At 11pm tonight, Britain will finally leave the European Union, after 47 years inside the bloc. And, as expected, many European newspapers chose to mark Brexit day on their front pages. Le Figaro: 'L'adieu a l'Europe Liberation: It's time La Croix: See you! Le Monde: Europe enters the unknown Die Welt: The British leave.
The Spectator is the world’s oldest (and Europe’s fastest-growing) magazine and is read by more people than ever. But our podcasts now get over 1.5 million downloads a month: demand is pretty big and we need a podcast producer to help the expansion. We currently have a one-person podcast team, Cindy Yu, who produces nine regular podcasts covering everything from Brexit and Trump to the latest releases in the literary and culinary world. We need someone who, at 8am, can have a decent idea for what to discuss on a Coffee House Shots; who can look at a copy of the magazine and suggests not just three topics for our Edition podcast, but the guests.
The news this week could easily have led with the deaths of 14 Afghan and Iraqi migrants in the English Channel, drowned as they attempted to reach Britain. In the event this didn’t happen, but only because their boat proved to be so unseaworthy that it capsized before they made it out of sight of the Belgian coast. All were able to swim back to the beach. This is the reality of people-trafficking: it is a callous industry whose operators care little for the lives of the migrants to whom they charge large sums for the promise of a new life. It is only three months since 39 Vietnamese migrants were discovered dead in the back of a refrigerated lorry at Tilbury. It is luck that has so far prevented a seaborne version of that disaster, but luck will not hold.
Parliamentary motions The government floated the idea of moving the House of Lords permanently to York. Until it was found a home in the Palace of Westminster in Henry VIII’s reign, parliaments were regularly held all over the country. A few of them: 1266 Parliament convened at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, while Henry III besieged Simon de Montfort’s followers in the castle. 1283 Parliament met at Shrewsbury so that members could watch the execution of Welsh rebel Dafydd. 1414 ‘Fire and Faggot Parliament’ met at Leicester and passed the Suppression of Heresy Act, allowing Lollards to be burned with bundles of sticks. 1459 ‘Parliament of Devils’ met in Coventry to try Yorkists with High Treason.
Royal travails Sir: The travails of the royal family outlined by Penny Junor (‘In check’, 18 January) may be public theatre but that does not make the suggestion to ‘slim down’ the monarchy any less dangerous. It might be farce now but it could turn to tragedy. Remember King Lear, where Goneril and Regan use Lear’s rowdy night in the castle as a pretext to begin robbing him of his knights and independence, leaving him destitute and mad. ‘What need you five and 20, or ten, or five, to follow in a house where twice so many have a command to tend you? What need one?
Home The Duke of Sussex left England to join his wife, Meghan, in Canada. This followed an agreement that stripped him of the style His Royal Highness and her of the style Her Royal Highness. ‘They are required to step back from royal duties, including official military appointments,’ a statement from Buckingham Palace said. ‘They will no longer receive public funds for royal duties.’ The Sussexes said they would repay the cost of the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, put at £2.4 million. ‘Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family,’ the Queen said. On the eve of his departure, the Duke said: ‘It brings me great sadness that it has come to this.’ Three men were stabbed to death in Ilford.
By Leo McKinstry, The Spectator, 17 August 2002: The modern MEP is a titan of tedium, a figure whose every action spreads ennui through our civic life. Only a hardline bore would want to handle the pettifogging bureaucratic activities of the European parliament, and only a true bore could possibly think that the pontificating and prattling of MEPs could be of the slightest interest to anyone outside their number… ‘A period of silence from you would be welcome,’ Clement Attlee once told the garrulous socialist and Labour executive member Harold Laski. The same remark could be directed today at our overpaid, publicity fixated MEPs.
The Spectator’s annual Parliamentarian of the Year awards took place at the Rosewood Hotel in London this evening. The awards were presented by the guest of honour, former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt.
To buy tickets, head to the Spectator Shop. Join us in the Spectator boardroom on Friday 14 February for the next in this year’s series of Spectator Winemaker Lunches with Nicole Rolet, owner of Chêne Bleu, the boutique estate in the southern Rhône celebrated for its organic, biodynamic ‘couture’ wines which Decanter Magazine declared to be ‘exceptional’. Chêne Bleu – described by the Wall Street Journal as ‘The world’s first super Rhône’, lies is a dramatically isolated position high in the Dentelles de Montmirail above Gigondas and Séguret and has deliberately opted out of the appellation contrôlée system, allowing them to make the wines that they feel best reflect the local terroir.
The Japanese are fond of poeticising the fleeting beauty of the cherry blossom season, which no sooner reaches its full glory than is gone, leaving behind nothing but bare branches, scattered petals, and a sense of wistful regret and nostalgic yearning. It’s the theme of countless haikus and mournful folk ballads. But if the cherry blossoms themselves soon vanish, the cherry blossom party scandal, currently vexing prime minister Shinzo Abe, is proving as worryingly hard to remove as Japanese knotweed. It’s in danger of turning into a Japanese version of Watergate. The annual prime minster’s cherry blossom viewing party is a tradition going back to 1952.
