Ephraim Hardcastle
Is the June 8 general election curtains for the Speaker, John Bercow? Having pledged to serve ‘no longer than nine years’ – taking him up to 2018 – he then said he wanted to remain until 2020. He’d still have to bow out, whoever is in power then – unless the rascal changes his mind again.
DAME Joan Bakewell, 84, pictured in her prime, whose play about her 1960s extramarital affair with Harold Pinter, has its debut on Radio 4 this weekend, says the late playwright reminisced about their clandestine romance until the end of his life, saying when they met: ‘We did have fun, didn’t we, Joan?’ Dame Joan says: ‘And yes we did.’ No doubt she squared this with his still-grieving widow, historian Lady Antonia Fraser.
BLUSTERING Labour peer Baron Falconer accuses the Prime Minister on daytime Tv of ‘sheer opportunism’ over the general election. isn’t he an expert? He once shared a flat with his university chum Tony Blair. as a result, Charlie, by then a known lawyer, was offered a political career. Sooner than risk fighting a parliamentary election – and, as a Labour candidate, coming under pressure to send his children to a state school – the once-chubby, now thinner Falconer opportunistically (some might think) accepted a peerage and became Lord Chancellor. Which is now the basis for his career as a rent-a-quote Tv mouthpiece.
TWO vacancies to the 26-strong Order of the Garter, an honour in the Queen’s sole gift, are due to be filled. There’s currently only one woman Garter member – Eliza Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5. HM was criticised last year for replacing the late Baroness Soames, Churchill’s daughter, with Lord Shuttleworth, her top man at the Duchy of Lancaster. Why might there be a royal bias against women? ‘The Queen Mother opposed the idea of women in an order of chivalry,’ explains my source.
STAND-OFFISH Charlotte Rampling, OBE, 71, pictured in her prime, asked (by Reader’s Digest) if she identifies with her ‘ice queen’ image, replies: ‘When i’m with people i trust, i’m very lovable and funny. But that’s just when i’m feeling trustful. i don’t feel it very much with other people.’ a pity, surely, but will many of us care much about Paris-based Charlotte’s difficulties over communing with ‘other people’?
PRINCE William tells us: ‘There may be a time and place for the stiff upper lip but not at the expense of your (mental) health.’ Many agree, but what alternative does the dictionary suggest for ‘stiff upper lip’? Cowardice, diffidence and fear seem to be the main offerings.
QUOTE of the day: political commentator Dan Hodges, son of movie star (and ex-Labour MP) Glenda Jackson, who suggested at the weekend that Theresa May might retire early due to ill health, says on Sky: ‘No one saw this coming.’ Well, Dan didn’t!