EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Why did the late Queen miss out on a Nobel Peace Prize for transforming and expanding the Commonwealth?

It remains an abiding mystery why the late Queen missed out on a Nobel Peace Prize for transforming and expanding the Commonwealth.

A senior courtier sheds some light on the subject, whispering that she didn’t want the honour.

While candidates don’t have to be consulted, Buckingham Palace was approached on more than one occasion by Commonwealth leaders ‘for guidance’ on nominating Her Majesty. They were politely told, ‘Thank you, but no thank you’.

It remains a mystery why the late Queen Elizabeth II never received a Nobel Peace Prize for transforming the Commonwealth

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A senior courtier has suggested that Buckingham Palace politely declined offers of the prize for Her Majesty

Watne Frydnes, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The Palace repeatedly told Commonwealth leaders ‘Thank you, but no thank you’ in response to requests to honour Her Majesty

The latest revelation from the new edition of Charles III, by my colleague Robert Hardman, is that the late Queen’s very last entry in her journal concerned Liz Truss. It prompts the question of who is going to plough through all the diaries Elizabeth II kept over 70 years?

The King has still not appointed his mother’s official biographer. Runners and riders include Andrew Roberts, Jane Ridley, Hugo Vickers and Sir Wiliam Shawcross, who wrote the offical account of the Queen Mother’s life. But surely cantering up from behind is Robert himself.

The BBC broke its own guidelines last week by using an all-female panel to host its US election night coverage.

A Broadcasting House mole tells that when the BBC signed off on Catriona Perry, Sumi Somaskanda and Katty Kay as anchors it assumed Kamala Harris would sail into the White House and justify its celebration of the sisterhood. Like many others, Auntie was left with egg on her face.

Under pressure to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury over the Church of England child abuse scandal, Justin Welby was memorably left embarrassed by the Duchess of Sussex after she told Oprah Winfrey that he’d secretly married her and Harry three days before the royal wedding.

Refuting Meghan’s claim that the secret ceremony had taken place in their ‘backyard’, Welby insisted: ‘The legal wedding was on the Saturday. I signed the wedding certificate, which is a legal document, and I would have committed a serious criminal offence if I signed it knowing it was false.’

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The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The Duchess of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey that she was secretly married three days ahead of the royal ceremony

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Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, refuted Meghan’s claims, insisting the legal wedding was on the Saturday

Comedian John Bishop, attempting to crack the lucrative US market, went the wrong way about it when he told a joke days after an assassination attempt on Donald Trump left him with an injured ear.

‘I said, “It’s great to be in Pennsylvania, particularly as you’ve just invented a new way of getting your ears pierced”. I’ve got to be honest, it split the room.’

Count yourself lucky that you lived to tell the tale, Jonno.

Despite signing up for national insurance 75 years ago, Dame Joan Collins has never received a pension.

She wails: ‘When the time came to receive my pension, the department had no record of me! I’ve never received a penny from the Government, much less the winter fuel allowance.’

But she does have a jumbo eiderdown (and husband) called Percy!