Ephraim Hardcastle

DUE to share billing with the Queen at the Chelsea Flower Show this year, would the Duchess of Cambridge fancy succeeding the monarch as patron of the Royal Horticultural Society? If so she might consider brushing up her Latin. The Queen avoids common flower and plant names, using instead the correct Latin horticultural terms whenever she can. ‘HM uses all the right names but not necessarily in the right places,’ says my mischievous RHS source. MARION Marechal, 29, pictured, granddaughter of France’s notorious Front National leader JeanMarie Le Pen, addresses the Oxford Union on Tuesday. A former member of France’s National Assembly, Marion’s a niece of Marine Le Pen, who succeeded her father as party leader. Marine was jeered by 300 protesters at the Union four years ago. My Gallic source says of Marion: ‘If she’s picketed in Oxford her supporters will be delighted by the resulting TV pictures. She sometimes gets compared to Joan of Arc because of her magical aura. Men want to kneel before her and offer up their swords.’ WISHING John Bercow happy birthday, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom yesterday quoted Winnie the Pooh: ‘If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.’ Leadsom, called a stupid woman by Bercow, enjoys making MPs laugh at the Squeaker. NEWSNIGHT’S Emily Maitlis – responding to former Brexit secretary David Davis’s statement that ‘resignation’s an incredibly personal and difficult thing... I’ve done it more than once’ – states: ‘Some would call it the coward’s way out.’ Retorts former SAS reservist Davis: ‘Nobody before has ever said that to my face, I have to tell you.’ I wouldn’t advise ITV’s pernickety Robert Peston to try this. TORY MP Sir Nicholas Soames, who once warned of the dangers of using hostile language on social media, yesterday dismissed Nigel Farage on Twitter in one word – ‘Twat’. Inevitably, he’s insulted by other members of the Twitterati, who can’t resist recalling an ex-girlfriend’s comment that canoodling with Soames was like ‘having a wardrobe falling on you with the key sticking out’. FEUDING again, Piers Morgan abhors £1.76million-a-year BBC man Gary Lineker’s potato crisps promotion, carping: ‘You flog crisps to kids in plastic bags that destroy the planet when Britain has the worst child obesity rates in Europe. On Brexit, you’re trying to kill democracy. So maybe give the halo act a rest – doesn’t wash with me.’ Gary’s response: ‘They’re potatoes, British potatoes. In recyclable packets with a commitment to make all packaging 100 per cent recyclable, compostable or biodegradable by 2025.’ Keep digging chaps. Email: john mcentee@dailymail.co.uk