Ephraim Hardcastle
TOMORROW donal McCabe, formerly of bookmakers Ladbrokes Coral, becomes ‘communications secretary to the Queen’. he replaces Sally osman, who enjoyed the grander-sounding title ‘director of royal communications’. The plan was to bring all royal communication operations under one roof. Will McCabe supervise the media communications of, say, the newsworthy duke and duchess of Sussex? A Palace spokesman tells me: ‘As was publicly announced, donal McCabe has been appointed communications secretary to the Queen.’
APROPOS the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan relied for media advice during her Manhattan baby shower extravaganza on Soho House executive Markus Anderson, a Canadian friend of whom she once wrote on Instagram: ‘What would I do without you, my loving, supportive, and endlessly fun friend? I know what ... I would be bored, and life would be infinitely less interesting. I love you SO much.’
SIR Elton John has chosen Welsh actor Taron Egerton, 29, pictured, to portray him in an upcoming movie, Rocketman, saying: ‘I never heard anyone sing my songs better. Nobody else in the world could play Elton.’ In 2012 he failed to get US singer-actor Justin Timberlake, 38, for the role. his second choice, Venom star Tom hardy, 41, didn’t work out, either.
OF Theresa May’s decision to quote the TV meerkats’ ad slogan ‘simples’ when taking the SNP’s portly windbag Ian Blackford MP to task, the BBC’s Andrew Neil notes: ‘The meerkat in question is Russian, Aleksandr Orlov. It’s yet further proof of how far Russia has penetrated our politics and clear evidence that the Kremlin is now controlling everything the Maybot says.’ Cheeky rascal!
CAN Lord ‘Charlie’ Falconer, 67, asked by Jeremy Corbyn to probe anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, make this festering problem disappear? he advised his exflatmate – our then PM, Tony Blair – to announce an inquiry into the 2003 death of Iraq WMd expert dr david Kelly, kicking the affair into the long grass. Another Labour friend, Shami Chakrabarti, has already declared the party free of anti-Semitism. Like Falconer, she was elevated to the Lords.
COCKY-sounding BBC business presenter Dominic O’Connell is overheard on Radio 4’s Today offering an unflattering assessment of Ocado after news of its ‘joint venture’ with Marks & Spencer. Kiwi O’Connell inquired on air: ‘Will vans still be Ocado, or over time will they become M&S vans?’ Afterwards he muttered: ‘Ocado ... disaster.’ There’s a golden rule in broadcasting: you’re never alone with a microphone.
WhY did the Independent Group of MPs have their photo-opportunity snap taken in Nando’s, a fast-food chicken restaurant? To smother suggestions that they’re a metropolitan liberal elite. Yet their star member Chuka Umunna is a smartypants London MP paid £65,040 for extra-Parliamentary work on top of his MP’s salary of £77,379. Not a typical Nando’s customer.