A

You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on the 15th of July, 2026 on Monocle Radio. Is bombing Iran just going to be what the United States does now? Or does anyone have any better ideas? If the uk, Spain and Europe can agree on Gibraltar, what else is possible? And counting down to one of the great grudge matches in international sport. I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily starts now.

B

Foreign.

A

Hello and welcome to the Monocle Daily. Coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London. I'm Andrew Muller. My guests, Daniella Peled and Ash Bardwaj will discuss the day's big stories. And our on this day historical series will provide overdue correction to one of the most annoying historical inaccuracies in any pop lyric. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monocle Daily. This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller and I am joined today by Daniela Peled, managing editor of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, and by Ash Bhardwaj, journalist and author of why We Travel. Hello to you both.

B

Hello.

C

Good afternoon.

A

Daniella, your ceaseless attempt to tick off every obtuse local history museum on earth has recently taken you of all places. And I feel like we should have a drum roll sound effect, but we don't. Reading, indeed.

B

What a glorious day out. That was.

A

A glorious day out. To reading. That's possibly a sentence never before uttered.

B

I'll say it out loudly.

A

Yeah. What is there to see in reading?

B

Well, I think the highlight of our trip was probably the museum of.

A

Here we go.

B

Yes. Museum of English Rural Life. Absolute slam dunker of a showstopper. Yeah. Centuries, centuries of farm equipment. Fantastic insights. My favorite was a leather model of a calf fetus which looked very gimpy, but apparently was used to train generations of farmers on how to deliver calves safely. But that was not all. There is also. No, there's more.

A

As if a leather model of a cow fetus was not enough.

B

Yeah, you're gonna have to, you know, you're gonna have to cut me off at some point because I could go on about this. Straight as you will. So, the Reading Museum. Absolutely delightful. Centuries of glorious history, including a very accurate replica of the Bayer tapestry constructed by Victorian needle women in the 1880s, which, you know, anybody planning to head to the Showstopper show.

A

So if you don't want to queue up at the British museum and pay 33 quid to see the real thing, what can you see a facsimile in? Read for free. It's still. But you've got to factor in the rail fare.

B

Well, whatever you pay, it's worth it.

A

I mean, this is a steal. If you live in Reading, obviously it's worth it.

B

And I'll just end with one final thing, is that I have a personal invitation from the Friends of Reading Cemetery to return in September for their open day.

A

Not a bit. Their Christmas party goes off. Ash, you have recently been to the Hague, which I do actually myself believe is an actually undersold European destination.

C

Yeah, very much so. I also have to admit I am a fan of reading. I spent a lot of time there in my youth, particularly Reading festival. But the Hague is also a place I spend a lot of time in my youth because my mum's brother lives over there, my uncle, so we used to take the ferry over. And it's a great city and obviously it's renowned for the international institutions that are based in the northern part of the city. But you've got an incredible beach here in Scheveningen and Kaikdoin and the city itself is just gorgeous. As soon as you get beyond the central business district. It's what I like about it. Is it very human sized? It's great to get around on a bike, lots of cafes, lots of bars. I'm very fond and I took my 3 year old daughter and we had

A

a great time reading and the Hague. Your summer holiday dilemmas sorted. We will start with the United States war with Iran. And with due acknowledgement that this sentence could be introducing any given Monocle Daily in 2040 during the second term of US President Eric Trump. It is pretty clear by now that the United States is somewhat strapped for ideas about how to finish what it started. And that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps are pretty content with having been presented with one the Strait of Hormuz, and two, justification for their paranoia and repression. That being the case, it may be up to others to forge or force a resolution. Unless everyone is content to watch the United States continue insisting that the next bang of head on brick wall will prove decisive. Daniela, should we by now have completely abandoned the idea that the US has the least idea what it's doing? Or might they still have something up their sleeve?

B

Well, people often don't really have a clear end game when it comes to starting massive wars. I mean, that's not unique to the Americans, although the Americans are particularly good at it because they just have launched such spectacular wars in recent history. I mean, contexts are always different. But we do remember in Afghanistan, it took them very Little time to unseat the Taliban. And in Iraq, similarly, a matter of months to unseat the Ba'ath government and then decades to sort out the mess. And in Iran, you know, they, not to take away from genuine military successes from the Americans. They have, they've, they've taken out the Supreme Leader, they've had a devastating impact on military capability, but they have won some battles, they haven't won the war and it seems fairly unwinnable given that we don't quite know what the objectives were. And if it's regime change, it's vanishingly impossible to do that without boots on the ground, etc. Etc. Etc. Where they do seem to be losing is in the court of public opinion in America, which it's very demarcated by Democratic and Republican and maga. Republican. But one thing is for sure, it's not going to get more popular.

