18 Jun 2022

Leaderless

In this issue

The Week

Politicians caused the Rwanda deportation debacle

The problem with the bishops in the upper chamber is not that they speak too much, but too little. The attack on the government for sending migrants to Rwanda was a rare example of clerical intervention, but where were the bishops during the discussions about the evils of people-smuggling and the problem of migrants risking their lives in shoddy boats? The reason we have religious leaders in the House of Lords is so that they can add thoughtful insights into important political issues of the day.

Portrait of the week

Portrait of the Week: Knighthoods, Northern Ireland and Mick Jagger

Home The British economy contracted by 0.3 per cent in April after shrinking by 0.1 per cent in March, according to the Office for National Statistics. Wages by April were 2.2 per cent lower in real terms than a year before, and economic inactivity fell by only a smidgen (0.1 per cent) to 21.3 per cent. Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, urged the Competition and Markets Authority to see whether a 5p cut in fuel duty, from 58p to 53p a litre, was being passed on quickly enough to drivers.

Diary

The Bank of England has to act to prevent higher inflation

To Windsor for Garter Day, the first since 2019. With a strong voice and smiles for us all, the Queen presided over the investiture of three new Knights – Tony Blair, Baroness Amos and, as a Royal Lady of the Order, the Duchess of Cornwall – in the small Throne Room. After luncheon with the royal family in the Waterloo Chamber, we processed to St George’s Chapel for a service during which the new Knights were formally installed.

Ancient and modern

How the Romans dealt with mutineers

The RMT union is threatening strikes to bring the country to a halt. Such activities have a long history in the West. The Romans got there first in 494 bc when the plebs – that is, most of the workers – won a degree of political power hitherto denied them, by withdrawing their labour. Using this mass communal strategy in the interests of the majority, but sparingly, they achieved political parity in 287 bc. The army too sometimes mutinied.

Barometer

What does Prince Charles find appalling?

He really is appalled Prince Charles was reported to have described the government’s plan to send asylum-seekers for processing in Rwanda as ‘appalling’. The Prince of Wales has been associated with the word since at least 1988, mainly because of the ‘Heir of Sorrows’ column in Private Eye, where many things elicit the reaction ‘it really is appalling’. He has, however, used the word in real life – most recently last November at the ceremony to remove the Queen as head of state in Barbados, when he talked of the ‘appalling atrocity’ of slavery.

Letters

Letters: Boris Johnson might be the leader we need

The leader we need? Sir: Matthew Parris excoriates Boris Johnson for administrative incompetence, mendacity, personal immorality and utter lack of political vision (‘I told you so’, 11 June). Mr Johnson may have multiple personal failings, but surely it is obvious that we live in times which call not for a leader with lofty political vision, but for one who can react instinctively and reasonably competently to exogenous events.

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