Go Batty, paint the town pink!

I DOUBT if the Duchess of Cambridge was too upset by William’s party antics in Verbier. After all she has known him for more than long enough to understand how he parties and what his friends are like.

She looked her usual serene, elegant, happy self in France HOLMFIRTH, a picturesque Yorkshire town used as the location for that wonderful comedy Last Of The Summer Wine, is in a right tizz because some of the traders have painted their small emporia in bright colours such as blue, green and pink.

You might have thought that would bring some jollity and attract buyers but some curmudgeonly souls think it garish and out of character with the Georgian and Victorian architecture made familiar by the TV programme.

Sorry, folks, but you cannot pickle any way of life in aspic.

I was among those who utterly hated the London Eye when the huge ferris wheel was first erected. It looked vast, intrusive and wholly out of keeping with some of the majestic buildings by the river. Yet now it just seems to belong there quite naturally.

By all means keep one or two buildings looking quaint to satisfy the tourists who want to see Nora Batty as they get off the coach but for goodness sake accept that small shopkeepers have a living to earn and they need to make their exteriors attractive to shoppers not sightseers.

The Duchess of Cambridge can cope

and as usual dazzled everyone with her fashion choices.

Nevertheless there is such a thing as PR and William would do well in future to make sure that such partying doesn’t clash with occasions of state to which granny attaches importance.