A

Well, probably not. And Ash right there is that possibly one factor which could contribute to the plugs getting pulled on this, because this war was never popular. Nobody wanted it, there was no clamor for it. Looking at polls today, the support for the war in the US is around 34% with 57% against. Even if those numbers are relatively set in stone and 34% does about coincide with President Trump's rock solid base. Does it start to drag on this if it becomes clear that the majority really, really don't want this?

C

I think it also shows how bad he is at both strategy and negotiation and engaging with other countries, which has an impact on how he's viewed across the nation. So even if it doesn't, the conflict itself doesn't affect the choices of people and the beliefs of people because they support or don't support the war. It has a knock on effect, like a halo effect on how he is viewed in terms of his capability. And the American military is incredibly capable. They're very good at delivering operational success. But any military can only work if it has a strategy that its operations are there to deliver. And it's quite clear, as Daniela was saying, that there wasn't a strategy behind this because Trump has listed so many different reasons to do it. But the other problem is they're terrible at negotiating. The Iranians are incredibly good at negotiating. And whilst the current US administration don't really have a strategy, if only they'd spoken to the people who'd negotiated with Iranians for years over the previous nuclear deal, the jcpoa, then they would have had an insight into what the potential pitfalls could have been, what the Iranians have done here is not only retained the capability to leverage the nuclear capability that they have, even though that has been degraded with the strikes that happened a year or two ago. They have brought into play the Straits of Hormuz, which wasn't up for negotiation before, but now is up for negotiation. And by focusing on that, they can get on with doing all the other things that they want to do without any impact from the United States.

A

Well, on the subject of the Strait of Hormuz, Daniela, the countries which depend on it being open, that is the Gulf Emirates, we can probably assume that for them the novelty has worn off by now. It's not just the fact that they are occasionally belabored by Iranian missiles. It's the fact that for the United Arab Emirates in particular, their whole thing for years has been that we are an oasis, if you like, of stability and safety in the middle. That reputation has now been taken away from them. Do they have any leverage? That is the uae, Qatar, Bahrain, to a slightly lesser extent, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

B

Yeah. And now Jordan as well. Well, indeed has been here, which is, you know, supposed to be an oasis of stability in itself. They have some more than leverage, I would say. They have their own interests in this. I mean, they were, not, to put it mildly, big allies of Iran. You know, a certain amount of skirmishing, you know, was good them. But yeah, in terms of, in terms of soft power, they've done a remarkable job in recent decades of presenting them not not only as a oasis of stability, but, you know, as a holiday destination, as purveyors of fine pistachio flavored chocolate, which is, which is pretty remarkable. And to a larger, you know, largely, they are still oases of stability. I mean, we're not talking, again, we're not talking boots on the ground. We're not talking really high numbers of, of casualties. But we're talking about perception and we're talking about the disruption to international holiday routes, for instance. And that has a much longer lasting impact. But I think that will last beyond actually the prosecution of this war, which, by the way, one advantage of it not really taking place in a sort of logical time or sense of victory, is that it will be over and victory will be declared no matter what happens. I think when President Trump says that it's time to declare victory, well, is

A

he likely perhaps ash just finalists to be hastened towards that by domestic political considerations, not just the unpopularity of this among American voters. But we have seen Senate Democrats blocking a debate on an annual defence policy bill. It's nice to see the idea of congressional oversight on military endeavours being revived. But does it still have anything like the impact it might have once?

C

In short, yes, I think domestic politics is going to be the thing that will impact Trump's decision making. In fact, I think it always is. I think whenever he's doing things, he always has a very strong eye on the way it's viewed internally, as most politicians do, and gas prices going up in the United States, the unpopularity of a war and with the midterms coming up down the road, I think all of those things will lead to him declaring victory again. And the long term impact of that is Iran will probably end up retaining control of the Strait of Hormuz by de facto, if not to jury.

