Scottish Daily Mail

Ephraim Hardcastle

- Email: john.mcentee@dailymail.co.uk

THE Queen is expected to take a relaxed attitude to Prince Michael’s alleged Cash for Putin endeavours. HM has become increasing­ly phlegmatic about royals who are not on the official payroll earning a crust. This includes grandson Peter Phillips promoting milk in China as a ‘British Royal Family member’. And not all the loot from Charles’s Duchy Organics goes to charity. He also pays William and Kate’s rent at Kensington Palace, a perk not enjoyed by Prince Michael. Since 2010, he and Princess Michael have had to find the extra cash to pay the full commercial tariff on their fivebedroo­m Kensington Palace apartment.

THE absence of Prince Philip’s old throne at the State Opening of Parliament underlined his torturous route to acceptance as the Queen’s consort at the event. It was made in 1901 as a consort’s throne for Queen Alexandra, and Philip – neither anointed nor crowned – was obliged to sit on a Chair of State far off on his wife’s left in the early days of HM’s reign. Finally, the Queen commanded that Philip, as consort in all but title, sit next to her.

WILL Tracey Emin, pictured, ever again ask East End neighbours Gilbert and George for help with her groceries? ‘They carried my shopping home once, and it was the two smallest bags of shopping!’ recalls Tracey. ‘As the three of us walked down the road I knew it looked really good, they knew it looked really good.’ She adds: ‘They are performanc­e artists. Everything they do is performing.’

IN Cabinet with PM John Major, Michael Heseltine recalls a white-faced civil servant passing a piece of paper to Major, who looked at it aghast before slipping it to Ken Clarke. ‘He looked at it with dismay. Nobody said anything but half an hour later there was a repeat performanc­e,’ Heseltine tells the Cambridge Union. ‘The Cabinet meeting ended and the bits of paper were on the table and I picked one of them up. It said “79 for six” and it was a cricket score.’ Priorities!

MARCUS Berkmann’s book Pop Miscellany reveals that Bing Crosby’s two surviving sons, Harry, 62, and Nathaniel, 59, have yet to receive a dollar from their father, who died in 1977. The millionair­e crooner set up a blind trust, only paying out when his boys reached the age of 65. ‘Three sons didn’t make it, two shooting themselves and the third dying of lung cancer,’ writes Berkmann. ‘Only Philip benefited, before dying of a heart attack aged 69. That worked pretty well, then.’

WILL Prince Harry be sending a placatory card to Prince Charles on Father’s Day next month? He won’t find any inspiratio­n at Buckingham Palace’s royal gift shop. It has just dispatched a missive to subscriber­s: ‘We understand that Father’s Day can be difficult for some, and you may prefer not to receive emails on this topic.’

INVETERATE diary writer Michael Palin struggled to find topics during the pandemic. ‘There was a tendency to spend hours staring out of the window,’ he reflects. ‘For the diary’s sake I had to make identical days feel different, even if all I did was come up stairs backwards.’

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