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Telegraph
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Gove's future revealed: Overindulgence and impulsiveness
Mary Rees-Mogg – Jacob's 16-year-old daughter – used her Tarot cards to help former Cabinet minister Michael Gove predict his future on GB News' Chopper's Political Podcast. Gove's chosen cards told how his past had 'created something of lasting value', which is one way to describe 14 years of Tory government, while in the future he was warned to 'beware of overindulgence or impulsiveness to regain balance in your life'. Good advice now he is back in journalism. Editors' dispute There was little love lost between newspaper grandees Alan Rusbridger and James Harding when Harding defended his purchase of The Observer against criticism from Rusbridger on his Media Confidential podcast. 'You had looked at closing it,' Harding said to Rusbridger, an ex-editor in chief of The Guardian. 'Ooh – this is getting interesting,' chipped in podcast co-host and ex-FT editor Lionel Barber. The conversation moved on. But a clearly stung Rusbridger admitted he had looked at replacing the 233-year-old Sunday paper with a Guardian on Sunday in 2009. Rusbridger later got his revenge, accusing Harding of nearly quitting his Tortoise website for CNN, saying: 'You were down to the last three.' Harding replied: 'I picked up the phone.' Gentlemen, please! Unpopular Nigel Veteran actor Nigel Havers hates his first name and says no baby has been called it for at least five years. Havers, 73, star of Chariots of Fire and Empire of the Sun, says: 'I hate the name Nigel. I think it's a silly name. And it's often parodied isn't it? Often in sketches the foolish sort of hooray is called Nigel.' He adds: 'More people were christened Lucifer than they were Nigel in the past few years. That's a fact.' Is there a more unpopular Christian name? Sex Pistol's wheelchair riot An evening speaking engagement with former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon – aka 'Johnny Rotten' – in Leicester 'ended up with two women in wheelchairs fighting', the 69-year old says. 'Their husbands had their walking sticks and they were waving them about. It was bizarre. I thought 'How do you handle this one?' It was like a bingo riot. I found out it was all over their wheelchair space. I thought 'Life is full of surprises? Should I use that as a sign to give up and retire?' Then I thought 'No. I want the front row to be full of iron lungs next time.'' Wes 4 PM Downing St photographers have found a novel way of getting Wes Streeting's attention when he comes out of the famous black door. 'Morning Prime Minister,' shouted one last week. The Health Secretary gave them a winning smile. I wonder why? Ringo's memorabilia Ringo Starr's son Zak – who turns 60 this year – never asks his 85-year-old father about what it was like to drum in The Beatles. 'The only information I get about The Beatles is when my dad volunteers it. I never ask. I have not seen [Peter Jackson's film] Get Back and I would like to watch it with him,' he tells me. 'I was saving up to watch it with him and he says: 'One, I was there. Two, I have seen it, and three, it is six hours long'.' Ringo's common sense has never left him. No Anglican Conclave Following papal thriller Conclave's Bafta film success, Robert Harris, author of the original 2016 novel, rules out a book based on the present controversies engulfing the Church of England. 'It's not quite got the 'oomph', has it, of the Vatican?' Harris says. 'Lambeth Palace – very pleasant place. But it's not exactly like St Peter's Basilica.' The closet Yodeller After I reported how the Rev Richard Coles said his ambition was to be a yodeller, Lynne Nash, who is working on a new book called The Closet Yodeller, gets in touch with some tips. 'If you can find a break in your voice then it's a start. Yodelling involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the chest voice and the head voice,' she advises. Nash – who yodels as Yodellynne – was a closet yodeller until she 'came out' in 2007 whilst gigging at an event where every one was very drunk. 'It went down well and I've been yodelling ever since,' she says. This could catch on.
Telegraph
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
‘70pc chance' Reform and Tories will merge, says Conservative grandee
There is a 70 per cent chance of the Tories and Reform UK merging ahead of the next general election, a senior Conservative MP has said. Sir Edward Leigh, who has been a Tory MP since 1983 and is now the Father of the House as the longest-serving male MP, said the chances of a deal being done were high. His comments came just days after Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, dismissed the idea of an election pact with Nigel Farage's party. There have been calls from senior former Tory ministers for Mrs Badenoch to consider some form of deal with Reform to end the split on the Right. Asked what he believed the betting odds were of Reform and the Tories merging by the next general election, Sir Edward told GB News's Chopper's Political Podcast: 'Oh, I think very high.' When asked if he believed it to be 'odds on', the MP replied: '70 per cent I should think. Or if not merger [a deal of some sort].' Sir Edward was also asked if he believed Mrs Badenoch would lead the Tories into the next election. He said: 'I have no idea. I wish her well. But I have to say going back in history we did burn through three leaders after we lost badly in 1997 before we got to one who won. 'So, whoever is leader at the moment, and by the way if Robert Jenrick had won people would be criticising him and saying he is a Tory boy, he is out of touch. 'So who knows who is going to lead us into the next [election] but I wish her well.' In an interview with The Telegraph this week to mark her 100th day as Conservative leader, Mrs Badenoch warned that striking a deal with Reform would drive away Tory voters who did not want to see her 'get into bed' with Mr Farage. Mrs Badenoch said: 'The Conservative Party is a broad church. When we had disagreements, what people saw was disunity. We've now got a place where we are unified. 'The idea that you just do something with a whole different bunch of people and it's going to be fine is for the birds. Politics just doesn't work like that. 'There are many people who vote Conservative, who if they think that we're having mergers or pacts or whatever with Reform, will go elsewhere.' Mr Farage has said his party would not make a pact with the Conservatives because they were not 'honourable'. He said earlier this week: 'After the betrayal post the 2019 election, we do not believe them to be honourable. Simple as that, so the answer is no.' Reform is now topping opinion polls, equal with Labour on 25 per cent of the vote, according to an average of recent results. The Tories trail on 22 per cent.
