Rishi’s surprise poll call has given King Charles the jitters over next month’s state visit by Japan’s Emperor Naruhito.
The Prime Minister and the Home and Foreign Secretaries have high-profile roles in the event, which could be deemed inappropriate so close to an election.
Naruhito’s schedule also includes speaking to MPs and peers at Westminster – impossible given that Parliament is about to be dissolved. While details are being amended, officials are also considering alternative dates.
The visit has already been postponed because of the pandemic.
Zara Tindall’s husband Mike, roped in by Prince William with younger royals Beatrice and Eugenie to help host a Buckingham Palace garden party, declared: ‘From the Firm to the Fam.’
Older flunkies seeking a translation were told it was youth speak for family.
Six months after being let go as a presenter on BBC Radio Wales after accusing the then-home secretary Suella Braverman of debasing democracy and declaring ‘We’re ashamed of you. Go now’, Carol Vorderman accuses the BBC of using its social media rules to restrict what people do in their private lives.
Methinks Gabby Carol is using the Radio Times to plug her forthcoming book Out of Order: What’s Gone Wrong With Britain And One Woman’s Mission to Fix It.
The BBC got in a tangle last week, pulling Amol Rajan from hosting Have I Got News For You but leaving Conservative peer Ruth Davidson on the panel.
Curiously, Rajan did appear on BBC One just 24 hours later in Doctor Who, hosting general election coverage… in 2046.
Only one retiring MP, Clwyd West’s David Jones, bothered to thank Hansard staff, saying: ‘I have no doubt that they will faithfully transcribe the names of some of the loveliest villages of my constituency: Llanrhaeadr, Llansannan, Llangernyw, Llanarmon-yn-Iâl, Clawddnewydd, Clocaenog and Cyffylliog whose people I have been privileged to serve, and who I will miss so very much.’
What’s the Paddy Power odds that the overworked stenographers didn’t appreciate the gratitude of Welsh Windbag Jones?
Former Chester Tory MP Gyles Brandreth champions daughter Aphra’s bid to become Conservative MP for the newly formed constituency of Chester South and Eddisbury.
He once quipped: ‘I can tell you that the one thing I really, really couldn’t bear when I was an MP were my constituents,’ adding: ‘Happiness is the constituency in the rear-view mirror.’
Fingers crossed his cheeky comments don’t come back to haunt Aphra.
No coconut for guessing which previously smitten wife once mewled: ‘You can have all the compliments and the flowers but then, if Eamonn comes home and has used my car and he goes, “Filled the petrol up and did your water bottle,” I’m like, “Get upstairs right now!”.’
Can you hum the first few bars of Those Were The Days, Ruth?