EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: The unexpected football team King supports - as Charles commands England to batter Spain on Sunday
King Charles playfully requests that England’s footballers triumph on Sunday without the stresses of ‘any last- minute wonder-goals or another penalties drama’.
Though not a big fan like his fist-punching son William, His Majesty remarked in 2012: ‘Some of you asked this evening whether I support a British football club and I said “yes – Burnley”. And people have responded “Burnley?” Oh yes, because Burnley has been through some very challenging times and I’m trying to find ways of helping to regenerate and raise aspirations and self-esteem in that part of the world.’
Burnley were duly relegated from the Premier League...
King Charles playfully requested that England's footballers triumph on Sunday without 'any las-minute wonder-goals or another penalties drama'
Two messages to England's team from Charles were prepared in advance, one sad, one happy by football-focused aides
Charles’s message to England’s victorious team was on X. Two were prepared in advance – one sad, one happy – by footie-focused aides.
The monarch’s dislike of football may date from his prep school, Hill House, known to generations as Hell House.
Other boys showed no deference to him on the pitch. Be that as it may, he might feel obliged if England win on Sunday to take on the patronage of the Football Association, vacant since his mother’s death.
Poor Prince Harry is now skewered by – of all people – John Lydon, pictured, of the famously disrespectful Sex Pistols, who tells Taunton and South Somerset Living magazine: ‘I don’t want to be judgmental, but you can’t disrespect your parents and grandparents like that.
Writing a kiss-and-tell book about your family? God, that’s mean.’
Sir Keir Starmer narrowly avoided Jeremy Corbyn ruining his big day as new PM on Tuesday when MPs returned to Westminster.
Sir Edward Leigh, as ‘father of the House’ – its longest serving member – presided over the opening session, the election of the Speaker and gave a set-piece speech. This honour could have fallen to Starmer’s nemesis, Jeremy Corbyn.
New Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh presided over the Commons opening session and the election of the Speaker
Islington North MP and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn narrowly missed out, after Leigh took the oath ahead of him in 1983
Both Leigh and Corbyn were elected at the 1983 general election but Leigh took the oath ahead of Comrade Corbyn, who otherwise would have had to perform his duties alongside his former girlfriend, Starmer-irritant Diane Abbott, now mother of the House.
Now calling for his wobbly friend President Joe Biden, 81, to stand aside, Hollywood star and Democrat Party fundraiser George Clooney dismisses suggestions that he stand for the presidency himself.
Despite calling for President Joe Biden to stand aside, George Clooney (pictured) dismissed suggestions that he would stand for the presidency himself
Why so? Actor Ronald Reagan’s two-term presidency is considered by many Americans to be a golden era but Clooney says: ‘I’ve slept with too many women, done too many drugs and been to too many parties.’
His far more rascally behaviour doesn’t seem to bother Trump supporters.
