Ephraim Hardcastle
As Prince Workshy and Duchess Do Little, aka William and Kate, head for Paris on Friday will the Brussels-supporting French politicos they meet conceal their displeasure over our retreat from the EU? ‘The possibility of them being booed, or heckled, on their walkabouts, or finding some barbed comments in the welcoming speeches, is a cause for concern,’ says a royal source.
WITH EU membership the supposed imperative for trying to trigger another independence referendum, the SNP ought to be walking on eggshells on matters Continental. Seems the caterers at Holyrood haven’t got the memo, though. They were serving up Catalan chicken yesterday. A dish from the restive Spanish region is unlikely to endear us to Madrid, which holds a veto over an independent Scotland joining the EU. The separatists are in a right stew, it seems.
FAMOUs for his books about Hitler, Churchill and Napoleon, historian Andrew Roberts, 54, is also an admired member of society salons in London and New York. Is this why his less well-known uncle, actor Christian Roberts, 72, is issuing a memoir sourly entitled Thank God I’m Not Famous? Uncle Christian, who played a school bully in the 1967 film To sir With Love, mentions a rather downto-earth detail – that the family’s fortune was secured by his brother (and Andrew’s father) simon, who met the late Colonel sanders, pictured, in the 1960s and acquired the franchises here for 50 Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon does have a sense of humour, despite appearances to the contrary. When a critic sneered on Twitter that she’ll demand a rematch of last weekend’s England v Scotland rugby game, which the Scots lost 61-21, she responded impishly: ‘Who leaked this?’
FORMER ITV weathercaster sian Lloyd’s dislike of Tony Blair is undying. she said during the unveiling of the Iraq and Afghan war memorial by the Queen: ‘sickening & insulting. Blair is a liar = Bliar! There was Bliar, bold as brass. The man STILL doesn’t get it.’ The background: Ms Lloyd, 58, was married to motor racing entrepreneur Jonathan Ashman. His daughter, suzanne, married Blair’s son, Euan, in 2013. sian was banned from this event, perhaps in part because of her criticism of Blair. Two years later, she and Ashman parted.
HAVING reported on the US presidential election then on the French political scene in February, retired Radio 4 presenter James Naughtie, 65, surfaces on the Today show discussing the SNP’s referendum bid. He also has a show about books on Radio 4. ‘It’s like the Eagles song Hotel California, Jim checked out but he’ll never leave Radio 4,’ says an admirer.
BROADCASTER and ex-Tory MP Gyles Brandreth, 69, met David Cameron the other day and asked if the former PM slept at night now, adding: ‘He replied immediately, “Yes, I sleep like a baby. Every hour I wake up crying Mummy!”’ Email: peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk