How much do the royals like curry?

Curry in favour

The BBC apologised after one of its guests for the Jubilee coverage, Len Goodman, revealed that his grandmother had referred to curry as ‘foreign muck’. The corporation might have used it as a way into a discussion of royal eating tastes. In an interview with Radio 1 in 2017, the Duchess of Cambridge revealed that while she liked a hot curry, her husband ‘wasn’t good with spice’. The Queen’s opinion on curry, too, has been reported to be lukewarm. Prince William’s tastes are in contrast to those of his great-great-great-great grandmother Queen Victoria, who gained a taste for curry cooked by an Indian servant, Abdul Karim, in 1887. She reputedly liked it so much that she ordered curry to be served at the palace every day for the rest of her life.

Saving grace

People saved money during the pandemic, but was it sustained? Household saving ratio by quarter:

Q4 2019 6.0

Q1 2020 7.2

Q2 2020 23.9

Q3 2020 12.7

On the slide

Britain suffered the steepest decline in GDP of any G7 country during the pandemic. How does it rate now? Ratio of GDP in Q1 2022 to that in Q4 2019:

Germany 99.0

Japan 99.3

Italy 99.6

UK 100.7

France 101.0

Canada 101.5

US 102.8

Source: OECD

Leadership challenges

A recap of Tory leadership challenges:

4 February 1975 Heath lost to Thatcher 119 to 130 votes and resigned as leader.

5 December 1989 Thatcher challenged by backbench ‘stalking horse’ Sir Anthony Meyer, wins by 314 votes to 33.

20 November 1990 Thatcher challenged by Michael Heseltine and won by 204 to 152. Under the rules, Heseltine forced a second ballot; Thatcher resigned 36 hours later.

4 July 1995 John Major challenged by John Redwood; Major won by 218 to 89. Major stays PM; the Tories were routed in 1997.