Ephraim Hardcastle
PATRICIAN former Tory statesman Peter Carington, who has died aged 99, is mentioned in the memoirs of Labour’s former deputy leader, John Prescott, who reminded Carington they’d met at a previous political shindig. ‘Oh, were you there?’ he says Carington asked. ‘I served the drinks,’ former ship’s steward Prescott replied, adding that Carington snobbishly ignored him afterwards. Lord Carrington resigned as Foreign Secretary after failing to anticipate the Falklands War. Contrastingly, deputy PM Prescott remained in office after it emerged that he’d canoodled with his shapely assistant Tracey Temple on his official desk.
APROPOS Lord Carrington, he once mentioned to Tory elder statesman Harold Macmillan that American presidential candidate Ed Muskie had tearfully withdrawn in 1972 after a New Hampshire paper said his wife had a drink problem. When Macmillan snorted disapprovingly, Lord Carrington asked: ‘What if it had been your own wife?’ Macmillan replied: ‘I’d have said, “You should have met Lady Dorothy’s mother” ’
CLAUDIA Winkleman, pictured, introduced her Radio 2 guest, Trudie Styler, as a ‘film producer and director,’ tactfully omitting what she is most famous for – ie, being the wife of rock star Sting. She gushed: ‘You’re a fantastic human being and you’ve directed a really stunning film. Honestly, I’m not just saying this. Freak Show is fantastic and it’s out now!’ Shouldn’t they consider forensic Claudia, 46, as David Dimbleby’s replacement on Question Time?
BORIS Johnson’s former communications adviser while London mayor, ex-BBC man Guto Harri, 52, is less than supportive of the Foreign Secretary’s resignation, saying: ‘If he genuinely thinks a better deal is available for Britain then he has to have a crack at the leadership. I think that will end in tears. But I think he will feel compelled to do that like an old boxer who thinks one last fight will set him up for life and restore his credibility. Then he goes into the ring and gets battered.’
LABOUR’S leader in 2015, Ed Miliband, argued that MPs shouldn’t have second jobs. Now the Right Honourable member for Doncaster North is earning £2,500 a week standing in for Jeremy Vine as a Radio 2 disc jockey. Fancy!
DISGRACED former Tory MP and current Ukip Welsh Assembly member Neil Hamilton called Jacob Rees-Mogg MP during a radio show’s phone-in to suggest: ‘The best way to impose some kind of common sense on people like Theresa May is for Ukip to rise again.’ Rees-Mogg responds: ‘The problem is, Neil, it’s gone from Ukip to Whokip.’ Hamilton protests: ‘I’m still there!’ Rees-Mogg: ‘Yes, all by yourself in the moonlight.’ A scary image!
IN 1998, Croatia reached the World Cup semi-finals, Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest and Real Madrid the Champions League. It’s the same in 2018. Incidentally, Croatia lost.