Ephraim Hardcastle
HAVING turned down Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s offer to become his spin doctor, Sky’s Kay Burley appears to have bigger political ambitions. ‘I might want to be an MP,’ she tells The Spectator’s Katy Balls. Wouldn’t this mean quitting Sky News, where she’s their longest-serving star? ‘I think she’s talking a long game here,’ advises Ms Balls. RE the Queen and the Brexit crisis, our head of state is constitutionally obliged to sign Acts of Parliament into law. Royal assent hasn’t been withheld since 1708. In 1967, when abortion was controversially legalised, there were calls for HM to ‘temporarily abdicate’ rather than offer royal assent. She opted to do her duty. WILL the Duchess of York be invited to join the Royal Ascot carriage procession in June for the first time since her 1996 divorce from Prince Andrew? They share a home at Windsor’s Royal Lodge and a ski chalet in Verbier, Switzerland. Yet Andrew seemingly hasn’t gone far in getting Sarah back into the royal fold. She wasn’t seated with him and their daughters at the Harry-Meghan wedding. When she gets a rare invitation to Balmoral she stays at a cottage on the estate. However, due to the absence of her bete noire, Prince Philip, she did sneak into Ascot’s royal box last summer. SHADOW Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti, pictured, is asked on Radio 4 if she agrees with her colleague, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry, who seeks a second referendum. Shami evades the question, replying: ‘Obviously it’s a process thing, it’s not a substance thing.’ Interviewer Mishal Husain: ‘I don’t know what you mean by that. It was a simple question on whether you agree with Emily Thornberry or not.’ Is Corbyn-nominated Baroness Chakrabarti an adornment to the House of Lords? RETIRED Blair mouthpiece Alastair Campbell tweets: ‘Get panicked call from @Peston producer that the MPs they had booked for tonight’s [ITV] programme stuck in Commons votes so could I step in? OK. But I might have to mention #peoplesvote in every answer.’ He changed his Twitter name to ‘Alastair PEOPLE’S VOTE Campbell’. Since he opposed the 2016 referendum, what might be more appropriate? OCTOGENARIAN broadcaster Joan Bakewell, reviewing a book about the 1960s, recalls that stockings held up by suspender belts were popular then. Teasingly, she adds that playwright John Osborne told her he didn’t like women to wear tights because ‘they restrict access’. Lady Bakewell famously enjoyed a love affair with playwright Harold Pinter. Might she be hinting that she canoodled with Osborne, too? INTERIOR designer Nina Campbell gives a talk on home decor in Huntsville, Alabama, next week. Organisers promoting the event boast that Nina’s clients ‘include the Duke and Duchess of York, Rod Stewart and Ringo Starr’. La creme de la creme!