In yesterday's Pendennis column in The Observer, I reported that Grant Bovey has given £2500 to the Conservatives. Among the Monaco-dwelling billionaires and London socialites with famous (to Tatler readers if not far beyond) surnames, he stands out. Because Bovey is noneother than Mr Anthea Turner.
Anthea's own political views are still a secret, but Grant's emergence as a political force provides a great opportunity to remember the events leading to his marriage.
First, there was that complicated business when he kept leaving and getting back together with his wife Della. It would make a cynic wonder whether he was entirely sure that Anthea was right for him. Although, obviously, their happy marriage ever since shows that he finally made the right decision.
It'll be a pity next time Dave Cameron decides to have a go at Gordon Brown for dithering if he doesn't consult his new expert on the subject first.
But much better than that is that when they sold the pictures of the wedding to OK!, one of them looked oddly like an advertisement for a Cadbury's Flake. Anthea and Grant deny strongly that they had agreed to use their happy day to plug a confectionary product which legend has it (though not real life according to Cadbury's) is created by sweeping up and packing together in yellow paper all the little splinters that fall off the edges of other chocolate bars in the factory.
All the same, the wedding cost around £150,000 which was paid for by the magazine. So when it comes to cashing in, it looks firmly like a question of degree rather than principle.
And does it mean that in a sort of six degrees of separation way (or two degrees, or something), Richard Desmond, sometime porn baron, now Daily Express owner and prop. of OK!, has given that £2500 to the Tories?
