Ephraim Hardcastle
THE King, launching his Coronation Food Project next week, hopes to reduce food waste by diverting surplus from supermarkets to those in need. The royal food banks may find themselves with a lot of coronation chicken to distribute, a staple invented for his mother’s 1953 crowning. But there won’t be much surplus coronation quiche, which was created for his own. The dish involving broad beans, spinach and tarragon has failed to tickle the nation’s taste buds. Jacob Rees-Mogg, usually guaranteed to endorse anything with a royal imprimatur, pontificates: ‘I don’t like quiche, it’s disgusting, I wouldn’t dream of having it – and it’s got broad beans in it, which are loathsome.’
WAS King Charles irked that his inaugural State opening speech clashed with William’s Earthshot prize-giving? And that his visit to Kenya had to fight for airtime with William and Kate’s resumption of near daily photo opportunities after their children’s half term break? To avoid future publicity clashes HM hopes to get the family to co-ordinate their diaries when they gather at Sandringham for Christmas. Alas, no amount of mince pies or crackers will quell the unscheduled public caterwauling from California.
BLUE Peter legend Valerie Singleton chokes on her cornflakes reading my story about Princess Anne’s claim that the BBC couldn’t be trusted after her 1971 Blue Peter Kenyan safari with Valerie. Anne alleged footage had been inserted of lion cubs being born when they didn’t see any animals. ‘We saw a lot of animals,’ insists Valerie, pictured in her prime. ‘A huge lion which Anne addressed, “Hey you, king of the jungle” and which she growled at, a female lion, giraffes, zebras and a cheetah with its cubs. I’m afraid the Princess Royal has suffered a memory lapse.’
JEWISH Chronicle columnist Stephen Pollard notes Gary Lineker’s enthusiasm for tweeting his objection to Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s description of pro-Palestine gatherings as hate marches, adding: ‘For Lineker, the only noteworthy event worth mentioning on October 7 was Tottenham’s success.’ ‘Super Spurs are top of the league’, he posted after the massacre unfolded that day.
APPEARING alongside biographer Lord Ashcroft at the annual Crimestoppers dinner, Sky’s Martin Brunt noted both had new books out by the same publisher. ‘One is about the dreadful deeds of a small section of society which chooses to live outside the rules of normal behaviour,’ observed Martin. ‘And mine’s about crime.’ OMAR Sharif complained about his failure as a name-dropper when he tried to book a table at a Pizza Express in Manchester. After being told there were no tables, Sharif, who died in 2015 aged 72, said: ‘Can I leave my name and if a table comes up you call me. I said “It’s Omar Sharif”, and I gave them a number. And the girl said “Right you are Mr Sharif, if anything comes up we’ll let you know”. They didn’t.’ Shouldn’t the Lawrence of Arabia star have pretended to be Prince Andrew?