HARRY COLE: Baroness Scotland set for a reprieve as Commonwealth Secretary-General if summit is axed

With Donald Trump cancelling June’s G7 at Camp David, all eyes are on the Commonwealth heads of government meeting due to be held in Rwanda the same month.

The working assumption in diplomatic circles is that the biennial gathering of the 54 member states will be axed.

But it is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good, with Commonwealth chief Baroness Scotland likely to secure an extension to her less than edifying tenure as Secretary-General if the summit doesn’t go ahead.

After a slew of sleaze allegations and spending controversies blighted the former Labour Minister, nicknamed ‘Baroness Brazen’, the major players in the union – Australia, Britain and Canada, known as the ABCs – were planning to use this summer’s meeting to mount a putsch.

Britain has already suspended its annual £4.7million contribution to Lady Scotland’s secretariat after auditors accused her office of ‘circumventing’ tendering rules to award a lucrative consultancy contract to a firm run by a friend – a claim that Lady Scotland denies.

Officially, summit organisers are ‘monitoring developments’ on Covid-19. Luckily for Baroness Brazen, I hear they are not under huge pressure to go ahead.

A glowing five-star review by ‘Elizabeth Baxter’ appeared on Amazon for Unspeakable – John Bercow’s unspeakably dull book about why he was right about everything.

Mysteriously, the same Elizabeth Baxter profile wrote an October 2013 review of another book and signed off with ‘Sally Bercow x’. 

Incidentally, in the ex-Speaker’s memoir, he describes his wife as ‘stimulating, clever and hugely attractive’.

More curiously, there was also a five-star review for Unspeakable by one ‘Simon Baxter’.

I await the Baxters’ thoughts on the rather more candid tome about Bercow being serialised in this newspaper…

Fans are putting ‘Dishy’ Rishi Sunak on a pedestal after his confident performances splurging billions to help the economy. Literally, in the case of No10. 

At a press conference on Friday, the slight Chancellor was given a 4in pallet to stand on so that he looked the same height for TV as 5ft 9in Boris.

Not surprisingly, miserable Maoist John McDonnell moaned that the Government’s plans to bail out vast swathes of Britain did not go far enough. 

But when I bumped into the veteran Shadow Chancellor in Westminster, he was much more chipper. 

‘We are all Marxists now!’ he cried cheerily.

Naughty drivers will undoubtedly benefit from the coronavirus crisis, with the UK Road Offenders Education body forced to shut up shop.

All speeders and road-ragers due at re-education classes due to their bad behaviour have been given a 12-week reprieve.

And police chiefs fear their income will drain away, with postal delays meaning Notice of Intended Prosecution letters from speed cameras being held up.

By law, if you don’t receive a speeding letter within 14 days of the offence, it does not count. No exceptions!

Cripes! Is that you, Boris?

A key moment as Boris Johnson passes the 100-day mark since his Election victory which secured his place in history as the Tory PM with the biggest majority since Margaret Thatcher. 

With his grip on power looking rather shaky before December, it seems the Commons gift shop delayed producing its traditional Toby jug of the Prime Minister. 

But better late than never, it can now be yours for £29.95. 

And good to see they have continued the habit of the jug not looking anything like the PM.