EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Michael Cole bears Lady Hussey no ill will 

Michael Cole has been spouting on TV and radio defending Lady Susan Hussey (pictured) against allegations of racism, describing her as kind and charming. Surprising? 

There was no love lost between him and Lady Susan’s husband, ex-BBC chairman Duke Hussey, when Michael was demoted from his job as BBC royal correspondent in 1987 after journalist Andrew Morton betrayed his confidence that the Queen’s forthcoming Christmas message condemned the IRA. 

He was particularly irked that Hussey failed to support him. So why mount a media blitz in defence of Lady Hussey? 

‘I believe in fair play,’ he says. La classe!

Charles Moore asks how Ngozi Fulani, with a public record of criticising the Royal Family for racism, was allowed to attend the reception where she met Lady Susan, adding: ‘The officials must count themselves lucky that, when she talked to the Queen Consort herself, Ms Fulani did not decide to take offence at any words she used. If she had, would Camilla herself have had to resign?’

After seeing the trailer for Harry and Meghan’s Netflix cash-in, Diana’s oleaginous ex-butler, Paul Burrell, remarks on Piers Morgan Uncensored: ‘[Diana] would not have applauded what he’s doing now. The commercialism around it. She never took a penny.’ 

Unlike Burrell, who not only sold his memoirs, but flogged a line of furniture inspired by Diana and has been living off her ever since.

Impressed with Gareth Southgate’s no-favouritism handling of the World Cup squad, Rio Ferdinand recalls former manager Sven-Goran Eriksson singling out David Beckham for special treatment. 

‘He was bringing shirts to get signed by Becks. I couldn’t believe it. Flipping hell, I thought. There’s one rule for him, one rule for us.’ Maybe libidinous Sven had the hots for Posh.

Eddie Izzard’s failure to be selected as Labour’s candidate in Sheffield Central comes after she backed the euro, Ken Livingstone in 2008, Gordon Brown in 2010, Ed Miliband and Remain. Has the ‘curse of Eddie’ (pictured) struck again?

 

After Richard Burton bought Elizabeth Taylor the Krupp diamond for the equivalent of £2million in 1968, she wore it to a London party where Princess Margaret declared: ‘My dear, that ring is positively vulgar.’ But after a few drinks Margaret returned, asking: ‘Excuse me, would you mind if I try it on?’

A new biography of the Queen Mother chronicling her heroic intake of alcohol reveals her suspicion that the late Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor had spiked her Dubonnet during a boozy lunch. 

Gareth Russell’s book recounts her equerry calling to the Archbishop’s House to collect her, and having to wait until after 4pm when the cleric and the QM concluded a piano duet, singing Lonnie Donegan’s My Old Man’s a Dustman. ‘Do you think my drinky-poo might have been spiked?’ wailed the QM plaintively.