Ephraim Hardcastle
PRINCE ANDREW, laden with slings and arrows from the Epstein affair, suffers a final Royal demotion. He can no longer ride out on the Queen’s horses at Windsor. He has been advised that pictures of him on horseback in Windsor Great Park with his mother would create what one Royal retainer describes as an ‘inappropriate impression’. Whether HM overrules her advisers remains to be seen.
HARRY and Meghan’s reputed private security bill of £7,000 per day will cost the exiled couple £2.5million annually, even more than they owe the taxpayer for the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage. That £2.4million debt is being repaid at a sedate rate of £18k a month under a ‘rental-plus’ arrangement with no breakdown given as to how much of that is rent and how much is repayment. There is also no mention of interest or who is funding the ongoing maintenance and security for Frogmore.
PRINCE Charles moans at not being able to open Highgrove’s gardens for charity because of coronavirus. It hasn’t prevented the Queen from opening those at Sandringham to the public the next two weekends. Why the difference? Charles is patron of the National Garden Scheme, which is keeping his gardens closed till the end of June. Such restrictions do not apply to his mum.
FURTHER evidence that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is embarrassed by his knighthood. Yesterday he published a formal letter he’d sent to Boris. At the end it gave his name without his title. Why did Starmer accept a K if he was so appalled by the idea?
LEADER of the House Jacob ReesMogg’s insistence on live lobby voting prompts Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to observe: ‘I call it the Costco queue.’ Shouldn’t Sir Lindsay call a short adjournment to explain to Moggy what Costco is?
BBC VETERAN Tom Mangold slaps Emily Maitlis, pictured, on the wrist for editorialising, recalling his questioning of US military strategy during the Vietnam War after women and children were killed in a bombing raid. ‘The item was never transmitted and I was fired for passing personal opinions in a news report,’ he says, adding: ‘If we stop being scrupulously impartial we become just another network. Hard facts demonstrate their own truth.’
SIR Tom Jones, who turns 80 on Sunday, recalls his friend Elvis complaining about being recognised in restaurants, explaining: ‘I had to point out that the rhinestone suits, which he wore off stage as well as on stage, the massive hair and sideburns, and the huge dark glasses were not necessarily helping him in this area.’