EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Minor Royals who were 'banned' from appearing on the Trooping of the Colour Balcony by King Charles have a party night elsewhere in London

Banned by King Charles from appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony at Trooping the Colour these days, the minor royals were on parade elsewhere in London this week.

They went en masse to the summer party at the Victoria and Albert Museum, named after their ancestors.

Lady Amelia Windsor, 28, the Duke of Kent's granddaughter, wore a pink coquette gown while carrying a novelty handbag.

Lord Frederick Windsor, 45, son of Prince Michael of Kent, was joined by his wife, the actress Sophie Winkleman, 43.

Among the other royals there were James Ogilvy, 60, son of Princess Alexandra, his wife, Julia, 59, and their daughter, Flora Vesterberg, 29.

 I winged it, admits Macca 

He's arguably our greatest living pop star and songwriter, but Sir Paul McCartney still has doubts that he was, or is, any good.

The Beatles star, who turned 82 on Tuesday, admits: 'I've actually got a lot of reasons to believe that I'm good, but I don't. I don't think I'm bad, but I still think what I make could be better.'

Speaking as a 1974 Wings live album, One Hand Clapping, is released, Macca reflects: 'I didn't realise we were that good at the time. I think people all share this thing: we're never that sure of ourselves and, looking back, I really should have been sure of myself.'

However, he concedes: 'I've proved to myself that I can write songs, and I've proved that I can write songs that people remember.'

Despite being blinded in one eye and losing the power in one hand in a vicious attack in New York in 2022, Sir Salman Rushdie is still keen to do more comic cameos such as those he performed in Bridget Jones's Diary and BBC comedy W1A.

'I don't see why I shouldn't do more,' says the novelist, 77.

'I'm a frustrated actor, I think it's what I have always wanted to do.'

More news from strife-torn Winchester Cathedral: former BBC top honcho Mark Byford has left his position as a lay canon.

The cathedral's dean, Catherine Ogle, is under pressure after the early departure of the respected head of music, Andrew Lumsden. 

Has Byford, who ran the BBC during the Jimmy Savile crisis, been made a sacrificial victim? Ogle recently filmed a public announcement which was so cack-handed that it only added to the drama.

Byford is rumoured to have been involved in that PR disaster. Things have become so fraught that the bishop is now to hold an inquiry.

The Conservatives' former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, fighting hard to retain his Chingford and Woodford Green seat in the General Election, has taken to verse. 

IDS, who has a majority of only 1,262, has adapted the classic William Hughes Mearns poem Antigonish to produce the following: 'The other day upon the stair/ I met Sir Keir who was not there/ He was not there again today/ Yet took my savings right away/ Oh how I wish he'd go away.'