Italy’s ambassador to the UK has criticised the Economist for rehashing old stereotypes after featuring Liz Truss dressed as a centurion and holding a fork of spaghetti under the headline “Welcome to Britaly” on the cover of its latest edition, which focuses on Britain’s political mayhem.
Truss, who resigned as prime minister on Thursday after just 45 days in office, is also holding a pizza-shaped shield, with a union jack design and one slice eaten.
The weekly newspaper described Britaly as “a country of political instability, low growth and subordination to the markets”, while reminding readers that in 2012 Truss and her recently sacked chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng wrote a pamphlet called “Britannia Unchained” in which they used Italy as an example of “a direction not to take” due to the country’s “clogged public services, low growth and low productivity”.
The cover angered many Italians, including the ambassador Inigo Lambertini, who in a letter to the Economist’s editor wrote that the cover was “inspired by the oldest of stereotypes”.
“Although spaghetti and pizza are the most sought out food in the world, as the second largest manufacturer in Europe, for the next cover we would suggest you to pick for a change from our aerospace, biotech, automotive or pharmaceutical sectors.
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 a remark from Ambassador @InigoLND @ItalyinUK 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 #economist #italy pic.twitter.com/VfmoTCgcUO
— Italy in UK (@ItalyinUK) October 20, 2022
“Whatever the choice, it would cast a more accurate spotlight on Italy, also taking into account your not-so-secret admiration of our economic model.”
Social media commenters described the cover as “arrogant” and “offensive”, while one joked on Twitter: “If you are offended by the cover of this week’s Economist, I cannot imagine what will happen when you realise there are cucumbers on that pizza!”
The cover follows an opinion column in the Telegraph, written by Matthew Lynn, on Sunday under the headline “Britain’s transformation into the new Italy is now almost complete”.
