EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: The government’s decision to freeze the King’s funding may not come as too much of a blow as the £396 million renovation of Buckingham Palace may be turned to his advantage
The Government’s decision to freeze the King’s funding may not come as too much of a blow.
The ongoing £369million taxpayer-funded renovation of Buckingham Palace might be turned to his advantage. He chose not to move there from Clarence House, as his late mother was persuaded to do by then PM Winston Churchill. Turning a renewed Buck House into a lucrative money-spinner is tempting, especially if it was open year-round to visitors.
In 2018-19, the last full trading year for which figures are available, the annual two-month summer opening yielded ticket sales of £12.1million.
An internal report suggests that opening all year would raise about £70million in ticket sales alone. Music to our King’s impressively large ears.
King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort attend a reception at Schuppen 52 on March 31, 2023 in Hamburg, Germany
The ongoing £369million taxpayer-funded renovation of Buckingham Palace might be turned to the King’s advantage
While the BBC’s latest Great Expectations is savaged by critics, despite innovative bottom-spanking scenes, another historic TV treat is heading our way from France – a new production of The Three Musketeers, reputedly costing 72million euros.
Producers there have also gone for a modern approach. Le Journal du Dimanche reports that musketeer Porthos ‘is now portrayed as an active bisexual who enjoys as many boys as he does girls’.
My French informant reports: ‘You may be grateful to hear that they haven’t turned D’Artagnan into a trans.’
Blonde bombshell US TV interrogator Megyn Kelly, who claims Donald Trump’s Republican rival Ron DeSantis ‘ducks’ her interview requests, takes a swipe at rival Piers Morgan following his recent TV chat with the Florida politician, carping: ‘I love Piers, he’s a pal, but why would you go sit with the British guy and not come on this show?’
She suggests that it’s because she’s a tougher interviewer than Piers. Not according to Trump, who complained of getting a TV mauling from his reverse-ferreting pal Piers.
Megyn Kelly has taken a swipe at rival Piers Morgan following his recent TV chat with Ron DeSantis
Sarah Ferguson describes in Woman magazine her living-together relationship with the Duke of York, from whom she was divorced in 1996: ‘We swear by the three Cs: compassion, communication and compromise.’
Also no doubt by her having-my-cake-and-eating-it approach, which might conceivably inspire other flighty royal brides who tire of stuffy court life.
Ken Bruce, who had Britain’s most-listened-to show on Radio 2 until his recent departure, says his near-40 years on the station was outlasted by a longer constant in his life – the school drop-off.
Married to his third wife, the father-of-six adds: ‘I’ve been on the school run since 1982 and I’m still doing them now.’
Greatest Hits radio held a welcome party for Ken Bruce on day one of his new show on Monday
France’s leading expert on our royal family, Stéphane Bern OBE, says Charles’ visit was cancelled after officials discovered a plot by a feminist group to have ‘a hundred near-naked girls throw themselves in protest at his procession’.
Surely our keen-to-establish-himself new monarch would have revelled in the global media coverage this would have caused.
Source: Read Full Article
