EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Trade unionists have been invited to the past three coronations, should Mick Lynch be getting his suit measured?
When George V was crowned in 1911 the TUC was invited to send two trade unionists as guests to Westminster Abbey.
At his coronation in 1937, George VI doubled the number because he wanted the ‘working classes’ to be more visible amid the sea of ermine and tiaras.
And in 1953 prime minister Winston Churchill demanded that trade unionists be present in greater numbers than at previous coronations. Should Mick Lynch be getting measured at Moss Bros?
Should Mick Lynch be getting measured at Moss Bros?
King Charles, rehearsing his coronation with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in the Buckingham Palace throne room, was aged four when his mother was crowned. He has only vague memories of the process.
The late Queen kept a detailed private diary of her thoughts.
At the King’s request, her journal has been retrieved from the Royal Archive, providing a treasure trove of insights to help him and Justin with rehearsals.
At Monday’s Westminster Abbey Commonwealth Day service Charles and Camilla, pictured, sat on embroidered cushions, a comfort the Queen invariably declined.
While the King and Queen Consort traditionally have cushions sent on ahead for church services, William and Kate usually made do with a bare pew. Until now.
At the abbey they were perched on sumptuous silk-covered mini bolsters confirming their regal status with promotion to the royal cushion fraternity.
King Charles, Queen Camilla with Kate and William at Monday’s Westminster Abbey Commonwealth Day service
Fiona Bruce, forced to step back as an ambassador for a domestic abuse charity after the BBC Question Time furore over Stanley Johnson’s alleged wife beating, prefers to forget an earlier embarrassing accolade.
She happily posed for photographs after being named winner of Rear of the Year in 2010.
Red-faced Fiona later announced: ‘It was the most hypocritical, ridiculous, ludicrous thing I’ve ever done, and I know intellectually of course I shouldn’t do it because it’s demeaning.’
Gary Lineker’s unpatriotic view of the Union Jack has attracted the ire of Lady Bathurst, who berated him for tweeting: ‘I just can’t get excited by flags. Any flags.
They’re just pieces of cloth with a stick, right? Does it make me a bad person.’
She replied: ‘I’ve tried really hard, but I can’t get excited about crisps. Any crisps. They’re just slices of fried potato, right? Does this make me a bad person? No.’
Prince Philip roared with laughter when Whitehall mandarin Sir Hayden Phillips explained his failure to clear up the mess in St James’s Park caused by defecating Canada geese.
In his memoir Boy on a Bicycle, Phillips outlines his wheeze to drug the sleeping geese at night and have them released on the Norfolk-Suffolk coast, adding: ‘The geese arrived back at St James’s Park before my staff returned from their outing to the seaside.’
Despite working flat out to edit Alan Sugar’s risque ad-libs on The Apprentice, BBC staff occasionally slip up – as when he raged at a contestant’s dire advertising campaign for dog food.
‘The hound,’ he observed, ‘looked as confused as a baby on a topless beach.’
Source: Read Full Article
