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1 month ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
Dominic Cummings's wife Mary Wakefield believes her husband is smitten with her new kitten George, telling The Spectator: 'In the pre-George era Dom's usual monologue, reading the political news of the day, went like this, 'Gah! Bastards. Clowns. Idiots.' Just 24 hours after George arrived, it took a new turn, 'Gah! Bastards. Clowns. Idiots… Oh, hello.
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1 month ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Only 150 Royal Society fellows turn up for vote on Elon Musk's membership - preventing him from being booted outBy EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE FOR THE DAILY MAIL Published: 19:09 EST, 6 March 2025 | Updated: 19:10 EST, 6 March 2025 Only 150 of the Royal Society's 1,700 fellows bothered to turn up for a vote on Elon Musk's membership – preventing him from being booted out.
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1 month ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
Might King Charles, planning Queen Camilla's 80th birthday celebrations, commission a portrait of his consort? It might expunge memories of the last royal 80th daub – Rolf Harris's painting of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Does it still exist? A source whispers that after the disgraced Harris left prison in 2017 he destroyed many of his paintings in a rage after they plummeted in value.
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1 month ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
Didn't Keir Starmer, in the Oval Office, positively simper when President Trump pointed to the bust of Winston Churchill? ‘It has been restored to its rightful place,’ mewled the PM. Keir, feverishly genuflecting before Trump, hadn’t time to explain that he’d ordered the removal of portraits of Churchill from Whitehall.
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1 month ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
Keir Starmer didn’t earn any Brownie points with King Charles by publicly handing over his state-visit invitation to President Donald Trump. Charles would have preferred for the envelope to be delivered in private and the contents not divulged. The last time such an invitation, formally the Manu Regia, was done in front of the cameras was in Beijing ten years ago.
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1 month ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
EPRAHIM HARDCASTLE: Last batch of the late Queen's patronages are re-allocatedBy EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE FOR THE DAILY MAIL Published: 18:11 EST, 27 February 2025 | Updated: 18:12 EST, 27 February 2025 The last batch of the late Queen’s patronages – all 376 of them – have now been re-allocated. The majority of them to Charles and Camilla. William and Kate were persuaded to take on one, the Royal Marsden NHS Trust.
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2 months ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
King Charles doesn’t have much luck with popes. His and Camilla’s visit to the Holy See in early April might be problematical given Pope Francis’s indisposition. In 2005, their wedding was delayed by a day as Charles had to represent his mother at the funeral of John Paul ll. In 1985, he and then wife Diana met Pope John Paul on an official tour but were forbidden by the Queen from attending a Roman Catholic Mass.
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2 months ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
Podcasting former Newsnight glamour puss Emily Maitlis is ticked off by co-host Jon Sopel after she wails of President Donald Trump: ‘[Britain] being a supplicant to a psychopath! He’s a psychopath, Jon!’Ex-BBC North America editor Sopel advises his excitable colleague: ‘I disagree with you totally. I think to call him a psychopath is just name-calling and doesn’t get you anywhere.’Indeed so. Might ticking off Emily get Jon an audience with Psycho Donald when he hears of it?
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2 months ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
Does non-golfer Starmer regret his inability to play a conciliatory nine holes with Trump this week? Not if he peruses a copy of Rick Reilly’s Commander In Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump. ‘He doesn’t just cheat at golf,’ writes Reilly. ‘He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies.
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2 months ago | 
dailymail.co.uk | Ephraim Hardcastle
Has Prince Edward finally overcome the ridicule of It's a Royal Knockout? As organiser of the TV show he was mocked by the late Queen's biographer Ben Pimlott, who called it an 'excruciating mistake'. According to Channel 5's Edward: 60 Years a Prince, which airs tomorrow, the answer is yes. 'He's almost on track to becoming something of a national treasure,' says historian Dr Tessa Dunlop. Will Edward express his gratitude to Tessa by saying 'thanks for sounding so bloody enthusiastic'?
