One Tiber. Two memories of Enoch

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, delivered a speech on Sunday at what used to be the Midland Hotel in Birmingham.

It was here, in 1968, that Enoch Powell delivered his “rivers of blood” speech. So no wonder that, 40 years on, Phillips thought that it might be a powerful place to speak.

Alas, he was not alone. For we understand that, booked in afterwards in the same hotel, were a bunch of lovelies from the BNP who were preparing a reenactment of that infamous occasion.

A spokeswoman for Phillips tells us that the two groups (one, somewhat ethnically diverse; the other, less so, and accompanied by an actual Enoch Powell lookalike) passed in a corridor. “There was no eye contact,” she says.

Tony Blair took the Heathrow Express to Terminal 4 yesterday. Soon after boarding the first-class carriage a ticket inspector appeared. Blair became flustered.

“Oh dear,” he said. “I forgot to bring the money they gave me last night to pay for my ticket.” The inspector took pity and Blair got the £24.50 journey free. Blushes all round.

How long before Eddie Izzard packs in acting for politics? “If you think I should, and I think I should, then I should,” he tells Newsweek. “We’ve got to make it work in Europe. People are very worried about sovereignty and the loss of sovereignty.” Then he starts talking about local government. And he’s a cross-dresser. Must be a Lib Dem.

Katharine Witty, the (one hopes, well-paid) spokeswoman for Mohamed Al Fayed gets in touch, to explain why Tony Curtis was holding a banana during his visit to Harrods (People, Friday). “Mohamed noticed that his old friend was looking a bit glum in his wheelchair,” she writes. “So he chose the biggest banana he could find, to cheer him up and remind him of the good old days.” The perfect host?

Plugging her new book (Attachment) in The New York Times, Isabel Fonseca, wife of Martin Amis, reveals that somebody once stole her credit card at a sample sale in London and spent £2,000 on underwear.

But never mind that. What does Martin think of the book? “I don’t think it’s his kind of book, really,” she says. “He doesn’t read that much fiction anyway.”

Douglas Gordon, the video artist who won the Turner Prize in 1996, is perhaps best known for 24 Hour Psycho (1993), in which he slowed down Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho (1960) so that it lasted for 24 hours. Fifteen years later, we find out why.

“I watched Janet Leigh unhook her bra,” he said in a talk at Tate Modern, “and I thought, hold on, I’ll watch that again in slow motion.”

Postscript

Another frank interview with Gordon Ramsay. “ Michael Winner has a palate like a cow’s backside,” he tells Time Out. “With A. A. Gill, it’s all personal – they’re allowed to be personal, but you’re not allowed to be about them. Well f*** it, I am going to be, because it works both ways.” Apparently so.

A Pete Doherty welfare fund has been set up to help to support the singer once he is released from prison. “As a musician he brings a lot of joy to people’s lives,” the founder, Stefano Passantino, said reverently. “There’s so much more he has to offer. I’ll do what I can to help. I’ll give him a job, feed him, clothe him.” Lucky Pete.

Laura Bush, co-writer of a children’s book called Read All About It, reflects on authorship. “I think what we learnt about it,” she breezily tells the New York Daily News of the collaboration with her daughter Jenna, “was if you think about something for a year, when you actually write it down it comes off really great.”

“My dream job would be to lie on my sofa in front of my log fire and watch telly programmes all day.” Anne Robinson tells Radio Times. She must miss Points of View.

Finally, our apologies for suggesting that the giant orange on the Titan Airways aircraft that flew Gordon Brown to the US was Saturn. It was, of course, one of Saturn’s moons, which is called (erm) Titan. Sorry.

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