More than a decade after Lady (Dale) Tryon, a close Australian-born friend of the Prince of Wales, died at the age of 49, her son, Edward, has named his daughter by his wife, Nina, after her.

Mila Dale, who was born last week at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, has delighted her parents, but for Edward, 31, the moment is bittersweet.

“My mother would have been looking forward to seeing the baby,” he said. His mother was once seen as a rival to the Duchess of Cornwall.

Lord Dannatt’s faith

Shami Chakrabarti, a member of the ruling council of the London School of Economics when it took cash from Saif Gaddafi, wonders to what extent the British public back the international action in Libya.

Lord Dannatt, the former Chief of the General Staff, tells me that Chakrabarti is “entitled to her view,” but feels the servicemen now engaged in the country do have “near universal support”.

He says: “People can see that nobody actually wants to be there, it is not about occupying territory, but it is necessary in order to give the legitimate opposition in Libya a chance to express itself. It is an altruistic endeavour.”

It is surprising, given her principles, that Chakrabarti didn’t resign from the LSE over Gaddafi’s cash. It is odder still, perhaps, that the director of Liberty should appear quite so fretful about acting to ensure the liberty of the Libyan people.

Tony Blair’s old slum

Lord (Charles) Powell, a key aide to Baroness Thatcher when she was PM, wasn’t impressed with Downing Street when he visited his brother, Jonathan, during his days as chief of staff to Tony Blair. “It had become a bit of a slum,” Powell tells Michael Cockerell in the Secret World of Whitehall on BBC 4 on Wednesday, March 23.

“There were so many people working or hanging around No10, it was almost like a railway station. People rushed to and fro in jeans. For me, it had rather lost the elegance and the calm which for me had characterised No 10.”