Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Moreen Simpson: Queen’s flying high – but should she cut travel bills?

Cartoon by Helen Hepburn.
Cartoon by Helen Hepburn.

I’m no royalist, but you have to hand it to Her Maj.

While horrifying events made it a Junus horribilis for the nation, oor Lizzie’s had a stoater of a month.

While once-sainted Theresa May’s reputation has been grievously injured – probably terminally – by a succession of wrong decisions and embarrassing public appearances, HRH has been on a ratings-rocketing, sure-footed roll.

Shortly after the PM nipped in for a quick confab with the emergency services at Grenfell Tower – ignoring the devastated families all around – the Queen was in a rescue centre talking to survivors.

Having sacked the advisers who urged her to go for the snap election, Tezza should now boot oot her new lot.

Mrs Birse (as she’s known to the WRI wifies in Ballater) was sans Phil at the State Opening of Parliament, thanks to his recurrence of an infection (My spies tell me standing freezing by the Thames during that interminable Diamond Jubilee river pageant played havoc with his kidneys).

However, with her loon Chazzer in tow, HRH played a blinder – not so much as a titter during the policy-challenged Queen’s Speech.

Instead of the heavyweight crown, oor sovereign sported a stunning blue and gold hat which looked for all the world like she’d slung the EU flag roon her napper.

Speak aboot an oh-so-subtle, but oh-so-effective naughty gesture to the Brexiteers. Nae wonder Lizzie’s a Remainer.

With her German, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha roots, she might soon find herself having to apply to stay in the UK.

Then she happy-and-gloriously bestowed a knighthood on The Big Yin in her Birthday Honours.

Apparently she’s been a fan since Connolly’s “bum-stickin’-oot” joke on Parkinson, when she laughed so much
she near tiddled hersellie.

What better way for the monarch to muster the Scottish ranks against Nippy Sweetie Sturgeon’s IndyRef2 than to honour their favourite comedian? Nice one, Mrs B. However, there’s aye a somethin’…

This week, the anti-Royalists have mair than enough grist to their mills with news the Crown Estates have racked up profits by £24 million, giving her a pay rise of 8% – a cool £6m.

We’ll all have a magic money tree like that, please. Boy, that coffee shoppie at Balmoral must be goin’ its dinger.

Meanwhile, the Windsors’ travel last year cost us £4.5m. Andy must have air miles to the moon and back. First class.

The royal bill included nearly £17,000 for Her Maj hiring a private jet from Aberdeen to London.

Listen, quine, in the interests of good PR, why don’t you just go BA, even though you now have to shell oot for yer sandwiches?

Better still, try cheap-as-chips Easy Jet to Gatwick. Just remember to take your passport for ID.


Departure of soap chief is no big loss

No surprise so many folk are celebrating the departure of the BBC’s EastEnders’ boss Sean O’Connor.

Hands up, I confess to being a bit of a soap addict, because my mum and I always watched Corrie – and I once had a major crush on Dirty Den.

While The Street strides on with brilliant cliff-hangers, the Enders’ has been stuck for months in meaningless twaddle.

Denise near starving hersellie senseless, the superbly talented Bonnie Langford wasted as a needy mum.

And don’t even get me started on the “comedy” of the deeply unfunny Kim.

So many second-rate storylines.

Little wonder they ended up at the recent Soap awards as the TailEnders.

This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.