The Spectator

Wednesday

The Spectator

Full text: Liz Truss’s Tory conference speech

My friends, it's great to be here with you in Birmingham. It's fantastic to see the cranes across the skyline building new buildings, the busy trams coursing down the streets and the bull standing proudly at the heart of Birmingham. My friends, this is what a city with a Tory Mayor looks like - it's positive, it's enterprising, it's successful. And Andy Street is a human dynamo, delivering for the people of Birmingham. And our Teesside Mayor Ben Houchen is also delivering new jobs and investment. This is what modern Conservatism looks like. Let's get Tory mayors elected in London, in Manchester, in West Yorkshire and right across the country. We gather at a vital time for the United Kingdom. These are stormy days.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Who was the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace?

Fit for a king King Charles III, it has been reported, is reluctant to move into Buckingham Palace. Who was the first monarch to live there? – The core of what is now the palace was built as a townhouse, Buckingham House, for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 and purchased by George III as a home for Queen Charlotte and her children – while he lived at St James’s Palace. – His successor, George IV, started work on enlarging what by then was already called a palace, intending to use it for his own residence. He died before it was complete, however, as did William IV. William IV was not so keen on it as a residence but considered moving parliament there. – The first monarch to live there permanently was Queen Victoria upon her accession in 1837.

The Spectator

Rupa Huq and the politics of prejudice

The Labour party’s contribution to the national debate this week has included the idea that someone can be ‘superficially’ black. Rupa Huq, a Labour MP, used this phrase to describe Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. ‘If you hear him on the Today programme,’ she said, ‘you wouldn’t know he’s black.’ It was a daft yet revealing comment. In her moment of unintended (and perhaps career-destroying) candour, Huq exposed a prejudice that remains pervasive in British politics. Any such suggestion is, of course, racist, and Labour could not deny it. Huq has been suspended. But she was articulating an attitude that has become widespread. She probably thought that her comments were uncontroversial for the audience at a Labour party conference debate.

The Spectator

Letters: Britain needs the English National Ballet

Putin’s options Sir: I agree with Paul Wood that Vladimir Putin is on the back foot (‘Cornered’, 24 September). His actions, from partial mobilisation to nuclear threats to the rapid referenda in occupied Ukraine, indicate a psychopathic gambler who hopes that one last spin will turn Lady Fortune his way. However, there is a big gap between ‘losing’ and ‘lost’, and that is where the focus on the nuclear threat by the West is unhelpful and dangerous. As well as the partial mobilisation, Putin ordered in August a 10 per cent increase in the size of the military to more than a million combat troops.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Chancellor unveils his unBudget, Hilary Mantel dies and corgi prices soar

Home Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, presented a far-reaching ‘fiscal event’ (ineligible to be called a Budget), said to have cut more tax than any measure since 1972. The markets’ immediate response was to sell pounds, and sterling fell to $1.07 (though the euro also continued in its own decline against the dollar and the Chinese yuan fell sharply). The Treasury defensively said it would publish proposals for dealing with its debt and the Bank of England said it would buy government bonds to help ‘restore orderly market conditions’. The IMF spoke out, inviting the government to ‘re-evaluate’ its tax changes.

Friday

The Spectator

Hilary Mantel, 1952 – 2022

Hilary Mantel has died at the age of 70. She became the first-ever winner of The Spectator/Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for travel writing in 1987. Mantel wrote for The Spectator as its film critic until 1991. She went on to win the 2009 and 2012 Booker Prize for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Below is Hilary's prize-winning piece on Saudi Arabia; the judges 'particularly admired her ability to convey not only the discovery of a culture new to her but also the distaste which the discovery aroused', said then-editor of The Spectator Charles Moore.

Wednesday

The Spectator

In search of Trussonomics

When Liz Truss entered the leadership race there was no such thing as ‘Trussonomics’. She began her campaign with no real expectation of winning and without any serious guiding philosophy. Rishi Sunak did her a great service by portraying her throughout the leadership campaign as a crazed tax-cutter, a disciple of Ronald Reagan. But in truth, her economic policy was nowhere near as coherent as Sunak made out. Truss just about scraped through the soundbite war of the debates, but without any real pro-growth, tax-cutting agenda. All she pledged to do during her campaign was to freeze forthcoming corporation tax rises and shave 1 per cent off National Insurance. This she did mainly because the 2019 Tory manifesto promised not to raise tax.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, capped energy prices and uncapped bankers’ bonuses

Home Queen Elizabeth was buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, beside her husband and father, after a funeral at Westminster Abbey. In the ten days of mourning, six days were devoted to a lying-in-state at Westminster Hall, for which the public queued around the clock, often for more than five miles and ten hours. A livestream broadcast on television accustomed viewers to Gentlemen at Arms with swan-feather plumes and Yeomen of the Guard with ribboned hats guarding the catafalque. The public were courteous, silent and moved. King Charles completed a tour to Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff during the days of mourning, making speeches, meeting crowds and speaking in Welsh.

The Spectator

Who had the most highly attended state funeral?

The namesakes Some of history’s other Charles IIIs: – Charles III, King of Naples (1382-86): forced Pope Urban VI into exile, then moved to Hungary, whose throne he had assumed through marriage. Was assassinated. – Charles III, King of Navarre (1387-1425): made peace with France. – Charles III, Duke of Savoy (1504-53): lost when France invaded Savoy in 1536. Remained king in name but spent the rest of his life in exile. – Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (1505-21): tried to regain independence from France by partitioning the kingdom. Fled to Italy when the plot was discovered. – Charles III, King of Spain (1759-88): invaded the Kingdom of Naples and claimed it for Spain.

