Marr: How quickly the world turns - we're back to politics and it's almost like the Queen's funeral never happened

20 September 2022, 18:07

Tonight with Andrew Marr: 20.09.22

The world has moved on quickly from the Queen's funeral and the shock of her death, with the agenda quickly moving to global issues and the beginning of Liz Truss's premiership, Andrew Marr believes.

Speaking at the top of Tuesday's Tonight with Andrew Marr, the LBC presenter remarked that it almost feels like the bearskins and queuing seems like it never happened.

Now, attention turns to Liz Truss's diplomacy on her trip to the UN in the New York – the financial hub of a country that Britain is struggling to secure a free trade deal with – and the cost of living crisis.

Andrew said: "How quickly the world swings back on its axis. Around Westminster the streets are clear again.

"Concrete bollards, crash barriers and portaloos are being briskly driven away.

"The bearskins are stowed in their boxes and politics is back. Already it's almost as if none of it - the queue, the vigil, the grieving, the marching – ever happened.

"But of course it did happen and later on I'll be talking about the long term effects of this national shock, with the Royal biographer Tina Brown.

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"Meanwhile, hours after the late Queen was laid to rest, a new prime minister has been flung into to a frenzy of meetings and decisions at an almost impossible pace: Liz Truss is in New York right now, where she will see President Biden.

"Speaking from the Empire State Building, she has just re-committed herself to tax cuts for the rich in the cause of faster economic growth.

"Joe Biden tweeted, at about the same time: "I am sick and tired of trickle down economics. It has never worked."

"That was either an unfortunate coincidence or a slap across the chops ahead of their bilateral meeting tomorrow.

"Ms Truss has already dismissed the possibility of a big trade deal with the US any time soon and also faces arguments about her Northern Ireland policy.

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"Britain's former ambassador to Washington, Lord Darroch, Kim Darroch, has been talking to me about all of that.

"Other big announcements are going to be spewing out of Westminster throughout the rest of the week, on the NHS, on tax cuts, but most important, on how to protect families and businesses from impossible energy bills.

"I'll be talking to Iain Conn, the former chief executive of Centrica – you may know them better as British Gas - about what's possible, what's fair and what's likely.

"Beyond London we're going to look underneath the surface at why we've seen some really nasty confrontations between Muslim and Hindu youths in Leicester."