QUENTIN LETTS: Rishi Sunak’s trousers had been Norman Wisdom
With the Mall bedecked in flags for a visit by Japan‘s head of state – the world’s only emperor, at least until next week – campaigning slowed. Chief interest was on sartorial matters.
Rishi Sunak, Lord Cameron and the Home Secretary James Cleverly sported tailcoats when they strode across Horse Guards Parade in the midday heat to join the official party awaiting his Imperial Majesty.
Mr Sunak’s spongebag trousers were just as short as all his others. It must be an aeration thing, to direct a cooling draught up the drainpipes.
Mr Cleverly, an officer in the Royal Artillery reserve, kept his arms firmly at his side. This may have been military protocol or because he had gnawed off his fists during an LBC breakfast-time immigration debate with Labour’s Yvette Cooper.
The programme was hard to endure owing to Ms Cooper’s theatrical sighs, nannyish tsks and jagged interruptions. You can see why Ed Balls opted for a job on morning television. Prolonged exposure to such a voice before the first Dubonnet of the day could drive anyone to whinnying delirium.
Rishi Sunak, Lord Cameron and the Home Secretary James Cleverly sported tailcoats when they strode across Horse Guards Parade in the midday heat to join the official party awaiting his Imperial Majesty
King Charles and Queen Camilla with Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako of Japan at Horse Guards Parade on June 25
Nigel Farage with the News Presenter Award at The TRIC Awards 2024 on Tuesday
Off the cliffs of Dover my man with a periscope banged his head on the submarine ceiling as he recoiled from an unexpected sight: the first cravat of the campaign! Nigel Farage, commander-in-chief of the Reform fleet, was on a catamaran with assorted TV crews, steaming south in search of small boats.
Mr Farage was done up in the sort of neckerchief favoured by skippers of Thames gin-palace cruisers at Weybridge.
If Rishi’s trousers were Norman Wisdom, this green cravat was pure Terry-Thomas. Admiral Farage was also sporting a baseball cap. It bore the logo of a company that makes machines that jet liquid slurry a long way across a field. Or, if so aimed, an election hustings.
Labour’s emperor-in-waiting, Sir Keir Starmer, was to be found at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in west London, a venue not unaccustomed to wooden actors.
Sir Keir was promoting concerns about knife crime and was joined by Hollywood star Idris Elba and a pastor, Lorraine Jones, who lost her 20-year-old son Dwayne Simpson to a stabbing a decade ago. Mr Elba said that, for him, the event had nothing to do with party politics.
A royal carriage carrying King Charles and Emperor Naruhito travels along The Mall
Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, escorted by Britain’s King Charles III inspect the honour guard on Horse Guards parade during the ceremonial welcome
King Charles III walks with Emperor Naruhito, followed by Queen Camilla and Empress Masako as they view a display of Japanese items from the Royal Collection in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace
Queen Camilla with Empress Masako arriving at Buckingham Palace
Sir Keir was promoting concerns about knife crime and was joined by Hollywood star Idris Elba
The nasal knight had dressed down for the occasion in the open-necked black shirt and black jacket he favours when inside the M25
Sir Keir, who looked diminutive beside the heartthrob, may not have seen it that way. The nasal knight had dressed down for the occasion in the open-necked black shirt and black jacket he favours when inside the M25.
Pastor Jones, however, was decked out in a flowing white dress with a string of pearls, her lustrous locks cascading down her front. She scrubs up better than the Bishop of London.
She vouchsafed that she was praying for a Labour victory and said no politician had ever shown as much interest in her safer-streets campaign as Sir Keir has done.
She must, in her evangelism, have forgotten that in 2016 she said she was ‘truly in awe’ after Lord Cameron invited her to Downing Street to give her an award for her community work.
It is ‘rare that a man of such great importance is able to connect with a member of the public’ in such a way, she said.
The man who was showered by that praise was yesterday roasting in his tails at Horse Guards. The King arrived in a top hat, with a fluffy pink hanky in his top pocket. The Emperor (shorter than Rishi) also had a blue mouchoir, double-pointed.
The Empress wore a white mask because horse hair makes her sneeze. Two vast arrangements of delphiniums, roses and dahlias may not have helped.
The 1st Battalion Welsh Guards remained stoical under their bearskins and the band played Ar Hyd y Nos (All Through The Night) – a melancholy air for the Conservative ministers who may have been making their last ceremonial appearances.
‘Deep the silence round us spreading… dark the path that we are treading.’
The Princess Royal was absent, still hospitalised after being attacked by a horse. The condition of the horse is not known.
