The Spectator’s Notes
The Spectator’s Notes
Charles Moore's thoughts on the week
By the way, there have been many reports about the pair of hen harriers allegedly shot by ‘hunters’ on the Sandringham estate. It strikes me that this story is an even more extreme example of the tendency, mentioned in this column last week, for anything which can remotely be labelled ‘royal’ to be stretched beyond what can be borne. There does not seem to be any actual evidence — a film, for instance, or a corpse — that the birds were shot. Last week, we learned that the police interviewed Prince Harry. Now the BBC says that the ‘suspects’ will not be charged. ‘Suspects’? Was there ever a crime?
Before it merges with other years in the memory, one should record that this has been the most beautiful autumn. It is not just the astonishing colour: it is also the stillness, which means that leaves cling on. In declining light, when branches become invisible, the leaves look as if they are floating, unattached, on unmoving water. ‘The country is on fire,’ someone said to me. Yes, but a fire with no heat, no power to consume, no flicker.
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J. Grieve
November 8th, 2007 8:35pmWas Mr Moore at Sandringham when two shots were fired and the hen harriers fell out of the sky? If not, what makes him think that there was no crime? Is he suggesting that it was all a figment of the witness's imagination or that they were not hen harriers? If the Police are right and there was a crime is Mr Moore suggesting that the suspects must be one or more unidentified armed men who happened to be roaming around Sandringham very near Harry and his friends?