EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Confusion as Prince Andrew documents are embargoed until 2065
Biographer Andrew Lownie is miffed that documents concerning Prince Andrew are embargoed until 2065.
Held at The National Archives, the papers include legal advice from the Blair government about the legality of Charles and Camilla marrying at a register office.
This embargo will last until at least the death of King Charles. Former Labour Lord Chancellor, Charlie Falconer, used the 1998 Human Rights Act to circumvent the 1949 Marriage Act.
Curiously, Charles initially detested this legislation, writing to ministers opposing it: ‘It betrays a fundamental distortion in social and legal thinking.’ Presumably, he has softened a little since then.
Royals: Biographer Andrew Lownie (pictured) is miffed that documents concerning Prince Andrew are embargoed until 2065
Rishi and Akshata Sunak adopted the ‘Thatcher strategy’ of arriving late/leaving early during the annual visit by the PM to Balmoral.
They missed the traditional Braemar Gathering on the Saturday and departed after Sunday lunch, leaving no time to enjoy a barbecue among the midges nor to indulge in a bracing long walk.
The King continued his mother’s tradition of selecting books to be laid out in the guest bedroom, prompting a hasty search by a flunkey for a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu scripture.
The attendance of William and Kate, patrons of Wales and England rugby respectively, at the opening men’s matches in France might irk the Lionesses after Wills failed to make it to the final in Australia.
But Kate, pictured with Wills, is not blameless. Last November, ten months after she assumed her England rugby role from the late Queen, England’s women reached the World Cup final in Auckland, losing to the hosts. Kate was a no-show.
Game: The attendance of William and Kate, patrons of Wales and England rugby respectively, at the opening men’s matches in France might irk the Lionesses after Wills failed to make it to the final in Australia
With his election night successor Huw Edwards hors de combat, David Dimbleby is cheekily asked if he fancies a comeback? ‘Don’t tempt me, even to think of the question being asked,’ he says. ‘It’s completely out of the question. The BBC’s got to find somebody else to do it.’
Texas-born actress Gayle Hunnicutt, who died at the end of last month, once turned up on spouse David Hemmings’ Elstree film set to confront co-star Samantha Eggar, who was having an affair with her husband.
‘She went on to tell her ‘how the cows eat the cabbage’, as the Texans say,’ recalled Hemmings. ‘I couldn’t fault her for having the guts to do that in front of an entire crew and 200 extras.’
He subsequently found all his clothes on the street outside the marital flat in Old Brompton Road.
Former Marks and Spencer boss, Lord Rose, bewailing the virtual decriminal-isation of shoplifting, recalls in the 1980s racing after a man who had snatched £50 from one of his tills in Oxford Street.
‘I chased him into Selfridges,’ he told LBC’s Nick Ferrari. ‘As I went in, I shouted, ‘Stop that man!’, and a butcher on the Selfridges counter picked up a ham and knocked him flat.’ Is the technical term a hambush, Stuart?
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