A fantastic week, but why was it so white?



It's funny 'cos it's true: Comedian Lenny Henry joked about the lack of black people at the Jubilee celebrations - and he had a point

As a gag at the Jubilee Concert, comedian Lenny Henry offered a throwaway line: ‘Hands up if there are any black people here. Right that’s three of us . . . let’s have a fight.’



But Mr Henry is not a fool. He knew what he was saying and it struck a chord with me, too. The reality was that during all four days of the Diamond Jubilee, the crowds were astonishingly white.



Disturbingly white. Dulux white.



Our country is changing colour, and will continue to do so.



Just look at London (these statistics are from the 2001 census): 783,000 consider themselves to be Black or Black British, another 866,000 Asian or Asian British, and 226,000 mixed race who may identify themselves as Black.



So in London — after all that’s where the main Jubilee celebrations took place — 26 per cent are black or brown. But if you looked at the crowds, the minorities probably made up just 1 per cent of the audience.



Why? I have four main reasons. Perhaps minorities do not consider Elizabeth to be ‘their’ Queen because she is white — it was the same in America for many voters until President Barack Obama came along.



Perhaps the majority in the black and Asian communities view the Queen as representing entrenched privilege, an issue the Conservative Party faced when it came to Polling Day. Perhaps many did not feel the sense of national excitement because their family history in this country did not start until after 1952.



Or perhaps they did not have their roots in countries that had imperial backgrounds, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana and so on.



The Jubilee was all white on the night, but for the Royal Family to survive it will have to embrace a changing country.



Sir Tom Jones: A veteran performer at 72

Isn’t it to our great good fortune that showbusiness does not have the same view of growing older as clearly exists within the talentless ranks of BBC executives?



I have been going through the birth certificates of the stars who brought such pleasure during the Diamond Jubilee Concert on Monday night. Dame Shirley Bassey is 75, Sir Paul McCartney is 70 in nine days, Sir Cliff Richard, 71, Sir Tom Jones, just 72, Sir Elton John, 65, Grace Jones, 64, Stevie Wonder, 62. You do realise that all of these super talents would have been deemed by the BBC to be too old and infirm to be interviewers or presenters during the Jubilee jamboree.



And that is the reason David Dimbleby, at the ripe old age of 73, was sitting at home gnashing his teeth at the Fearne Cottons of this world, instead of leading the coverage of the Armada. In America, the grey hairs of broadcasting keep going into their 80s because the audience trusts them. What would they make of The One Show’s Matt Baker, whose intellect appears to be defined by his fashionably cutaway shirt collar.



Could I urge Danny Cohen, the BBC1 Controller, to pick up the phone to Dimbleby’s agent to hammer out a deal that will give the Question Time veteran the contract to host the big national dramas for the next three years.



Please don’t tell me he has already signed up Tess Daly.

I know you are not supposed to believe this stuff, but the agent and film producer Richard Gregson, once married to the stunning actress Natalie Wood, tells of a dinner party where a woman he knew read his Tarot cards.



In his new book, Mr Gregson says: ‘There came a moment when she refused to continue. She shrugged her shoulders, her large eyes avoiding mine. Later, at my insistence, she told me my cards foretold someone close to me would die by drowning.’



A matter of months later, Natalie died by falling off a yacht . . . and drowning. Of course, you are not supposed to believe this stuff...

She's Russian to grab the jobs



Unemployment in the North-East is at a painful 11.5 per cent — the highest in the nation — so as I chatted with the waitress at a Durham restaurant on Saturday night I expected her story to be one of doom and gloom. Not so.



She was a 22-year-old Russian who graduated from the city’s university a year earlier and had found work in a local engineering company.



Needing to make her money up, she had taken a job waiting tables on Friday and Saturday nights at the restaurant in Aykley Heads.



So while many local youngsters struggle to find work she came 1,500 miles, was educated in a foreign language and managed to find two jobs.



Surely this young lady proves work is out there. Either young Britons are not trying hard enough or prefer putting their energy into going down to the benefits office.

The latest statistics show the Commonwealth will overtake the eurozone’s GDP by growing at 7.3 per cent a year until 2017, thanks to booming India, Australia and Africa, compared to the eurozone’s 2.7 per cent (some hope).



Is it too late to dump low-growth, always-with-their-hand-out Europe and return to our Commonwealth chums — especially New Zealand, who were savagely affected by us joining the Common Market? It half-destroyed their lamb business.



My question, however, is this: would the Commonwealth have us back?



The Lady is not for earning

Back in the game: Friends of Baroness Uddin have repaid the £124,000 she fiddled on her expenses, allowing her to return to the House of Lords

And with one mighty leap she is free. Astonishingly, friends of Baroness Uddin have coughed up the £124,000 she fiddled from the taxpayer on her expenses, to allow her to return to the House of Lords.



With the money repaid, the Labour peer can settle back into life in Parliament voting on important matters of State. How can she be allowed to air her political views with this in her background?



It’s an insult to every British voter because effectively the £124,000 comes in a five-year interest-free loan. If you do the maths, the Baroness will, with the £300-a-day Lords attendance allowance, earn £1,500 a week for eight months of the year. On that £48,000 her tax will be around £10,000. So, in four plus years the whole lot will be repaid out of our hard-earned money. Very nice, too. Meanwhile, we serfs will remain confused as to how you can fiddle £125,000 and not be in jail.



Perhaps, with all her rich friends, the baroness can also explain why she still lives in a heavily- subsidised Housing Association home in East London? Just asking.



Have just been given Andy Murray’s new phone number: 0-6 2-6 3-6. Don’t bother to call, he’s out.

You're not singing any more, Bobby

Clearly the England team read my column. I urged manager Roy Hodgson (last week’s item) to drop any player who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, sing God Save The Queen before the game.



Amazingly — for the first time in my memory — they joined in, and with some gusto, ahead of the friendly against Belgium (except for a certain spud-faced striker on the bench, of course). Well done gentlemen.



However, when the cameras panned away from the team, they settled on the figure of Sir Bobby Charlton, a legend as a player and a faultless ambassador for Manchester United.



His lips never moved. The music played, the fans sang but not a word emanated from the mouth of Sir Bobby.



Has he a problem with the National Anthem? Clearly he hasn’t a problem with the Queen — the clue is in the word ‘Sir’ ahead of his name.



While I’m on the subject, can I doff my hat to Charles van Commenee, the Great Britain athletics boss, who has ordered all athletes who have recently switched to our colours to learn the Anthem before the Olympics?



Perhaps he could coach Wayne Rooney while he’s at it.

SNP leader Alex Salmond and his wife Moira walked past a new Edinburgh restaurant. ‘Did you smell that food?’ she asked. ‘Incredible.’



Being in a good mood he thought: ‘I know, I’ll treat her.’



So they walked past it again.