EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Camilla doesn’t follow Prince Philip’s lead
Why isn’t Queen Camilla continuing the Prince Philip consort tradition of laying a Cenotaph wreath alongside the monarch’s?
Surely it can’t be related to the long-harboured resentment in the military over her ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles being given command of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 14 years before Camilla got married to Charles.
There was at least one resignation over the job going to a non-vet.
Tom Watson was incandescent when Theresa May failed to veto predecessor David Cameron’s 2016 resignation honours list, fulminating: ‘The fact she has allowed this cronyism to go ahead shows that the Tories will always put their own interests first.’ But when Liz Truss didn’t veto Boris Johnson’s list last month the former Labour deputy leader was as mute as a Trappist. On the list was a peerage for the man who trashed the reputation of so many good people on the word of someone who turned out to be a fantasist. Arise Baron Watson of Operation Midland!
Matt Hancock asks his West Suffolk constituents to get in touch, posting on his website: ‘I want to hear your thoughts on the cancellation of bus routes 11 and 12.’ Adding: ‘I’m here to help with constituency matters regardless of how you voted, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.’ Petitions on a postcard to Slime and Maggot Corner, c/o Ant and Dec, Australia.
When Helena Bonham Carter played Princess Margaret in seasons three and four of The Crown she consulted the Queen’s sister with the help of a medium.
‘You’re better than the other one’ was Margaret’s verdict, not a great review for predecessor Vanessa Kirby.
Does Helena, pictured, dare fire up the Ouija board to ask Madge about the performance of her successor Lesley Manville?
Blue Peter fans, long grown up, avert your eyes. Presenter Valerie Singleton, 85, confesses to not being universally fond of children. In the new ‘bookazine’ Radio Times: The Sixties, she says: ‘Some kids I liked and enjoyed spending time with. Other kids, I couldn’t abide.’ Adding: ‘One thing that always drove me mad was people saying, ‘Do you like children?’ It’s ridiculous. People never say, ‘Do you like grown-ups?’
Former BBC news chief Roger Mosey has attracted the ire of Dame Esther Rantzen by urging the replacement of daytime quiz shows with more news programmes. ‘Filling the day with bad news can be depressing,’ she says. Better to have a compilation from That’s Life! of Esther’s talking ‘sausage’ dogs?
We may never know what King Charles makes of the new series of The Crown. However, his chum author Robert Harris recalls him watching Shakespeare’s history plays including Henry V. ‘To him they were the equivalent of EastEnders,’ he reveals.