Londoner's Diary: Mrs Merkel’s unusual gift to John Prescott

ANGELA Merkel may be beleaguered at home but here in the UK she still has fervent admirers. John Prescott, for one. At the Irish Embassy party on Tuesday night, he enthused: “She’s great, really great. I got to know her when I was Deputy Prime Minister and we got on. She still comes up to me when we’re at the same gatherings.”

Indeed, so well do they get on that once, Mrs Merkel, gave him a token of her regard: a bottle of what Lord Prescott describes as “an aphrodisiac”. The Londoner double- checked that’s what he said and asked: “Really? Does it work?”

“I’ve never actually tried it,” Prescott assured us. “It’s still on a shelf. I look at it occasionally.”

When The Londoner followed up with Lord P this morning to inquire the brand name of the German premier’s gift, his response was to deny everything; perhaps he was shy about it. He picked up the phone himself — how times have changed.

“That story’s made up,” he barked. Eh?, we thought. “I have a witness,” he said. It’s most surprising that Prescott would deny Merkel’s kindness. For who could possibly be ashamed of receiving such a kind gift from the woman Germans call “Mutti” (mum).

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IT’S important to switch off once in a while. Except when there’s a recruitment drive going on. Politico’s Tom McTague has written a delicious 5,000-word profile of Brexit Secretary David Davis. Just one of the details is how he could have missed out heading up Brexit because he was in the bar. “When May emerged victorious [in the election], Davis had no expectation of being tapped as part of the Government,” McTague writes. “Instead, he was in Parliament drinking with a friend, with his phone switched off. Suddenly, his friend started to see messages flashing up on Twitter saying Davis was at No 10. ‘I laughed,’ Davis recalls, ‘and said, “Well, you know I’m not, I’m sitting here”. I rang them and they said, “Can you be here by 8pm?” I went over at 8pm and got the job’.”

Punk poet’s night on the town and sofa

MERRY Christmas from The Idler magazine, which threw a rollicking festive party at Bush Hall in Shepherd’s Bush last night. Punk poet John Cooper Clarke was among those singing for their supper as groovers of a certain age sipped on mulled wine.

“I first interviewed him about 20 years ago,” said Idler founder Tom Hodgkinson. “It took about nine hours and 10 vodka martinis. I think we ended up being thrown out of several Soho drinking clubs at 2am. So he came to stay at my tiny flat. I came down in the morning and he was curled up asleep on my tiny sofa, with his shades on, hair perfect, still in jacket and tie.”

Quote of the Day

"Heroes"

Journalist Rachel Johnson applauds the 12 Tories who rebelled or abstained on the meaningful vote on Brexit yesterday

And the elephant in the royal room is...

What do you get the woman who has everything? Even her relatives don’t know. Last night The Londoner saw boxer Wladimir Klitschko take to the ring at The Charge II, a boxing event and gala dinner at The Royal Horticultural Society Halls, raising awareness and funds against elephant and rhinoceros poaching. Princess Eugenie was on the committee. Has she bought a present for The Queen? “Grandmas are always the most difficult to find Christmas gifts for,” she admitted.

Anyone buying Eugenie a gift this year, though, won’t struggle. “I’m obsessed with elephants,” she said. “I have an elephant pillow on my bed and elephant pictures on my wall.”

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GOOGLE and Facebook, spice up your algorithms. Journalist Lynn Barber complains that targeted ads have decided she has one foot in the grave. “In theory they know every detail of our lives and target their ads accordingly,” she writes in this week’s Spectator. “So I find it deeply unflattering that the sole fact they seem to have gleaned about me is that I am old. They send me endless ads for walk-in baths, retirement plans and funeral insurance.” To us, Facebook keeps suggesting lawyers.

Caprice to tell and kiss

SHE’S tried singing, she’s tried modelling, she’s tried lingerie designing, and now Caprice is taking her acting career to another level: appearing opposite Harvey Keitel, as his girlfriend, in a new movie.

“I can’t tell you the name of the film because I’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement but it’s a gangster movie and shooting starts in England in January,” Caprice, right, told me at The Mail on Sunday’s Christmas party in Fiona Barratt Interiors studio in Victoria earlier this week. The Londoner checked to see which movie she could mean but the only one we could find that could possibly fit the description is Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman.

If this is the movie, then it looks like she’s about to hit the big time. Our Caprice is a trouper: last year she was diagnosed with a brain tumour but has now had it removed. “I’m taking opportunities that present themselves to me — life is very precious,” she says. So will there be sex scenes? “No sex scenes but my husband keeps asking me, ‘Are you going to kiss him?’ Of course I am, but it’s just acting.”

Tweet of the Day

Title of the day: Star Wars’ Mark Hamill asked the British princes if Luke Skywalker was technically a royal as his sister is Princess Leia: William said “yes”. Harry said he “needed more information.”

Ru and the knit before Christmas

WHILE Edward Enninful edits Vogue, his dog is raising money for charity. Ru, a Boston Terrier, is pictured in a Christmas jumper and fetching elf hat in support of Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day tomorrow. Don’t forget though, Ru, a jumper is for life...