Those who still hope that Donald Trump may have a Damascene conversion to dignity upon returning to the Oval Office should know the president-elect feels the weight of McDonald’s, not history.
According to Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter Peggy Noonan, Trump “doesn’t do ‘Here Lincoln trod’. He does ‘I bet they overpaid for the marble.’” Noonan tells Air Mail that she’s already had Trump rant about her at a rally. “He said I write about him like he’s a Neanderthal,” she said. “I googled Neanderthals and found they were thought to have been highly organised and artistically gifted so, I got to say, he’s no Neanderthal.”
Cameron’s dry rot
The Westminster long lunch is now like a good steak: very rare. “I much prefer the days when there was a lot more red wine on the table,” Vivek Singh, chef behind Westminster’s Cinnamon Club, told Politico. The rot set in when David Cameron ran for Tory leader and started drinking water at lunchtime. “Churchill wouldn’t be very impressed,” cried Singh’s chairman, Roger Looker. After almost 25 years in situ, Singh has grown used to Westminster’s ways, though he says he was initially alarmed by the restaurant’s division bell, which alerted diners to a parliamentary vote. “I thought 40 odd guests were doing a runner,” he said.
Tory wives club
One hopes becoming an MP has changed over time. The Tales from the Green Benches podcast has gathered MPs’ memories of being selected, and Timothy Kirkhope recalls the first question at his meeting with the Tory vice-chairman in the 1970s. “Which clubs are you a member of?” they asked, and were unimpressed when Newcastle-born Kirkhope said “North Northumberland Cricket Club”. It seems the Tories were looking for someone more like Michael Heseltine. “I had many of the credentials classically associated with a Conservative candidate,” said Hezza. Top of this list? “I had a very attractive wife.”
An email has never “found me well”, but there are other casual phrases that one should be mindful of deploying. The philosopher Jonathan Wolff was perturbed to receive a message from his GP which began “I hope you are well”. He remarked: “I was hoping you’d be able to tell me the answer to that.”
Advertisement
Kim and presidential style
There was a time when US presidents were reliably smooth. The Sex and the City actress Kim Cattrall tellsWhere There’s a Will There’s a Wake that she attended a rally in Michigan for Senator Barack Obama when he ran for the White House. Having been recognised by security, she was whisked backstage where Obama was delighted to meet her. “You don’t live in Detroit,” he said. She replied that she was doing a film about an older woman and a younger man. Cattrall realised Obama would be president when he immediately said: “Who’s playing the older woman?”
You might think years of royal dining would refine a palate. Au contraire. The Duchess of York tells Desert Island Dishes that her ultimate meal would include four puddings (including jelly twice), preceded by dishes like sardines on toast, marmalade on fried bread, marmite on fried bread, and eggy bread. A lack of refinement? Or does she take the sixth line of the Lord’s Prayer very literally?
