The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Met in a muddle, King’s Speech and a wine production slump 

issue 11 November 2023

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Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said of pro-Palestinian demonstrations: ‘To plan protests on Armistice Day is provocative and disrespectful, and there is a clear and present risk that the Cenotaph and other war memorials could be desecrated.’ The Metropolitan Police urged organisers of a pro-Palestinian march on 11 November to postpone it, but they refused. The Prime Minister then said he would hold the Metropolitan Police Commissioner ‘accountable’ for his decision to greenlight the ‘disrespectful’ demonstration. Imran Hussain MP left the Labour front bench over Sir Keir Starmer’s opposition to a ceasefire in Gaza, and Afrasiab Anwar, the leader of Burnley council, and ten councillors left the Labour party. The father of the Liverpool footballer Luis Díaz was still being held by left-wing rebels of the National Liberation Army in Colombia.

At the State Opening of Parliament the King was made to read out such sentences as: ‘My ministers will address inflation and the drivers of low growth over demands for greater spending or borrowing.’

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