EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Only 150 Royal Society fellows flip up for vote on Elon Musk’s membership – stopping him from being booted out
Only 150 of the Royal Society’s 1,700 fellows bothered to turn up for a vote on Elon Musk‘s membership – preventing him from being booted out.
The Society’s leadership wasn’t too keen on allowing a vote when another fellow, Prince Andrew, blotted his copybook.
When the Society arranged his ‘election’ in 2013, the ballot paper contained just one option – in his favour. No dissent allowed.
And despite being a man unknown for profound thoughts or scientific research, the Queen designated him as the go-to royal for the Society.
After his fall from grace, calls by fellows for his removal fell on deaf ears. Indeed, he would still be a fellow if he hadn’t quietly ‘relinquished’ the honour himself in 2022.
Only 150 of the Royal Society’s 1,700 fellows bothered to turn up for a vote on Elon Musk’s (pictured) membership – preventing him from being booted out
The Society’s leadership wasn’t too keen on allowing a vote when another fellow, Prince Andrew (pictured), blotted his copybook
With Commonwealth Day coming up on Monday, a source says that the Pall Mall HQ is abuzz with gossip that Ukraine could be taken under the bloc’s wing.
With Ukraine’s chances of joining Nato and the EU non-starters, Commonwealth membership might be easier since the relaxation of ties with the old Empire.
Mozambique, Rwanda, Gabon and Togo have joined. The bloc is a talking shop with no military capacity and could prove an ideal sanctuary for a country out in the cold.
While the joining criteria, set by the 2007 Kampala Review, are complicated, the secretary-general can cut through the red tape in ‘exceptional circumstances’. Would Keir Starmer sign the nomination papers?
A rally in support of Ukraine outside the US Embassy in London on Wednesday
Countdown host Richard Whiteley’s actress partner Kathryn Apanowicz, who has died aged 64, insisted she was never jealous of the presenter’s on-screen flirting with glamorous co-star Carol Vorderman.
‘It is part of the programme… I don’t mind at all!’ Kathryn cheerfully remarked.
When it was once discovered there was a hole in the wall of Richard’s newly refurbished dressing room – between his and Carol’s – Whiteley cheekily explained: ‘I was going to call maintenance and then I thought, “What the hell – let her look!”‘
Countdown host Richard Whiteley’s (right) insisted his partner was never jealous of the presenter’s on-screen flirting with glamorous co-star Carol Vorderman (left)
Spitting Image producer Bill Dare, who has died in an accident while he was on holiday aged 64, once incited howls of outrage when he recycled a puppet of Genesis star Mike Rutherford as Jesus Christ helping God to find his mislaid copy of the Bible.
A parody of the JR Hartley Yellow Pages commercial, Dare had Jesus advising his dad to ‘let his fingers do the walking’.
Old Etonian Charles Moore compares Trump and Vance’s infamous bullying of Zelensky to his initiation, as a 12-year-old, to the posh school.
‘I knocked on the door of the “library”, the prefects’ lair,’ Charles tells The Spectator. “Come in!”. I entered. “Don’t stand on the carpet!” I had no choice, since it was fitted wall to wall.’
