When aristocratic writer Nicholas Monson’s 21-year-old son Rupert Green killed himself earlier this year after becoming addicted to skunk cannabis, he vowed that he would not let the youngster’s death be in vain.

The hereditary peer began a crusade to have the highly potent skunk reclassified as a class A drug and, I can reveal, he has now won a very important ally.

Theresa May has written to Lord Monson expressing her deepest sympathy over Rupert’s death and apparently suggesting there could be a change in the law.

Lord Monson's 21-year-old son Rupert Green (left) killed himself earlier this year after becoming addicted to skunk cannabis. Tragically, Monson's elder son, Alexander (right), died in 2012 in police custody in Kenya aged 28, after being arrested on suspicion of smoking cannabis

‘I am greatly encouraged by the Prime Minister’s extremely fulsome letter,’ he tells me.

‘In it, she talks about the misuse of drugs and refers specifically to skunk, which, I think, is a first in an official letter of this kind.

‘She shares my concerns. I’m scenting a wind of change in official thinking.

'Previously, the drug has always just been bracketed under the term “cannabis”. Skunk is up to 12 times stronger and should be treated differently.’

Theresa May has written to Lord Monson apparently suggesting there could be a change in the law to have the highly potent skunk reclassified as a class A drug

Tragically, Monson also lost his elder son, Alexander, in 2012.

He died in police custody in Kenya at the age of 28, after being arrested on suspicion of smoking cannabis.

Monson has spent the five years since trying to prove that his son was battered to death by a police officer, while the Kenyan authorities have repeatedly blamed Alexander’s death on a drug overdose.

‘The letter was a real surprise, because I did not know Theresa May and had never spoken to her. She wrote to me out of the blue to express her sympathy over Rupert and Alexander’s deaths. I was very touched.’

Rupert, a biology student at Essex University who used the surname of his mother Karen Green, had suffered from psychosis after becoming addicted to skunk. He had previously been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Monson adds: ‘Theresa May has said she will follow my correspondence with the Home Office on this subject with interest.’

Now Andy wades in to woo China

As DonaldTrump cranks up pressure on China over its rogue Communist ally North Korea, Britain has fired up its own diplomatic weapon: Prince Andrew.

I hear that Airmiles Andy invited the Chinese ambassador, Liu Xiaoming, to Buckingham Palace for talks on Tuesday.

The Prince’s spokesman refuses to comment on whether North Korea came up in conversation, saying: ‘We never discuss private meetings.’

Trump claimed in a tweet this week that ‘North Korea is looking for trouble’, going on to warn: ‘If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them!’

Thankfully, Prince Charles, who once described the Chinese Communist leadership as ‘appalling old waxworks’, was absent and Prince Philip didn’t pop his head round the door.

He has called Beijing ‘ghastly’ and, while on an official visit to China, once told a group of British students: ‘If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.’

Tory MP to wed Cambridge don

Cameron cutie Claire Perry, 53, is set to marry Cambridge professorBill O’Neill, a laser engineering expert whom she met through constituency work in Wiltshire

Cameron cutie Claire Perry left her job as a transport minister as soon as Theresa May entered Downing Street, but she has found consolation in the tender embrace of a Cambridge professor.

I hear Perry, 53, is to marry Bill O’Neill, a laser engineering expert whom she met through constituency work in Wiltshire.

‘They are engaged,’ one of Perry’s friends tells me. ‘The wedding bells should be soon.’

The usually voluble MP for Devizes is uncharacteristically reticent when I ring her, telling me: ‘Private lives are just that — happy Easter!’

Her reluctance to talk could be linked to the awkward circumstances in which her romance with O’Neill was revealed by a newspaper in 2013.

Three months earlier, she had announced she had separated from her husband, City fund manager Clayton Perry, after 17 years of marriage and dismissed the ‘wild speculation’ that she was having an affair.

Our world was the first live global TV link where The Beatles played All You Need Is Love, but the BBC has pulled the plug on an ambitious special broadcast planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer Of Love event.

BBC editor Guy Freeman says some of the collaborating international producers were having trouble ‘securing funding’.

He adds: ‘With a heavy heart, we have no choice but to put this project on hold.’ Clearly, all you need is money.