On child care Sir: Your recent editorial deplores, among other things, the cost of child care, to which you attribute the loss of female skills to the workplace (11 January). I would agree that pursuing a career is easier if one has no children. I also agree that the cost of child care is a significant drain on the income of young families. I am less convinced by the implicit suggestion that cheaper child care is the solution. I speak from experience and with hindsight. My son was born in 2000. For women of my age and education, at that time it was almost imperative to shove your baby into an expensive nursery and get back to work as quickly as possible. This is what I did — and I can’t say it was a good investment, for me, for his father or for him.
Royal flush The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have registered the trademark ‘Sussex Royal’ as part of their plan to become financially independent. Some ideas from eBay for how they could make their brand pay: Photograph of Harry, Meghan and Archie (from the couple’s Christmas card) £2 China thimble from the Duke and Duchess’s South Africa tour £3.95 Royal wedding mug £6.69 Box of 40 English breakfast teabags with Duke and Duchess on front £7.49 ‘Funko’ figurines of the couple £19.89 Down the line What do second children in other countries’ monarchies do for a living? Netherlands: Princess Alexia is 14.
Home The Queen agreed to ‘a period of transition’ during which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would spend time in Canada and Britain. The Queen had summoned a family conference at Sandringham five days after the Sussexes issued a statement saying: ‘After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. We intend to step back as “senior” members of the royal family and work to become financially independent.’ Since the plan had not been agreed with the Queen or the Prince of Wales, royal incandescence tended towards the white end of the spectrum.The Duchess flew off to Canada to rejoin the dogs.
When fossil fuel divestment was merely a gesture by universities, the Church of England and the Prince of Wales it was easy to ignore; it is rather less so when the head of the world’s largest fund management company says that he is going to start ‘exiting investments’ in coal producers and other companies he claims represent a ‘high sustainability--related risk’. That is what Larry Fink of Blackrock, which manages £5 trillion worth of investors’ money, did in a letter to business leaders this week, citing last year’s climate change protests as evidence that attitudes were changing.
Daniel Hannan Roger Scruton changed the course of my life. He addressed my school’s philosophy society when I was 16, speaking so compellingly about Wittgenstein and language that, when he finished, no one wanted to ask the first question. So, more to fill an awkward silence than anything else, I stuck my hand up and asked him what he saw as the role of a conservative thinker. ‘The role of a conservative thinker,’ he replied, in his charmingly diffident manner, ‘is to reassure the people that their prejudices are true.’ That beautiful aperçu never left me. It animated my career in politics, not least during the Brexit referendum. I spent part of my gap year in what we then still called Eastern Europe, observing the end of communism.
The government has wisely kept away from the Harry and Meghan story so far. Despite that, no one should imagine that the latest royal farrago causes anything other than extreme concern for HMG, which will be worried at the potential for a rogue royal to upset the direction of government policy. There is still much to learn about how the Sussexes intend to conduct their lives, but the couple’s desire to pursue ‘a progressive new role’ will cause alarm in Whitehall. Anything that calls for interpretation risks going wrong. To put this into context it is helpful to look at three examples, one extreme, the others less so. For the first, historians would look to Edward VIII after the abdication. The deeply embittered Duke was a constant worry to the authorities.
It's no surprise the Ministry of Defence is struggling to recruit and retain drone pilots. The psychological burden of operating these remote-controlled killing machines can be considerable. Although thousands of miles separate the target and the person pulling the trigger, there is no escape from the fundamental point that drone operators - for right or wrong - are tasked with taking a person's life. This story is also a reminder that each new era of warfare presents its own unique horrors. In my career as a military lawyer, before my ordination as a priest, I devoted a great deal of thought to the morality of war and questions about the legality of drone strikes. The battlefield is constantly evolving.
Can a royal who grew up third in line to the throne marry a rich American and move over there? Swedes have been here before: Princess Madeleine, sister to the Crown Princess, did this a few years ago. She now lives in Florida, and her example could be instructive to Prince Harry and Meghan. Like Harry, she first tried love at home, but it didn’t work out: her 2009 engagement to Jonas Bergström, a lawyer, was broken off after rumours of him cheating on her. The news rocked Sweden and when she moved to New York shortly after, it was seen to be quite understandable. And then she just stayed there.
The Iranian government has faced growing internal pressure following the downing of a civilian jet last week. The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down on Wednesday shortly after takeoff, killing all 176 passengers on board. The regime has since taken responsibility for the deaths, blaming 'human error' amid rising tensions with the US following the assassination of Qasim Soleimani. Some have suggested that the regime's tragic error could signal the beginning of the end for Iran's theocratic dictatorship as increasing numbers of Iranians take to the streets. Over the weekend, the British ambassador was arrested while attending a vigil for those who died on the Ukrainian flight, including four Brits.
