The Londoner: Stanley Johnson wants to bring beavers back to the capital

In today’s Londoner: Kate Moss reveals her healthy habits / Do quails’ eggs count as a substantial meal? / Cummings may fail to leave a lasting change  
"The Hippopotamus" - Charity Gala Screening - VIP Arrivals
Stanley Johnson 
Dave Benett
1 December 2020

Stanley Johnson tells us he hopes to reintroduce beavers to London  after his son, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and his siblings helped him apply for a beaver licence as part of his 80th birthday present.  Johnson says he wants to exercise his power as vice president  of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and reintroduce the animals to the London Wetland Centre.  

But he anticipates not everyone will be on board with his plan to  bring them back, saying: “Ian Botham will probably say, ‘All these bloody environmentalists, what are they doing now?’, he’s beefy.”  

Johnson is still in the process of procuring the beavers for his Exmoor estate but says he was “delighted” when his children gave him the “most original present”. “This is the year of the beaver.” Well, it beats the year of the bat.

Moss’s evergreen plans for a forest 

Edward Enninful & Tim Walker Host Surprise 80th Birthday Lunch For David Bailey
Kate Moss 
Dave Benett

Kate Moss is one of the world’s greatest posers, but doesn’t love smartphones. “What I miss most is the freedom to be without camera phones and to not be watched,” Moss told a host of famous friends who interviewed her for Vogue. The former party-lover also reveals that she now meditates and does yoga, and has bought land to “build a forest” after enjoying her garden during lockdown. “I didn’t do much gardening myself but I got very involved with the gardeners.”  No green fingers for Moss.

Do quails’ eggs count as a meal? 

As THE Scotch egg debate (are they a substantial meal or not?) rolls on, Alastair Stewart, the former ITV newsreader, chimes in. “I would like to hear views on quails’ eggs, a bar snack in many fine clubs,” he says, asking: “Does rolling them in celery salt make them a meal?” When teasingly asked online by think-tank chair Robert Colvile whether he’d missed the country’s levelling-up agenda, Stewart replied: “Embourgeoisement, dear Robert, embourgeoisement.” Let them eat quails’ eggs.

Meghan Markle’s obvious sparkle 

The Duchess of Sussex launches Smart Works capsule collection
The Duchess of Sussex 
PA

Meghan Markle had star quality that was immediately obvious, an actor who worked with her in 2011 says. Tim Matheson, who directed Markle in an episode of Suits, said “she was charming and she had an aura about her that was special.I could see that she had a very unique quality and the camera loved her.” Standout.  

SW1A 

As Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden calls for The Crown to warn viewers it is fictional, a Labour predecessor of his, Ben Bradshaw, is unimpressed. Dowden should have “better things to do” he told us. The public are “intelligent enough” to recognise a fictional account or historical fact, he adds.

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Dominic Cummings has left the building, but has he left lasting change? One of his projects was to centralise all government communications departments into one unit. But that has now been paused until at least the spring, Civil Service World reported. The revolution will be delayed.

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