It is 90 years since the first royal Christmas speech was broadcast to the nation by George V.
Written by poet Rudyard Kipling, the 251-word address was delivered live from the monarch's home in Sandringham, as he told his Empire: “I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all.”
Now, decades later King Charles III will be the first king to make a televised Christmas message.
Queen Elizabeth II opted to give her inaugural Christmas broadcast in the same chair and desk at Sandringham as her father and grandfather used for their speeches.
Now, as he takes over from of his late mother, fondly known by those behind the scenes as “one-take Windsor”, the world will be looking to see if he sticks with tradition or brings something new to the speech.
“The Christmas speech will be his personal take on the year and obviously at the centre will be the queen and her passing, there is no doubt that will be the case,” royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The National.
“Very often she was deeply religious, she often had a link to a religious theme, and it will be interesting to see how he, remembering Christmas and what it means, handles that, and also the parts of the royal year that he chooses to highlight.
“I think it will be a very professional job, especially since he is well aware he will be the subject of such fascination. It is the first one. In a year that will obviously see the queen’s death and the magnificent funeral at the centre of the speech, there is no doubt he will pay a very moving tribute to her.”
Editor of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward is expecting a “masterly” performance.
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“This December will be the first time that Charles III has recorded a Christmas message to the nation and the Commonwealth,” she wrote in Majesty.
“Over many years of public speaking the king has acquired the delivery of a professional actor and I have no doubt it will be a masterly performance.”
Now a Christmas Day institution, aired at 3pm UK time, there had been speculation he could scrap the custom, but not being one to shy away from voicing his personal opinions in his former role as the Prince of Wales, it will be a yearly opportunity to present his own perspective on global events.
The king recorded his speech last week, in between releases of his son Harry's Netflix documentary, which he is not expected to mention.
“We know, as he had to create his own role as Prince of Wales, we have had an insight into his interests and thoughts and character for better or worse because he has been very controversial in the past years,” Mr Fitzwilliams said.
“We will have to see how it compares to the queen’s, she was very adept but he has had plenty of time to practice.”
The queen used to meet her advisers months in advance of Christmas to discuss the issues she should touch upon, but having only been in the role for four months the king will not have that chance, but many expect the overriding theme will be to pay tribute to his mother.
“I’m sure he’ll record [the speech] a few days before and it’s bound to have some reflection on their loss,” the BBC’s former royal correspondent Jenny Bond recently told OK! magazine.
It is expected he will touch on the war in Ukraine and the unprecedented changes in the UK government’s party leadership which marked the start of his tenure, and the queen's platinum jubilee.
In the past, a small team of six has usually being involved in filming it — three producers, a film editor and two camera operators.
It is usually written by the monarch and filmed in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
The royal broadcast
The first royal Christmas Day speech was a radio broadcast in 1932 by George V.
All the monarchs continued to deliver their messages live until 1960, when pre-recording enabled them to be sent in advance to the Commonwealth.
A problem of the live speeches became apparent during the queen’s first televised speech in 1957, when her address was interrupted by a police radio and a US officer could be heard saying, “Joe, I'm gonna grab a quick coffee”.
The queen was renowned for writing her own speeches with the help of Prince Phillip.
Her first speech, in 1952 over radio, was 829 words long, but since then it has averaged 656 words.
Between 1986 and 1991, presenter David Attenborough produced her speeches and in one rare instance he was forced to ask her to repeat it after a horse in the background began flapping its lips and appeared to mimic the monarch like a ventriloquist.
Her speeches have touched on major tragedies and famine over the years.
In 2017, she focused on the theme of “home” following the Manchester Arena terrorist attack and the Grenfell Tower fire, and paid tribute to the two cities' “powerful identities” shining through in the face of “appalling attacks”.
Annus horribilis
A poignant moment came in 1992, a month after fire destroyed part of Windsor Castle, when she touched on her own family struggles.
Earlier in the year she had described 1992 as an “annus horribilis” following the divorces of three of her children.
In her Christmas message she described it as a “sombre year” which she hoped to “put behind” them.
Five years later, tragedy again touched her family, and her 1997 speech was dominated by the death of Princess Diana, which she described as “unbearably sad”. She said her thoughts were with those who were “alone, bereaved or suffering”.
Her last speech was tinged with sadness as she paid tribute to her late husband, Prince Phillip.
Happier themes have featured, such as in 2012, when she described her “memorable” diamond jubilee.
Poignant time for king
King Charles has already faced challenges in his short time as monarch, from losing his mother and a race-row caused by a palace aide, to the recent Netflix documentary released by his son Harry.
“I do not think he will address the controversy,” Mr Fitzwilliams said.
“The problem is there is very little the royal family can do with reference to the Sussexes. With reference to diversity, yes there is quite a lot they can do and should do.”
Despite choosing to spend the festive period at Sandringham, King Charles filmed his speech stood up at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Over the years the queen has appeared addressing the nation at the gates of Buckingham Palace, at a military barracks during the Iraq War and in the palace gardens.
The message was recorded in the quire of St George’s Chapel, where the royal family sat during the Queen’s committal service, and during the broadcast the choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor performs the National Anthem and sings a carol.
In the background is a large Christmas tree decorated with ornaments made from sustainable materials including paper and glass as well as natural products like pine cones.
As he makes history on Sunday, as the first British king to give a televised Christmas address, it will be marked by sadness from the loss of his mother.
In her final speech, she sat behind a desk in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, accompanied by a single, framed picture of herself and her late husband, as she paid a loving tribute to his service to the nation.
This year maybe the king will sit next to a similar photo, as he looks ahead to the hard act he has to follow.
Company profile
Name: Thndr
Started: October 2020
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000
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Investors: Tiger Global, Beco Capital, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator, Global Ventures, Abdul Latif Jameel, Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Plus VC, Rabacap and MSA Capital
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
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Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
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UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
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How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
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Ballon d’Or (Men’s)
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Ballon d’Or Féminin (Women’s)
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Kopa Trophy (Best player under 21 – Men’s)
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Yashin Trophy (Best Goalkeeper – Men’s)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City / Italy)
Best Women’s Goalkeeper
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Men’s Coach of the Year
Luis Enrique (Paris Saint-Germain)
Women’s Coach of the Year
Sarina Wiegman (England)
Gothia Cup 2025
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76 nations
26 UAE teams
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
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Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)
Date started: August 2021
Founder: Nour Sabri
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace
Size: Two employees
Funding stage: Seed investment
Initial investment: $200,000
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