A

Well, the uk, meanwhile, will prepare for war next year. To be clear, at the risk of tempting fate, that's the preparations, not the war, with what we are promised will be the largest home defence exercise the country has staged in decades. This will be called Operation Alberston Shadow, which is evocative for those of us who saw Albiston Shadow opening for Balan and the angel at the bullen gate in 1992 and will specifically test the UK's responses to Menace's short full scale invasion for, eg a campaign of sabotage, cyber attack and or assassinations. It will be preceded by a new national campaign to raise public awareness about the importance of national resilience. Presumably a pamphlet everyone will make fun of for a week on social media before dumping it in that drawer with all the spare cables and instructions for resetting the clock on the microwave come daylight saving Ash. First of all, Alberston Shadow. I. I have looked into this. There was an Arthur Alberston who played for Manchester United and Scotland and extraordinarily, four Australian Football League players. One of the, the most distinguished of which was probably Alec Alberston, who played 170 games for Hawthorne before and after World War II.

C

Right. I mean, British military operational names are quite random. I think they actually in the mod have a random name generator. That's. That's how they come up.

A

It would explain. It would explain a lot.

C

I thought it was Al Albion Shadow when I first saw it.

A

Kind of makes sense. Maybe it's a misprint.

C

It was slightly less evocative and aggressive than the American Israeli military operation.

A

Well, indeed.

C

Death Hammer.

A

Albion Shadow would be a good name for a Goth band. If anyone's listening, it's free. You can have it. Daniella, is this going to help? I was rather reminded of the quote often attributed to Dwight Eisenhower to the effect that plans are worthless, but planning is everything.

B

I think this is really important. Seriously. I think we especially, you know, when it comes to military preparation, you know, armies are used to doing this, and running war games is a critical part of how you learn, how you train. But I think somewhere where we fall down is our resilience as a country and our awareness of the hybrid threat. I mean, IWPR works extensively in Ukraine, Moldova, across the Eastern Partnership and Central Asia, the Caucasus, places that have really been tested when it comes to malignant information attacks. I mean, basically from Russia. But Russia is not the only threat out there. And I think we absolutely do not realize how vulnerable we are and how vulnerable we are, especially to information manipulation. I mean, just, you know, one example recently in the, in. In the awful murder of Ann Widdicombe, you know, the, the reporting has for the first time made it clear that the suspect is a white male British citizen. Why is that? Why is it relevant? Well, because our country at the moment is so vul to misinformation and misdirection that all it takes is, you know, an injudicious tweet or a judiciously planted tweet and then you start having race riots. We have this level of, we have got a low level of trust and a high level of gullibility at the moment. And that's, that's a major, major weakness which bad actors have done and will do exploit.

A

Is there going to be a challenge, Ash, for any Brit to get Britain's actual people to take any of this seriously? Because one can argue that the fairly commonplace British refusal to take anything seriously is kind of a strength of character, but there are times when it is also somewhere between unhelpful and just annoying.

C

I think it will be challenging for any government or any organisation working at the lower levels to try and get people to engage with this. Part of that is complacency. We haven't, as a nation really been under threat since 1940, 45. We did have the war book, which were plans for the event of a strike by the Soviet Union on the United Kingdom. That hasn't been updated since the 1990s. And of course, the threats have changed quite a lot since then from cyber through to the mis and disinformation Daniela was talking about attacks on critical national infrastructure. We know that Russia has been monitoring our undersea cables, those sorts of things. That could be an attack that could be considered below the threshold for full scale conflict or war, as it's conceived. Russia has a very different concept of war, of course, but we, I know that people within the military and within the civil service have been looking particularly at what is going on in the Scandinavian nations where they have a very strong sense of engagement in civil society, which is as a product of their proximity to Russia.

A

It's also also I think a proximity of their natural environment.

C

Yeah, I mean they're very capable people. You go to Norway, everybody does skiing fairly regularly. Everyone is just engaged in the awareness of the outdoors. Finland has lost land to Russia within the last century. These are places where they get what they need to do. And I think in the United Kingdom the idea of developing a sense of. It's not just the capability to do things, but it's a desire to want to feel part of the nation, which I feel is less strong in the United Kingdom than it is in other parts of the world, Northern Europe in particular.

A

One of the things they do do in the Scandinavian countries, Daniela, is the government periodically issues every household with a pamphlet just sort of saying this is what you should have in your household. This is what you should do in event of emergency. X, Y or Z. Sweden updated it's a couple of years ago to specifically include a chapter on what to do if war comes. The blood freezing detail from that which sticks in my mind is it specifically says if you hear any bulletins to effect that the Swedish state has surrendered, do not believe them. This is simply something that would never happen. But should that be something that the British government should attempt to engage the citizenry of Britain in? Or would people make similar jokes about that that they still do about the protect and survive leaflets that were issued in the 1980s. Rather amusingly suggest there was an. Suggesting there was any prospect of surviving a nuclear holocaust.

