Son of Pauline — the hottest ticket in Edinburgh tonight
As gatherings of the great and the good go, the upstanding collection of businessmen, civil servants, clergy and high-ranking police officers who frequent Edinburgh Rotary Club events is beyond reproach. If, perhaps, a little short on glamour. The meetings are a monument to the tireless work of a legion of volunteers; they are definitely not supposed to be the hottest press ticket during the first week of the festival.
Yet, when the members and their wives take their places in a packed Craigiehall tonight to listen to a stimulating address on Policing from Pristina to the Potteries, the ranks of the fourth estate will be craning their heads for a glimpse of the action.
For the speaker at the Army’s Scottish headquarters is none other than Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Watton, OBE, MBE, head of the Royal Military Police in Scotland and the North of England. A Conservative voter and supporter of fox-hunting he has, since Saturday, been known to the nation as the “secret love child” of Pauline Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister’s wife.
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He was given up for adoption by the future Mrs Prescott at the age of 3. Pauline, a struggling single mother who gave birth at the age of 16, felt she had no choice.
The speaking engagement was booked months ago and now threatens to become a media circus. John Havard, secretary of the 90-year-old club, was in a confident mood. “Even if there’s a real scrum outside, I imagine that Army HQ should be able to defend itself,” he said.
If not they could always send for John “Two Jabs” Prescott.