Anita Arnott

The diamond is then rushed out of the country to Queen Victoria by this man Dalhousie who thinks, what a coup it will be for me to lay the great mythical mountain of light at the feet of the Empress of India.

I mean, it basically almost sinks the ship.

and causes cholera and despair on the voyage over.

Wipes out the crew.

And then as soon as it gets in, people are beaten up.

Not just the people, the Queen is beaten up.

Well, she's not the only one.

Peel gets crushed.

The former Prime Minister gets crushed under his horse.

And the Queen, Queen Victoria, is handed the diamond with a massive shiner of a black eye because she's been attacked just the day before.

As soon as it enters British territorial waters.

Exactly right.

But look, this is the last bit of the story because we are galloping, galloping through this to tell you why this is so contentious and why Mamdani says give it back.

And then we'll come to who to give it back to.

So Queen Victoria is worried about the diamond.

She's worried about the curse.

She's also worried about the legality of how this diamond has come to her.

Albert's got a brilliant idea.

He's going to recut it.

So it's going to be the same diamond, look different, born anew in British sunlight.