Ephraim Hardcastle
WITH the petition to have Boris’s name added to the Tory leadership ballot garnering thousands of signatures, the Queen is now receiving letters from supporters urging her to keep him in post. After 70 years on the throne, the Queen doesn’t intend to start meddling in politics now. However, as Boris hasn’t yet resigned — he has a meeting scheduled with HM on September 5 to recommend his successor — what if he chooses not to attend, threatening a constitutional crisis? A Buckingham Palace source advises that the monarch will rise above the political fray, insisting the Conservative Party sort out its own mess. Adds my mole: ‘She won’t be sending the Household Cavalry round to evict him.’
ALTHOUGH the next PM will not have to swear an oath of office, Buckingham Palace may consider acquiring a copy of the Bhagavad Gita should Rishi Sunak be elected. He would be the first Hindu PM and swears any oaths on the Hindu scriptures. When Sadiq Khan joined the Privy Council in 2009 he had to take his own copy of the Koran along as the Palace didn’t have one. He left it behind for the benefit of his fellow Muslims. Counsellors swearing on the Khan Koran miss out on something only the Christians get — a copy of the Bible inscribed by the Lord President of the Council. Signing the Koran is considered sacrilege.
DID Rishi’s hopes rise when he first met the Queen after joining the Cabinet and she observed with a twinkle: ‘I see eye to eye with him’? It is HM’s standard remark on meeting someone of similar stature to her. She is 5ft 3in, Sunak 5ft 6in. HM spends most of the time looking up at her courtiers and politicians.
DAME Joan Collins’s daughter Tara Newley, pictured, eagerly working with late father Tony Newley ‘ from beyond the grave’ after his script for a musical about Richard III was rediscovered, hopes the show will end up in the
West End. Compare with the familial furore caused by younger brother Alexander ‘Sacha’ Newley when he suggested in his 2017 memoir that his father, who died in 1999, was guilty of paedophilia. Dame Joan complained at the time: ‘I think Sacha’s being extremely naive and not really knowing the meaning of that word.’
LORD Trimble, who died on Monday, was once aghast when Ulster Secretary Mo Mowlam, whom he didn’t trust, insisted on cheekily flashing her knickers at him. ‘It’s lucky they were orange, not green!’ Mo’s minister of state Adam Ingram remarked at the time. Mowlam replied: ‘It’s lucky I was wearing any!’
COMIC Marcus Brigstocke tells Radio Times that his infant son will soon be enjoying Netflix’s pre-school series Cocomelon, adding: ‘One thing’s for sure, this won’t be a Peppa Pig household. She does too much fat-shaming of her father and she’s a bad friend to Suzy Sheep. She’s just a bad person — or pig.’ Apparently, Marcus, she oinks very highly of you!