When King Hamad of Bahrain flew into Heathrow this week on a charm-offensive, which included meeting David Cameron at Downing Street, he was anxious to make a good impression.
Alas, the visit took an unexpected turn after the King’s long-standing friend the Earl of Clanwilliam, better known as Old Etonian public relations smoothie Paddy Gillford, chose to meet the monarch at the airport on a Harley-Davidson which has the Bahraini flag painted on in camp Priscilla Queen Of The Desert-style.
The police, I am told, were not keen on the PR man joining the convoy into central London. But he was permitted to follow the entourage, which had police outriders escorting the party up the M4.
But disaster struck at Earls Court where there was a collision between Gillford’s motorcycle and the limousine transporting Bahrain’s ambassador to London, Alice Samaan, who only last week presented her credentials to the Queen.
Although shaken by the accident, which happened on Tuesday, by yesterday she and her staff were light-heartedly referring to it as a ‘diplomatic incident’.
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