EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Why it’s not a matter for the King 

Surely Environment Secretary Therese Coffey’s claim that ‘the Government doesn’t have a view’ on whether the King should go, or not, to the Cop27 environment conference – saying: ‘It’s a matter for the King’ – is absurd. 

The King can go only where his Prime Minister allows him to go and say things the PM has approved. 

In his old role, Charles could summon whichever ministers he chose to Clarence House and write to whom he pleased.

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: The King can go only where his Prime Minister allows him to go and say things the PM has approved. In his old role, Charles could summon whichever ministers he chose to Clarence House and write to whom he pleased

Surely Environment Secretary Therese Coffey’s (pictured) claim that ‘the Government doesn’t have a view’ on whether the King should go, or not, to the Cop27 environment conference – saying: ‘It’s a matter for the King’ – is absurd

Charles can still let the Government know what he’s thinking. 

As Sunak was doubling-down on Liz Truss’s ban on Charles attending Cop27, the King made a show of giving an audience to his old friend Senator John Kerry, who is currently Joe Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate and has called for Charles to attend Cop27. 

Sunak is allowing the King to give a pre-Cop reception at Buckingham Palace on Friday. 

Charles will speak ‘from the heart’ rather than being forced to have his words approved by ministers, says my source, adding: ‘He will behave himself impeccably as he adjusts to life in the monarchical straitjacket.’ 

Perhaps not if he senses the public is on his side.

Society gadfly Nicky Haslam’s latest annual list of what and who he deems ‘common’ – printed on tea towels that he sells – includes ‘Bond Street, coriander, divorce, porn, hydrangeas and Stanley Johnson’. 

The latter citing might embarrass Lord and Lady Bamford of the JCB digger empire. 

Haslam, pictured, occupies a grace-and-favour cottage on their estate in Daylesford, Gloucestershire – as does Stanley’s prone-to-freeloading son Boris. 

Might the helicopter-borne Bamfords feature on Haslam’s list if he did not rely on their hospitality?

Ex-Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman snipes at Kent-born frontman Mick Jagger: ‘Mick always tries on his Cockney accent, which he doesn’t deserve, really.’ 

Londoner Bill, who left the Stones in 1993, adds: ‘The only working-class ones in the Stones were me and [drummer] Charlie [Watts].’

Maureen Lipman tells The Oldie that she noticed during a train journey from London to Manchester a large fellow passenger ‘pleasuring himself’. 

She says she told the steward on duty – mocking the half-witted security advice given over train loudspeakers: ‘I see it. I’m saying it. SORT IT!’

Who will write the official biography of the Queen? Robert Lacey deserves consideration. 

In Monarch: The Life And Reign Of Elizabeth II, he shrewdly explained that she respected emotion but couldn’t fake it. 

Early in her reign, due to visit Kingston upon Hull, she read a speech prepared by aides that said she was ‘very pleased’ to be in the East Yorkshire town. 

HM crossed out ‘very’, explaining: ‘I will be pleased to be in Kingston. But I will not be very pleased.’