B

I think it was involved hiding under a mattress maybe. I mean that loomed large over my child. No, I think the problem is that those sorts of huge risks are easy to dismiss and they're the sort of dramatic sort of game changing invasions, nuclear weapons. It's a mass casualty event. But I think again what can have more of an impact on the daily life and the resilience of British people is the hybrid attacks, is the information warfare, is the malignant influence operations which I think already, I mean we can look at examples when it comes to Brexit, we can look at examples when it comes comes to the, the, the far right and far left divisions in British politics. But you know, children are learning in school how to verify and be suspicious of. Of information. They, they they see online. And that really hasn't sort of trickled up to, to the, to an older generation. And of course, AI plays an enormous part in this and, you know, gender disinformation as well. You know, this is a way of fracturing already existing fault lines in society. So I think that is a more important focus than, you know, stock up on loo roll, stock up on water.

C

You've hit on a really important point there, which is when you listen to some of the commentary around the state of relationship that the United Kingdom currently has with Russia and everything that happened around the defence investment plan, the funding for the UK's military planning. There were some commentators talking about, well, you know, people are going to regret this when there's Russians marching down the streets of Bristol and that's not what Russia would plan to do. There may be strikes in the United Kingdom on critical national infrastructure or on Lake in Heath or other critical military locations, but it is exactly what you're talking about, Daniel. Those are the sorts of challenges that we are more likely to face as a nation over the next 10 years, and those are the things we should be preparing for. I feel that this is a good step towards that. We've seen Russia doing sabotage, assassinations here in the United Kingdom.

A

We have indeed. Well, to Gibraltar now source of many disagreements over the years between the United Kingdom and Spain. Now the source of an agreement. Agreement between the United Kingdom and Spain. As of the most recent midnight, that is last night, the physical border between Gibraltar, a British overseas territory and Spain, is gone full time. Residents of Gibraltar and Spanish citizens equipped with the correct ID cards can come and go as they please. A considerable relief in particular to the thousands of Spaniards who commute to Gibraltar every day to work, who were often caught in queues. British and Spanish officials will, however, conduct entry and exit checks at Gibraltar's airport, arrive at which, after a long, low swoop around the rock, remains one of the great thrills of air travel, if not necessarily one for the faint hearted. Ash is this. And I think we're starting to see them on a number of fronts. The UK kind of finding small ways to tiptoe around Brexit.

C

Yeah, it's a pretty pragmatic solution. I mean, how many people fly from the United Kingdom, as in the mainland, to Gibraltar every day versus the number of people that are going from Gibraltar to, to mainland Spain and back again every day? You want to reduce the load on people. And as anyone who's traveled in and out of Europe over the last six years or 10 years now has seen Brexit has caused increased frictions as different levels of Brexit have come in. I think this is a really sensible solution. It works for Gibraltar, it works for the Spanish and it's not going to have that much of a negative impact on the rest of the United Kingdom apart from Brexit purists.

A

Well, I am looking forward to a few of them, as will undoubtedly happen, getting absolutely furious, Daniela, when they asked to present their passport on arrival.

B

But what colour will the passport be? That's crucial.

A

But I did chuckle myself. And I wonder, Daniela, if you think he was amusing himself when Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, who I have interviewed a couple of times, greeted this development by declaring Europe is back.

B

Yeah, I mean, what would have stopped all this Palava would actually have have not voting for Brexit in the first place. And again, this is just another one and a litany of like very, very foreseen, troublesome spots that weren't foreseen or no one thought about. I mean, it's hard again to be sort of too excited about Gibraltar, you know, as this kind of anomaly of the legacy of empire. Does it even count as, you know. But where we saw this Treaty of

A

Utrecht, 1713, if we're being picky, amazing,

B

Andrew, I'm proud of you. But where it had a much more sinister implications with, of course, was with Northern Ireland and Ireland, you know, and that has been a really hard issue to, to resolve and have much, much more sort of far reaching consequences. This is, I think, you know, hopefully you can look at it as a sort of future idea of how we are going to sort of calm down and without our border controls and our sort of ideological opposition to anything that gets closer to Europe. Of course we could just go in exactly the opposite way as well.

