I’m relieved our MPs will have a say on Brexit – too much is at stake to skip on debate

NOW don’t all start shouting at me but in an odd way I was rather pleased the High Court ordered Mrs May to seek Parliamentary approval before Brexit is triggered.

I know I have always been in favour of quitting Europe but of late I have had a ­serious bout of the collywobbles. I hated that deal with Nissan.

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Had I known we were going to give a foreign ­company a blank cheque in case the EU raised tariffs against their cars I would have scrapped my Leave vote as the cost would undo any financial gain from quitting Brussels.

If such a subsidy was extended to the rest of the car industry it would cost us £1billion a year. What about all the other manufacturers in Britain, from planes to machinery to household appliances to finance corporations? The queue of businesses with their hands out would be a mile long.

Supposing newspaper owners, already in a parlous ­position, said that unless their buying of imported paper was subsidised because of the 14 per cent collapse of the Pound against the euro they would shut down, throwing thousands out of work. What then?

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The PM does not have the mandate to make such short-term political decisions which can have the most enormous long-term ­economic effects. That is why a proper debate in the Commons on what a government can and cannot do over Brexit is important.

Furthermore, didn’t Cameron and Co investigate what might be the legal consequences of a No vote. Did none of his clever Old Etonian mates say the judges could vote this down? Or did he want to leave a big mess at No10 for his successor to clean up?

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This is the biggest political clanger of all time. Worse than Suez. Worse than Iraq. With the court’s decision I expect the Cabinet to split very seriously and the likelihood must be an early General Election.

Fortunately Mrs May is up against the worst Labour leader of all time and should win comfortably, but if she wobbles on Brexit anything could happen. And expect Nigel Farage to be reappointed as Ukip leader at least until the political fog is cleared.

Thank you Dave for leaving a big brown one on the mat.

Claudia Winkleman's £400k thank you gift to the caring NHS

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I AM pleased to report that some good has come out of the quite awful moment when the Halloween costume worn by the young daughter of Strictly Come Dancing host Claudia Winkleman went up in flames.

You will remember that two years ago Matilda suffered serious burns when her costume was set alight when she brushed a candle outside a neighbour’s home while trick or treating.

After fabulous care by NHS staff at London’s Westminster and Chelsea hospital, Matilda still needed much help with the scars caused by the burns.

But the NHS didn’t have the state-of-the-art machine that could carry out that much-needed treatment so the family had to go private.

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Matilda, now ten years old, is her old self but Claudia and her film producer husband Kris Thykier wanted to give something back.

So they set about raising money to purchase for the NHS two hi-tech lasers that can treat the scars.

And I’m delighted to reveal that family and friends have raised an astonishing £400,000 to buy those machines.

Among the money-raising activities was a six-mile dawn walk where one of the strollers was Piers Morgan.

I looked up the giving page to see Apprentice star Lord Sugar had made a handsome contribution but couldn’t help keeping his Twitter “feud” with Piers going by saying: “Be good if you take a long walk off a short Pier.”

For those families who may need those machines in the future I would like to say a big thank you to Claudia and Kris.

You've rallied for Omran

I OWE you a quick update on where I am with the prints of the artwork I commissioned of Omran, the bewildered little boy in Aleppo whose house was bombed by the Russians.

So far 80 readers have sought the prints, right, by Jolyon Madden but before seeking your £35 payments and your addresses I wanted to make sure the money would get through to Omran.
On that basis I met with two representatives of the Syria Campaign, a non-political organisation simply wanting the best for the ravaged country. They weren’t sure how the money could be distributed as eastern Aleppo is a war zone and the banks aren’t functioning properly (a bit like NatWest).
They are going away to see if the White ­Helmets might be a safe conduit for the cash.
Will report back in the next ten days.

Intelligent German footie star shames our footballers

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NOT being a Manchester City fan I knew nothing of Ilkay Gundogan.

He had only been in the country a matter of months so I was amazed at his faultless English and his intelligent response on BT Sport following the defeat of Barcelona.

A German of Turkish extraction, he was able to talk fluently and confidently – even to the point of correcting the interviewer that it was the team’s “mentality” that won the game.

A Liverpool fan tells me that Emre Can, who has similar Turkish-German antecedents, is the same.

Is it that the German education system is better than ours or are our young English footballers just plain thick?

Answers on a postcard please.

Redstone's revenge on 'elder abusers'

THE 93-year- old American TV magnate Sumner ­Redstone is suing two of his former girlfriends for “elder abuse” claiming they forced him to take tens of millions out of his bank account.

In an earlier allegation one woman said he had only two interests: Sex and meat.
At 92, I was astonished that Sumner was still interested in . . . meat.

Agatha mystery solved

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IN a throwaway line in Monday’s column about how awful I thought The Mousetrap was, I wondered who was still making the money from the Agatha Christie estate.

In good thriller-writing style it turns out to be the grandson. In a big house and trousering an annual fortune.

His name is Mathew Prichard and he was left the rights to The Mousetrap by his grandmother when just nine years old. That was 60 years ago.

She couldn’t have done him a better turn.

Mr Prichard has spent his entire life exploiting those rights along with other Agatha Christie books including the Poirot brand.

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I looked up the publicly quoted numbers on his business and on a turnover of £15million he appears to be taking three long ones every year in a dividend.

Some people would kill for that. Would make a good thriller.

He spends two days in London and scarpers back to Wales and his 500-acre estate.

Being the offspring of talent must be like winning the Lottery.

I see that an Elvis Presley compilation is at No1 in the album charts and Priscilla Presley was saying how pleased the King would be to be still at the top decades after his death.

Not as pleased as Priscilla Presley’s bank manager I suspect.

The best of times

FROM feedback I know you enjoyed the examples I gave in last Friday’s column from Patrick Kidd’s anthology of 50 years of The Times Diary (published by HarperCollins), so here are two more.

As a fan of puns I enjoyed this letter in Country Life from a reader in Kent: “While walking through the bluebell woods at Godinton I came across an old microwave oven dumped close to a lane. I wonder if this is the first cooker of spring.” (2015).

This one from an ad in the Evening Echo in Basildon: “Smoker’s chair, solid ash.” (1976).
All good fun.