別れの（言葉，会） to politics' last gent

He did not reach the giddy social 高さs of his brilliant father, nor did he ever truly 回復する from the loss of a daughter to 麻薬s, but the death of Paul Channon has brought an end to one Westminster 時代: that of the gentleman 政治家，政治屋.

While friends as diverse as the Queen and Sir Mick Jagger last night 嘆く／悼むd the death of Margaret Thatcher’s 輸送（する） 長官, his family remained baffled by the Alzheimer’s-like mystery illness that marred his final years.

The stoic and shy multi-millionaire ― created Lord Kelvedon after his 退職 ― died of a chest 感染 with his wife Ingrid, son Henry and daughter Georgia at his hospital 病人の枕元 in London.

Over the past three years, he had become silent and forgetful, 身を引くing 完全に from public life.

But just 15 months ago, he 決起大会／結集させるd 十分に to welcome both the Queen and Jagger to a 70th birthday party he held 共同で with the Duke of Kent at his magnificent house on Cheyne Walk.

Guests 解任する strolling past fabulous 作品 of art, 含むing at least one Rembrandt, many of which he 相続するd from his mother, Lady 栄誉（を受ける） Guinness.

His father was Sir Henry ‘半導体素子s’ Channon, the diarist and Tory MP for Southend, whose seat Paul 相続するd.

Remembers his old friend Lord Howell, who, as Energy 長官, was in 閣僚 with him: ‘It was a fantastic party. That was the last time I saw Paul. 同様に as having friends in very high places, Paul also loved people from the world of 激しく揺する ’n’ roll.

‘He had already been ill then for about two years. He just began moving and speaking more and more slowly. It was very sad.’

Says another pal at the party: ‘Members of the 王室の 世帯 were worried about the seating 手はず／準備 at the dinner, because he 明白に wasn’t 井戸／弁護士席 and had become very slow and seemingly forgetful. But the Queen 主張するd that she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to sit next to him and, of course, she did.’

Channon never fully 回復するd from the death in 1986 of his lively and much-loved daughter, Olivia, from a 麻薬 overdose ― she had just 完全にするd her 決勝戦 at Oxford. He did, however, 保持する his sense of humour to the end.

One former 政治家，政治屋 解任するs overhearing him chatting to the late Alan Clark in the ありふれたs about 先頭 Gogh’s 絵 Sunflowers, which had just sold at auction for a 記録，記録的な／記録する £24.75 million.

Quipped Channon: ‘That’s 過度の. You can get a perfectly decent 絵 for £20 million.’

While Tony Blair remains strangely unwilling to sit for an 公式の／役人 portrait ― along with Sir Edward ヒース／荒れ地, he is the only modern 首相 to turn 負かす／撃墜する a request from the 国家の Portrait Gallery ― David Cameron shows no such 不本意.

によれば the 最新の 登録（する） of MPs’ 利益／興味s, the Tory leader has 受託するd a 絵 of himself, （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限d by 実業家 Sir Jack Harvie, the 保守的なs’ 主要な fundraiser in Scotland.

Rather than enter it into a party raffle or even sell it, Cameron 計画（する）s to keep the 絵, which I am told is a good likeness.

‘It’s 存在 lent out at the moment, but he ーするつもりであるs to keep it in the long-称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語,’ says an 補佐官.

Wotcha-cha-cha!

Would-be Fred Astaires at the Medway School of Dancing may want to take a second ちらりと見ること before choosing a partner for the foxtrot.

For I learn that cross-dressing comic legend Danny La Rue ― known for his chirpy catchphrase ‘Wotcha, mates!’ ― will soon be …に出席するing the ballroom classes in Tonbridge, Kent.

La Rue, recently 回復するd from a 一打／打撃, tells me he is 小衝突ing up his 技術s in 準備 for a 復帰 小旅行する in the spring.

He tells me: ‘I am 現実に a very 遂行するd ダンサー. My chiropodist says I have lovely feet because of all those years wearing high heels ― they gave me lovely arches.’

Also gliding around the room will be Ann Galbraith, the woman w 売春婦 made all the comedian’s famously extravagant gowns and with whom he now 株 a house in 王室の Tunbridge 井戸／弁護士席s.

Spritely Danny, 80 this year, 保証するs me he will be on his best behaviour and wearing trousers for the classes, 追加するing: ‘I have hung up all my frocks for good.’

Oscar 指名された人 Peter O’道具’s fanciful （人命などを）奪う，主張するs to have been born on the 大西洋 coast of Ireland have been exposed as a 負担 of blarney with the 発見 of a birth 証明書 明らかにする／漏らすing that Yorkshire was the scene of the actor’s debut in life.

The Lawrence Of Arabia 星／主役にする, 74, wrote about his birth in Connemara, 郡 Galway, in his autobiography.

式のs, there is no trace of him in Irish 記録，記録的な／記録するs. But the 登録（する） Office in 物陰／風下d 確認するs that a Peter O’道具 was born to a Scottish mother and an Irish bookmaker on the appropriate date.

Pray hush for Jenny

As someone who once 株d her life with exuberant film director Michael 勝利者, Jenny Seagrove should be used to having to make herself heard.

But when her 最新の 行う／開催する／段階 業績／成果 in a 小旅行するing 生産／産物 of Somerset Maugham’s The Letter 脅すd to be 影を投げかけるd by the din from roadworks outside Brighton’s Theatre 王室の, the no-nonsense actress sprang into 活動／戦闘.

I’m told: ‘The road すぐに next to the theatre was 存在 dug up. Jenny said she couldn’t 成し遂げる because of the ゆすり.

‘There was some 協議 and the construction team agreed to 一時停止する work for the two matinees.’

Sir Terence Conran 明確に believes that 復讐 is a dish best served 冷淡な.

The restaurateur has waited until now to 急落（する），激減（する） his palette knife into the French over 大統領 Chirac’s 悪名高い dig at the 質 of British cuisine during the two nations’ 競争 to 行う／開催する／段階 the 2012 Olympics.

‘That ill-chosen gaffe lost Paris the 投票（する）,’ Sir Terence tel ls me at a publishing party.

‘In my 見解（をとる）, London has no peers ーに関して／ーの点でs of its culinary 多様制.’

追加するs the 75-year-old, whose next 投機・賭ける will open in a former printworks in Spitalfields, East London: ‘There is now no 競争 and I think Paris even lags behind New York and Hong Kong.’

PS

The backslapping love-in between Prince Charles and portly Al 血の塊／突き刺す ― both 争う to be the 惑星’s greenest 選挙運動者 ― is making eco-行動主義者s misty-注目する，もくろむd. But it was once a joyless union.

When 法案 Clinton was in the White House, Charles tried and failed to enlist the then 副／悪徳行為-大統領 血の塊／突き刺す in his crusade against genetically-修正するd food.

‘The Prince used to 砲撃する 血の塊／突き刺す with letters,’ I’m told, ‘but sadly he just ignored them.’