The Spectator

Letters: Why the Union may not be so secure under Charles

The Queen’s kindness Sir: Last week’s Spectator (17 September) was thoughtful, insightful and at times hilarious; just the tonic I needed. Many reading this will have their own memories of the Queen, but I would like to tell a personal story recounted by Christopher Chessun, the Lord Bishop of Southwark, in his address to the House of Lords of my sister’s meeting with her. He said: ‘My late sister-in-law, who was profoundly deaf, accompanied me during my time as Bishop of Woolwich when the Royal Artillery moved from Woolwich down to Salisbury Plain. Her Majesty the Queen was there for the occasion and spotted that my sister-in-law was wearing a Duke of Edinburgh gold badge.

Tuesday

The Spectator

America’s touching tributes to the Queen (1901)

The United States hasn’t always reacted rather snidely to the death of the British monarch. Below is The Spectator’s lead piece following the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901, available on our fully-digitised archive. Nothing has been more striking, nothing more moving to the British as a nation, than the way in which the Queen has been mourned and her memory reverenced in the United States. The English-speaking people of America almost with one voice have joined the English-speaking people of the British Empire in their expressions of affection for the Queen.

Monday

The Spectator

The complete guide to the Queen’s funeral

Today, the world says farewell to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. World leaders, including US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron, and royals from across the globe have gathered in London for the country's first state funeral in decades. Here is how the day will unfold: 10.35 a.m. The coffin bearers from the Queen’s Company, the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, will lift the coffin from the catafalque in Westminster Hall.  10.44 a.m. The Queen's coffin will be taken via Parliament Square to Westminster Abbey. The coffin will be carried on the state gun carriage, drawn by 142 Royal Navy sailors.

Thursday

The Spectator

How The Spectator reported the Queen’s life

The reason the British people love the Queen, and are willing to die for her, is that they can understand what she is about, in a way that they cannot understand what the constitution, cabinet and parliament are about, or the Courts of Justice or the Bank of England, or any of the other abstractions which comprise our so-called system of government. Monarchy is credible, as Bagehot said, because it is personal. Seeing is believing. That is why all the old royal ceremonials are important: not because they are incomprehensible and mysterious, but because they are intelligible and familiar. All that talk about the magic of monarchy is very misleading.

The Spectator

Did Elizabeth II have anything in common with Elizabeth I?

Sovereign’s states When she died, Elizabeth II was Queen of 14 nations other than the UK: Antigua and Barbuda; Australia; the Bahamas; Belize; Canada; Grenada; Jamaica; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent and the Grenadines; the Solomon Islands; Tuvalu. – There are a further 18 countries of which she was Queen at some point in her reign: Ceylon (now Sri Lanka); Fiji; The Gambia; Ghana; Guyana; Kenya; Malawi; Malta; Mauritius; Nigeria; Pakistan; Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); Sierra Leone; South Africa; Tanganyika (now Tanzania); Trinidad and Tobago; Uganda; Barbados (the last country to opt out of being a Commonwealth realm, in November 2021). First and second Did Elizabeth II have anything in common with Elizabeth I?

The Spectator

Letters: My childhood memory of the Queen

Majestic memories Sir: The sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II took me back 70 years to my earliest memory. I was three years old; the location was the Fleet Review at Spithead and the date was 15 June 1953, 13 days after the coronation. Some 325 ships of the Royal and Merchant Navies, including vessels from many other countries, were lined up at anchor between Gosport and Ryde. The assembled fleet was reviewed by HM Queen Elizabeth and many members of her family on board the ‘stand-in’ royal yacht, HMS Surprise. There was a 21-gun salute and cheering from the ships’ crews as the Surprise proceeded up and down the rows of vessels. My father was second officer of the Shell tanker Velletia and I was on board with my mother and older brother.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: The death of Queen Elizabeth II – and the accession of King Charles III

Home The body of Queen Elizabeth lay in state at Westminster Hall, in a coffin draped in the royal standard on which were placed the orb and sceptre, before her funeral in Westminster Abbey on 19 September, declared a bank holiday. She had died at Balmoral on the afternoon of 8 September, two days after appointing Liz Truss Prime Minister there. The new King took the name Charles III. In a televised address the next day, he said: ‘As the Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation.

The Spectator

The Queen’s act of Union

In death, as in life, Elizabeth II has been a unifying force for her country. For all the political rancour of recent years, this week has revealed a country at ease with itself. People of all political persuasions have come together to show their respect – in Scotland just as much as in England. It has been a reminder of what a force for good a monarch can be when he or she devotes their life to service. After the Queen’s coffin was transferred from Balmoral Castle to Holyroodhouse, up the Royal Mile to St Giles’ Cathedral, members of the public lined up to see it as it lay in state. Nicola Sturgeon was as effusive in her tributes as any Westminster politician. The new King was heard by the Scottish parliament with respect.

The Spectator

2570: Short story – solution

Arthur C. Clarke (31/45) said that Ernest Hemingway (35/12) won a bet from fellow writers for the shortest story: FOR SALE. BABY SHOES. NEVER WORN. (30/14/15). First prize Nicholas Grandage, London W11 Runners-up Magdalena Deptula, Eton, Berkshire; R.P.