C

I think both Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and what we were talking about earlier with the challenges of negotiating with Iran just shows how fragile a state of not even peace but just coexistence is in the international arena. And when you throw in something chaotic like an attack on Iran or Brexit, you suddenly realize all these little things that have just been working in the background when you add something complex into it, that it really starts to cause issues. So the solution is don't do anything silly in international relations.

A

Well, sticking with the subject of British overseas territories coveted by a near neighbour, we are now circa 90 minutes from kickoff in a World cup quarter final between England and Argentina. This is one of the great grudge matches in international sport for reasons both off the pitch, that is the Falkland island, and on that is Diego Maradona thumping the ball into England's net with a fist in the equivalent fixture in 1986, and Diego Simeone reacting to the mildest brush of David beckham's boot in 1998, like a sniper had felled him from the grandstand roof. On this occasion, Argentina's vice president, Victoria Villarreul, who may have started early, has set a tone by describing the English as usurping pirates and further ranting, it's the Malvinas, it's Diego, it's Leo's last one. Go, Argentina, because until our last breath, we're going to claim what's ours. Daniela Keir Starmer, who is leaving office on Monday, he could have said anything to this. Why has he not come out and said, if you don't like it, you should have fought harder?

B

Oh, yeah, that would have worked. I mean, we would have. We would have sat up and paid and paid attention if he'd done that. Honestly. I think, though, in the British imagination, I might be completely wrong, but I think the hand of God probably looms larger than the Falklands War.

A

Well, I mean, yes, in that the Falklands, the British can claim as a win, whereas the hand of God presaged their defeat.

C

I think it. It looms larger for the British in terms of football, but for the Argentinians, the. The Falklands seem to really bother them. You downgraded Britain's England's success for a moment there, Andrew. You did say the quarterfinal, and it is, of course, the semi final.

A

Sorry, it is as well. You're right.

C

And, yeah, I think. I think. You know, I guess the reason Keir Starmer didn't say that is because he's not someone that decides to throw unnecessary international relations problems around, as the Argentina vice president has done. But, you know, it's going to be an amazing game. I have been nervous all day. I've been anticipating it. I've been nervous about it. John Simpson did a. The. The BBC international correspondent did a tweet saying whichever side wins will. If England wins, it settles the Falkland question. If Argentina wins, it will re. Stoke it. I mean, it's only a football game.

A

A bit of a reach, I think. No, there are a lot of nerves about. You can already see that Daniela's St. George's Cross face paint is running, and it is annoying. Doubly annoying, Ash, that I said quarterfinal when I meant semi final. Because the last item on tonight's show does kick off with me making fun of somebody else for getting something wrong. Serves me right for trying to be clever. Usurping pirates. Daniela, I think that sounds pretty good. Could the England team perhaps walk onto the field wearing eye patches and parrots?

B

Maybe you could have international talk like a usurping pirate.

A

I know.

B

I think that would be wonderful.

C

It was probably not a particularly bright one to use given that the symbol of the pirate is the Jolly Roger flag, which, of course is what submarines fly once they have had a successful strike on an enemy warship. So it wasn't, I think for many, many in the Royal Navy, that wouldn't have been an insult.

A

Our listening figures in Argentina are wilting the longer this goes on. Daniela, regular listeners will be aware that you are something of a sporting skeptic, but have even you been drawn in by this, or will you be watch whatever the hell else is on television this evening?

B

If I say I might be reading a book, is that really. I mean, I would watch. However, I'm the worst person to watch football with because I'm the person that goes, sorry, who's that? Which one is our side? What are they doing? And so that's if that's a real buzzkill. What I'm bracing for, and here I'm going to be a buzzkill again, is the hot takes on when we lose on penalties. And, you know, why does England always do this? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, Commiseration, fear, emotion over the media. Tomorrow morning, I'm just gonna, like, hide my head under a pillow.

A

Just, just finally on this one, Ash, I will test out a pet theory of mine, which is that I'm not sure that the English enjoy a grudge match as much as everybody else does, because almost everybody else's grudge match is England.

C

I mean, absolutely. And you see this in the. If you follow rugby, rugby union, you see this in the six nations every year. In fact, there was even an advert that was put out years ago. I think it was eventually pulled. But it all these different fans from England, Scotland, sorry, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, France, Italy, saying who did. Saying the name of a nation. It was all England. They all said England. And then the question had been, who do you most want to lose? And that was, I think that's symbolic of how many nations do feel about playing us at sport.

