Ephraim Hardcastle

CRITICISED from all sides for his role in the disastrous ‘Project Fear’ campaign prior to the referendum, ex-chancellor (and chief Remainer) George Osborne tweets his approval of the Channel 4 film Brexit: The Uncivil War, saying: ‘That was a pretty good drama – and painful.’ Might it have been painful for George personally if they hadn’t scrapped plans to have him portrayed in the drama? Incidentally, the portrayal of then No 10 director of communications Craig Oliver seemed positive. Of course, Sir Craig (as he now is) was an adviser to the programme. A final thought, from Brexiteer ex-MP Douglas Carswell: ‘If Vote Leave had lost, would they have made TV films showing us as heroic failures, the way they laud Craig Oliver and Co?’ STRIKING presenter Emma Freud, 56, daughter of the late, disgraced Liberal MP and broadcaster Sir Clement Freud and a mother of four, confides on social media: ‘I went to [a] tantric sex workshop for an article.’ Will her longtime partner – movie writer Richard Curtis of Notting Hill fame – be a beneficiary, or a victim, of Emma’s research? Her great-grandfather, the psychoanalyst Dr Sigmund Freud, took a dim view generally of female sexuality. COMMENTING on BBC Breakfast about Ed Miliband’s appearance on the show, its beyond-bland presenter Dan Walker remarks: ‘I always thought there was a potentially capable leader in there who was shackled by advisers and spin doctors who were terrified of allowing him to be himself.’ So that was Ed’s problem?! LABOUR MP Stephen Pound has annoyed parliamentary authorities for repeatedly turning a bust of Oliver Cromwell to the wall whenever he passes it. His leader Jeremy Corbyn isn’t thought to share Pound’s dislike of Cromwell, who signed Charles I’s death warrant and was vehemently opposed to the royalist cause. NEWSNIGHT’S Emily Maitlis pluckily asks Romania’s foreign minister, TeodorViorel Meleşcanu, if his mired-in-corruption country is fit to assume the presidency of the EU. Why didn’t they choose incisive Emily for Question Time instead of Fiona Bruce, who already reads the BBC news and presents Antiques Roadshow as well as the Fake Or Fortune art show? AS A rugby star, Mike Tindall, husband of royal equestrian Zara Phillips, had his nose broken at least eight times. Thatcher biographer Charles Moore said he resembled ‘a Geordie nightclub bouncer’. Now it has been reshaped. Tindall says: ‘I thought it was time. The old one had a U-bend in it.’ Perhaps the not-always-reliable Moore will retract his unkind judgment. TORY life peer (and The Apprentice adviser) Baroness Brady announces: ‘House of Lords – just to make it clear, despite being a full-time CEO, I voted in 55 per cent of debates, speak once a month and have NEVER EVER taken a PENNY of the daily allowances, expenses or fees. Quantity has never equalled quality. I will keep doing my part, proudly.’