EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: King Charles decides against making Duke of Norfolk a Night of the Garter over Coronation planning row

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: King Charles decides against making Duke of Norfolk a Night of the Garter over Coronation planning row 

Society eyebrows shoot skywards at King Charles’s failure to make the Duke of Norfolk a Knight of the Garter. This is despite his stewardship of the Coronation. So why is he missing out? A source says that he and the King initially didn’t see eye-to-eye on Coronation planning with Edward Fitzalan-Howard wanting to be far more radical in changing the ceremonial. Despite Monday’s induction of two new members, there are still six vacancies. Courtiers fully expect amiable Ned to become the tenth Duke of Norfolk to have a garter, eventually.

Society eyebrows shoot skywards at King Charles¿s failure to make the Duke of Norfolk a Knight of the Garter. This is despite his stewardship of the Coronation. So why is he missing out? 

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case has, once again, been overlooked for a knighthood in the honours list. Since the post was created in 1916, the holder has either had a K before being appointed or given one sharpish. Case, who was appointed in 2020, still has only a six-year-old CVO for his time as David Cameron’s private secretary. Case, the youngest person to hold the office, didn’t emerge wreathed in glory after Matt Hancock’s social media messages were made public. That none of the three PMs he has served has handed him a K suggests he isn’t held in the highest regard. Will he break another tradition and become the only Cabinet Secretary not to receive a peerage when he eventually steps down?

Martin Amis’s widow Isabel Fonseca can travel to Buckingham Palace to receive his knighthood thanks to a neat sleight of hand which allowed the awarding of the honour to be backdated to the day before he died. No such device was available to deprive pervert Jimmy Savile OBE KCSG of his honours after his death. Honours can’t be removed posthumously.

Chuffed to learn she¿s listed among famous celebrity nudists, Helen Mirren, pictured, responds: ¿I was number one? That¿s great!¿

Chuffed to learn she’s listed among famous celebrity nudists, Helen Mirren, pictured, responds: ‘I was number one? That’s great!’ But those hoping to enrol in Helen’s preferred nudist colony will be disappointed. ‘I’m not the sort of person who goes off to a nudist camp,’ she explains. 

‘But the very few times I’ve found myself naked on a beach or somewhere with a lot of other naked people, it is a fabulously liberating experience. It is a very lovely thing.’ Ditto, Dame Helen, clothed or otherwise

Sky's Kay Burley gives Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns a verbal kicking when she says of Boris: ‘A democratically elected Prime Minister has been ousted.’ Tweets Kay: ‘Ousted? Didn’t Boris Johnson resign?’ Andrea fires back: ‘It’s fine being sanctimonious Kay, but didn’t you break lockdown rules? Seems rather hypocritical of you to have been so critical of Boris Johnson these past few years. People in glass houses.’ From embarrassed Burley? Silence.

Comedian Frank Skinner reveals that he and fellow Portrait Artist Of The Year presenter Joan Bakewell were at Glyndebourne sitting behind two protesters who jumped up mid-opera clutching a Just Stop Oil sign. Were Frankie and Joanie relieved they weren’t objecting to watercolours as well?