ Bearded Timothy and his colleague Fiona Hill are accused of insulting (elected) ministers and ‘behaving like deputy prime ministers’. Now he pitches for our sympathy. Cheeky!
APROPOS Timothy and Hill, royal lackeys think their departure might lead to better relations between Buck House and No 10. The dodgy duo’s successor, polite ex-Tory MP Gavin Barwell, does appear more userfriendly, although as an ex-housing minister (2016-2017) he might now have questions to answer about safety at North Kensington’s still-smouldering Grenfell Tower. Mr Barwell is a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge – like Prince Charles – and his private member’s bill on mental health discrimination got on to the statute book in 2013. Significantly, it’s a cause dear to the hearts of William, Kate and Harry.
FIONA Bruce, pictured, introduces a harrowing report on the plight of starving children in Venezuela for the BBC’s News at Ten. A local reporter, Vladimir Hernandez, talked to women scavenging to find food for their starving children. Neither Hernandez nor Ms Bruce mentioned the view of some that the former richest country in South America, with abundant oil, was ruined by President Hugo Chavez – a socialist idolised by Ken Livingstone and Jeremy Corbyn before he died in 2013. Imagine the BBC take on this story if a Conservative politician had caused Venezuela’s economic collapse.
ROCK wife Anita Pallenberg, who has died aged 73, disliked her chief rival Bianca Jagger. Having slept with Rolling Stones Brian Jones, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, she was disconcerted in 1971 to hear that Jagger was to marry Bianca. Stones aide Tony Sanchez recalled: ‘Anita announced that she had put a curse on Bianca. She had long been obsessed by black magic.’ Spookily, Mick and Bianca’s marriage ended in 1979!
TORBAY, Devon, has its own Emmanuel Macron, say locals, referring to the French president married to a woman 25 years his senior. They refer to Kevin Foster, 38, a newly re-elected Tory MP whose new wife, Hazel Noonan, 66, is 28 years his senior. She wore an engagement ring given to her by his late mother, Linda – three years younger than Hazel.
RADIO 4’s ubiquitous James Naughtie, 65, scores a remarkable coup. He’ll interview cagey writer John le Carre, 85, for BBC2 in September – at the spy author’s request. Naughtie ‘retired’ from the BBC in 2015 but has since remained a regular Radio 4 voice, from home and abroad. He also has a regular slot on Radio 4’s Today show, chatting amiably to authors, often praising their books. Might this have commended him to nervy le Carre, whose recent work, The Night Manager, was considered inferior to his earlier masterpiece Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.