Ephraim Hardcastle

THE Prime Minister, David Cameron, is keen to revive a tradition initiated by predecessor Margaret Thatcher and award an honorary knighthood to President Barack Obama. Lady T recognised the US/UK so-called special relationship by gonging President Ronald Reagan as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). John Major gave the same honour to President George H Bush. However President Bill Clinton’s misdemeanours with Monica Lewinsky meant that he forfeited a GCB. So did President George W Bush due to the Iraq War. Cameron wants to lure Obama to London with a GCB, and one last UK photo opportunity, before America’s 44th president joins the lecture circuit and becomes unaffordable. I hear Dave floated the idea that Obama might become the first American to join the Order of the Garter, which is solely in the Queen’s gift, but HM was lukewarm. DEPUTY Labour leadership contender Angela Eagle, 54, is the subject of an embarrassing mix-up. Party officials wrongly put her twin sister and fellow party frontbencher Maria on the ballot paper in the London constituency of Streatham. Born 15 minutes apart, the Eagle stunners are often mistaken for one another in Parliament. After Angela revealed she was a lesbian in 1997, unmarried Maria pointed out that she was otherwise, adding: ‘I’m the only MP who has ever been outed as a heterosexual…’ RADIO TIMES interviewer Michael Buerk, pictured, told Katie Hopkins, 40, who has made a career out of expressing unpopular sentiments, that he could not agree with her view that there should be euthanasia vans to dispose of old folk in order to free up hospital beds. ‘Is that because you’re old?’ bold as brass Ms Hopkins inquired. Buerk, 69, should have seen it coming. STEREOTYPICAL Labour leftie and leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn, 66, likes to remind colleagues that he’s a winner. He’s won the ‘worst-dressed MP’ award no fewer than three times. BROADCASTER Andrew Marr, who is suspected of Labour leanings by some Tories, confirmed their suspicions by misreading The Sun on Sunday’s front page headline and telling viewers: ‘Lord Coke, Tory peer’s drug binges with £200 prostitutes.’ Appointed by Labour, Lord Sewel became a crossbench peer because of his Lords job. Marr’s slip might also have rattled the teacups at stately Holkham Hall, Norfolk, home of blameless Viscount Coke, heir to the Earl of Leicester. THE Queen is l i ving i n reduced circumstances this week, slumming it in Craigowan Lodge, a modest, sevenbedroom house on the Balmoral estate, which is currently open to the public. Visitors won’t see HM but she’ll peek at them. Using a powerful pair of binoculars, the monarch likes to inspect the tourists. ‘I think she enjoys calculating the likely day’s taking with each £11 entry fee,’ says my source. Since Balmoral’s her personal property, no revenue goes to HMRC. Queen Victoria bought the estate in the name of her husband, Prince Albert, for £32,000 in 1852, thus avoiding Civil List rules that would have compelled her to share revenues with the Treasury.