Faith Eckersall: Queen 'Nazi salute' story was cruel and pointless

And that’s because the government has gone away, the celebs have gone away, the summer films are all Boring Blockbuster III and the TV is all rubbish.

But we still have to fill our newspapers and so you get stories about ‘giant squids’ that aren’t that giant, invasions of ‘killer jellyfish’ which haven’t killed anyone and drunken squirrels, which, in the case of the one last week, was actually so raddled it destroyed a whole bar.

That’s what this news season is meant to be. Silly.

Not cruel and pointless, like the story about the Queen apparently giving the Nazi salute. Or her husband, Philip, attending his sister’s funeral in Nazi Germany.

It’s a week on but I still can’t quite understand what the ‘historical significance’ of all this is meant to be.

Because no one’s saying Elizabeth - who signed up as part of the war effort herself - approved of Hitler, are they?

No one’s saying her mum approved, either.

And surely no one is daft enough to believe Phil’s a fascist or agreed with any of it - he put his neck on the line serving in the Royal Navy to defeat them. And if we must delve into his family’s past why don’t we ever mention his mum, Princess Alice, who was declared a Righteous person by the state of Israel for her rescue and concealment of a Jewish family under threat from the Hitler regime?

The fact that the Queen’s no-good Uncle Edward, who also featured in the movie clip, was a closet Nazi is hardly new news, is it?

Especially when most families have a Great Uncle Edward somewhere along the way; weak, racist, and with a ghastly wife to boot? Come to think of it, don’t most families, have a grumpy Auntie Anne, a cute little Prince or Princess like George and Charlotte, a glammy sister-in-law like Kate, and a couple of old re-treads like Charles and Camilla?

In that respect the Royals are no different to anyone else.

So when I hear some bird described as the ‘Nazi expert and member of the Institute of Historical Film Research’ claiming that the ‘issue of Edward’s politics and their impact upon his generation within the royal family should be brought into the open for serious research’ I just wonder how she keeps a straight face.

As it stands, if you can get anything sillier than trying to make out that an 80-year-old home movie showing a little girl messing around with her family has any bearing upon the current age, I think we all deserve to hear about it.

FOI act is working very effectively thank-you very much

I USED it to force my kids’ unsatisfactory school to produce its governors’ reports, and to prove that Hampshire County Council DID have a policy of identifying coasting schools - just not to me when I wanted to know if my kids’ establishment was one of them.

My mate used it to discover that male staff in her university seemed to get more favourable treatment over pay-rises than did women.

And, last week, the Reprieve organisation used it to discover that despite a parliamentary vote against it, British personnel HAVE bombed the hell out of the evil Islamic State.

You can use it to find out how much food at your local hospital is wasted, what amount your local council spends on choccie biscuits or translation services, and how much the BBC spends on taxi fares.

‘It’ is the Freedom of Information Act, one of the greatest pieces of legislation ever to be passed in our parliament. Now David Cameron has appointed a committee to ‘make sure it’s working effectively’ which, in my book, means ‘see how much of it we can dismantle’.

FOI is working very effectively, thank-you very much. And if you think it should continue, please contact your local MP and let them know, too.

What a prank 

‘This is for North Korea 2026,’ the comic Simon Brodkin yelled at Sepp Blatter, before being hauled off by security at the Fifa conference. But they weren’t quick enough to prevent the world’s media capturing the defining Blatter image - the preposterous little toad with a great pile of cash flying around his head.

Truly, it makes you proud to be British.

Children are better off without Dominic Isom 

ONE of the lines given in mitigation for Dominic Isom, who murdered Corfe Castle mum, Samantha Henderson, was that Isom ‘would not be able to be a father to his children for a long time’. I know barristers have to try. But given that Isom IS the person who deprived four children of their mum, is there a living soul on this earth who doesn’t believe that being deprived of his evil presence will be the best thing that could happen to these poor mites?

What a silly thing to say 

LABOUR leadership contender Andy Burnham says he would give rival Jeremy Corbyn a place in his shadow cabinet.

That’s a bit like Chris Evans saying he’d give Jeremy Clarkson a job on his Top Gear show. But even dafter, actually.

Note: This piece by Faith is an opinion piece and not a news report. You can contact Faith by tweeting @HerFaithness