Sir Keir's Italian love affair
World leaders gathering at the G7 next week in Canada tend to have a soft spot for Italy's Giorgia Meloni, and it seems that Sir Keir Starmer is no exception. When ministers receive gifts worth more than £140, they can choose to pay the difference or hand them over to the Exchequer.
Government documents reveal that Starmer – a devoted Gunners fan – chose not to stump up the cash to pay for a gifted replica trophy and football shirt he was given by legendary Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger. Yet he paid for a hamper costing more than £140 handed to him by Meloni in April. Truly a new rapporto speciale has begun.
The PM and Queenie
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer kindly offered me condolences after our beloved 18-year-old terrier Queenie died this week. 'I was sorry to hear about your dog,' he said, before I interviewed him for GB News. 'Poor old Larry is not looking so good this morning – he is 17,' the PM added, referring to Downing Street's legendary cat. Keep going Larry!
Pint of the usual
Nigel Farage has popped into the Talbot pub in Blackpool – the UK's first ever pub devoted to his party Reform UK – to have a pint of its new Pilsner lager called Remainer Tears (£2.20 a pint). Pub co-owner Pete Flynn says: 'It refreshes the parts that other beers cannot get to.' The pub has been offering a meal deal of gammon, egg and chips, with a pint of Remainer Tears, for a fiver. A true Brexit dividend!
Jail break
Claire Hanna, the SDLP MP, billed the taxpayer for a visit to a jail-themed escape room in April last year, at a cost of £240. The activity centre – Belfast's Prison Island – is apparently 'like an escape room only better', offering 31 prison-themed challenges in purpose- built cells, requiring a combination of 'intellectual, technical and physical skills'. It was presumably a team building exercise but is this a solution to the prison overcrowding crisis?
Tony's sliding doors
Ex-Spandau Ballet lead singer Tony Hadley has revealed what he would be if he weren't a pop star. 'Orthopaedic surgeon,' he tells Devon Life magazine. 'I'm not squeamish – I even wanted to watch my own knee op. But I wasn't good enough at maths to do it.'
Brutal end
Actor Robert Glenister was inspired to tread the boards when he saw the great Alan Howard's starring role in a 1978 production of Coriolanus by the Royal Shakespeare Company, at London's Aldwych Theatre. 'Later on I was lucky enough to work with him twice,' he says. 'The first time was when I murdered him in an episode of Midsomer Murders. I said: 'You're one of the reasons I wanted to become an actor.' And then whacked him over the head.'
Sleep's dance
Former dancer Wayne Sleep has shed light on when he taught Princess Diana to dance to Billy Joel's Uptown Girl at the Royal Opera House in London in December 1985. 'When I first met her at the Palace she was in a pink leotard, leg warmers and jazz shoes,' he said at Crazy Coqs cabaret in Piccadilly. 'When we did the dance for Charles, I told her she would have to bow to the Royal Box and she said 'I am not bowing to him. He is my hubby.' I had to bow. As we went off stage she said 'You won't get your OBE that way'.'
Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave a copy of her Commons speech to her opposite number Mel Stride before the Spending Review this week, as is custom. Sadly for Stride, much of it was redacted, presumably for reasons of market sensitivity. Is this how to hide a fiscal black hole?
The Sex Pistol of politics
John Lydon – formerly Johnny Rotten in the punk band the Sex Pistols says that Donald Trump is 'probably a bad man' but he is what the US needs. He told the The Michael Anthony Show podcast: 'The business of America is broke and you need a businessman in to fix it... If you lived the past four years in America, the Democrat party ran the country into the ground. Trump is a wrecking ball. You might loathe him as a human being but he shakes up the s----dom. Business as usual is not working. I said years ago that Trump is the Sex Pistols of politics.'
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