London Had a Wild 2022, But These Seven Days Were the Craziest

Sarah Rappaport
·8 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- It was Oct. 20, and I was staring at a live feed of a lettuce. The tabloid the Daily Star had a very amusing YouTube stream of a head of lettuce decorated with googly eyes and a wig next to a picture of then-UK Prime Minister Liz Truss asking who would last longer.

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The lettuce won, as Truss resigned before the lettuce wilted. It was a bonkers chapter in a dizzying year of news in Britain that included the death of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, a currency crisis, record-breaking heatwaves, and three prime ministers within the span of four months. For some context on that number, there have been nine UK prime ministers in my lifetime, a third of whom were in power at some point this year. And having spent most of 2022 as a TV producer and reporter for Bloomberg Television in London, I didn’t have the option of logging off, sticking my head in the sand and ignoring the increasingly chaotic news cycle. I’m from the US, and fielding calls from friends and family asking me to explain the Queue or the lettuce or to advise them when it was best to come visit and take advantage of the the exchange rate— remember when the pound nearly hit parity with the US dollar?—could have become a second occupation.

Here are the most dramatic days in the UK news year that was.

June 4: Jubilee Celebrations

Queen Elizabeth II celebrated 70 years on the throne in June. What that meant for most Londoners was four days off work during some gloriously mild and sunny days and a staggering amount of Jubilee merch on sale from brands ranging from Barbie to Ikea. Hotels, pubs and restaurants offered everything from £48,000 ($58,400) hotel suites to high-tea with corgis. There was a “Platinum Party at the Palace” that kicked off with a sketch of the queen sharing marmalade sandwiches with fellow national treasure Paddington Bear. It was all pageantry, something this country does so well.

My local neighborhood had street parties with Victoria sponge cake and Pimms, and sales of the British alcohol shot up 97% over the long weekend. I went around to the barbecue at Petersham Nurseries in lovely Richmond—the neighborhood is known to the many fans of Ted Lasso—and walked along the Thames in the sunshine with my lunch and felt generally quite optimistic about the year ahead. That was probably a mistake, but the national mood seemed so sunny, matching the weather.

July 7: Boris Johnson Resigns

After three years as prime minister, Boris Johnson was out. He resigned after being marred by a series of ethics scandals, including “Partygate,” which refers to the the boozy parties thrown at Downing Street while the rest of the country was under restrictions during lockdowns. There was a rebellion in his own party to oust him, including from then-Chancellor (and now Prime Minister) Rishi Sunak that pushed him out the door in the end. I watched Johnson resign live from a TV control room at Bloomberg’s London headquarters and was reminded of how much had changed since his 2019 general election win. People called Johnson “Teflon”—that or “greased piglet”—because he seemed to slide out of trouble or avoid consequences so often, so watching him actually leave after what seemed like a year of speculation was surreal. As for what the future holds for Boris, I would be entirely unsurprised if he had a political comeback.

July 19: Record Heat Hits London

No one had any sleep, and the whole city felt on edge as London set a record of 40C (104F) at Heathrow airport, the hottest day ever recorded here. London is not built for heat, and it sweltered. Very few people have air-condition units in their homes, which were built to retain warmth through cold winter months. And they did retain heat at 104F, making my flat (a floor in a converted Victorian house) feel like the inside of a greenhouse. I googled ways to cool down without air conditioning. Sticking a towel in the freezer and then laying on top of it worked until it turned the bed into a puddle. It was too ungodly hot to turn on the oven or stovetop, so I had ice cream for dinner in a what would have been a dream for me as a child. But I was just too uncomfortable to enjoy anything. The extreme heat had much more severe consequences for others: It fueled so many fires that the city’s fire department was busier than any day since German attacks in World War II. There was also a record number of excess deaths caused by the heatwave.

Sept. 8: Queen Elizabeth II Dies

At 12:30 p.m., Buckingham Palace issued a statement that doctors were concerned about the health of the queen. Just six hours later, Buckingham Palace announced that she was dead. At 96, with 70 years on the throne, she was the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, taking Britain from the age of steam to the age of smartphones, as Bloomberg’s obituary so elegantly put it. It’s impossible to put into words what she means to this country; Queen Elizabeth II felt like an ever-present figure in British life, and nearly a third of people here say they’ve met or seen her during their lifetime. King Charles III paid tribute to his “darling mama” the next day, and I and many others were moved by his address—and by the dignified and solemn coverage on the BBC led by Huw Edwards. I was up late that night on calls with our TV planning team, trying to get our next day’s coverage just right, as we knew how much it meant to people in London and around the world. Typing the obituary headline into our TV software felt like being a small part of history. It was truly the end of an era, and it was hard to imagine this country without her.

Sept. 19: The Queen’s Funeral

More than 1 million people came to London for the queen’s funeral. Before that, to pay their respects, hundreds of thousands braved the Queue that at times snaked for more than 5 miles through central London. People queuing had wristbands and snacks and the use of portable toilets. The Queue was by some accounts a transportive experience of shared grief and the passage of time. David Beckham went. My colleague Charles Capel did, too, and he said the eight hours of waiting were incredibly moving and worth it. I watched the funeral from my desk at Bloomberg’s London headquarters and thought about what a remarkable life the queen had had and how I am, like most other adults, unlikely to see another queen within my lifetime. Charles is king now, of course, and his likely successors are William and then George, who was born in 2013.

Sept. 23: Minibudget Market Meltdown

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng sent UK markets into meltdown with his minibudget that slashed taxes for highest earners, scrapped caps on banker bonuses and put a price cap on energy. It sent the pound plummeting to near-parity with the US dollar, touching 1985 lows. Borrowing costs on five-year government bonds jumped the most for a single day on record as global traders dumped UK assets. The newsroom was buzzing, and everyone was on their Bloomberg terminals watching the pound tick lower and lower in real time. The market sure had its verdict on this, and so did I, watching my sterling-dominated savings become less and less valuable by the second. Truss sacked Kwarteng a few weeks later, but it wouldn’t be enough to save her premiership.

Oct. 20: Liz Truss Resigns

Prime Minister Liz Truss’s tenure was quick and marred by chaos, including that market-rout linked to the minibudget. She quit after just 44 days in office, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. The previous holder of that title was George Canning, who died in office in 1827 after less than four months. I had two windows up on my Bloomberg screens in the office on that afternoon, both Bloomberg breaking headlines, which go red if there’s big news, and the Daily Star’s lettuce cam live feed. It was entirely ridiculous and compelling at the same time. If a tabloid newspaper starts a countdown with a vegetable to see who will last the longest, the veggie or a politician’s time in office, then a political career is already over. It was only a matter of time. When Truss resigned, someone at the Daily Star brought out bubbly and turned on some disco lights on that YouTube live feed, celebrating the lettuce’s victory. The lettuce took over British Instagram stories and Twitter, as people leaned into the chaos after the year we’ve lived through. It was an historic year in the UK, and this was a bit of history, too, only framed in the most nonsensical way possible. Sunak became prime minister five days later, the third person to hold office since July.

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