A

Ash Bardwaj and Daniela Peled, thanks for joining us. Finally tonight, our on this Day historical series remembers at least some of the reasons why. Why at least one other country enjoys beating England. Not that they will get the chance at this World Cup. Wrong. Napoleon did not surrender as such at Waterloo. And it remains outrageous that the Eurovision judges of 1974 awarded ABBA victory despite this appalling factual error, instead of, as would have been more appropriate, four pointy hats and banishment to the corner of the classroom, there to think solemnly about what they had done. Napoleon lost at Waterloo, certainly his French Imperial army crushed on June 18, 1815, between one army commanded by the British Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, and another led by the Prussian Field Marshal Gefart Leberecht von Blucher. But he did not hand over his sword to his vanquishers until July 4th 15th. The first line of ABBA's hit should have been my, my. Aboard the 74 gun Royal Navy ship of the line HMS Bellerophon off Rochefort, Napoleon did surrender. Come on, this is basic stuff. The 46 year old Emperor, a keen student of the classics, might have been uncomfortably aware that he had already become both a parable and personification of humour. Three years earlier, at the peak of his empire, Napoleon's word had been law. From Madrid to warsaw, from the toe of Italy to the top of Norway. In 1812, he'd pushed his luck too far with an invasion of Russia. By 1814, Tsar Alexander I was instructing his Cossacks to pitch their tents on the Champs Elysees and Napoleon, forced to abdicate, was simmering in disgraced exile on Elba. He'd escaped, rallied an army, recaptured Paris and embarked on something of a comeback tour, of which Waterloo proved the terminus. The adventure is remembered as the 100 days, as that's about how long he remained at large. Napoleon rode straight back to Paris after the battle, apparently with a view to persuading the rest of his administration to regard Waterloo as a means setback. Finding little audience for this line, he settled for abdicating in favour of his son, Napoleon ii, Prince Imperial of France and King of Rome. It was asking a lot of a four year old, just as it had been quite the burden with which to lumber a three year old when Napoleon had attempted the same manoeuvre in similar circumstances the previous year. Napoleon II's uncomprehending reign would last a couple of weeks before the throne was reclaimed by King Louis VIII. 18th Napoleon II would never see his father again, or much of an adulthood reinvented as an Austrian princeling, he died of pneumonia at 21. Napoleon's first inclination was escape to the United States. France had been an ally to its revolution and had sort of been on its side against the United Kingdom in the War of 1812. But France's ports, at least those to which Napoleon had access, were blocked by the British. In Rochefort, on July 13, Napoleon wrote a letter for the attention of the Prince Regent, who was directing British affairs due to the accelerating dementia of his father, King George iii. Even amid such humiliation, Napoleon identified with heroic figures of antiquity. Your Royal Highness, a victim to the factions which distract my country and to the enmity of the greatest powers of Europe. I have terminated my political career and I come, like Themistocles, to throw myself on the hospitality of the British people. I put myself under the protection of their laws, which I claim from your Royal Highness as the most powerful, the most constant and the most generous of my enemies. On this day, 211 years ago, Napoleon. Napoleon was delivered to HMS Bellerophon. It was doubtless not what Napoleon intended, but there was a poetic symmetry to the setting. HMS Bellerophon, affectionately known throughout the Royal Navy as the Billy Ruffian, had participated in several engagements of what we now think of as the Napoleonic Wars. Ushant, the nile, Trafalgar. By July 1815, Bellerophon was under the command of Captain Lake to rear Admiral Frederick Maitland, who later wrote of his

C

Bonaparte amused himself by playing at cards after breakfast. The game was Vinton, in which all the party joined except myself. He proposed that I should play with him, but I told him I had any money, making it a rule that I leave it all with my wife before I went to sea. On which he laughed and good humouredly offered to lend me some and trust me until we arrived in England. I, however, declined his offer. Having the numerous duties of the ship

A

to attend to, Napoleon never set foot in England. When Bellerophon reached Torbay, he was kept aboard as arrangements were made for his second and final exile, this time to Saint Helena. The ship then relocated to Plymouth, where for several days Bellerophon was besieged by thousands of sightseers in hundreds of small boats. The crew hung a blackboard over the side with updates of the latest doings of their famous package. Prisoner Napoleon, who seemed to be rather enjoying himself, periodically waved his bicorn hat from the deck. And that is all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Daniella Pellet and Ash Bardwaj. Today's show was produced by Chris Chermach and Chermac Rather and research by Nkelli Martin. Our sound engineer was Elliot Greenfield. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. London, the Daily is back at the same time tomorrow. Thanks for listening.