Presents fit for a king?

Forget the unedifying spectacle of today’s appointments to the House of Lords; a much more sought-after list is doing the rounds: that of the presents our political leaders sent wee Prince George and his proud parents.

Mr Steerpike detects the hand of Mrs Clegg in the Deputy Prime Minister’s choice of a blanket handmade by Spanish nuns, which he presumably picked up while he was on holiday last week. David Cameron has splashed out on the complete works of Roald Dahl, which he could have picked up for less than twenty pounds online if he was clever on his iPad. Meanwhile, I hear that Ed Miliband has sourced the future monarch an apple tree from the London Orchard Project; the tree of knowledge being a traditional gift to give a first born son. Grandpa Charles will be pleased: he can talk to it when he pops round to Kensington Palace for a visit.