Always Worth Saying’s King’s Speech Review

Puffins visiting Londonistan may spot a carriage and horses containing a Controller wearing a Cap of Maintenance and armed, besides various other baubles, with a Sword of State. If so, they will have happened upon the advance guard of the State Opening of Parliament. The origins of the State Opening can be traced to the early 13th century when the monarch would summon advisors and representatives to discuss matters of state. These gatherings evolved into a more formal institution under Edward III in the 14th century. The ceremony began to take shape, with elements emphasising the monarch’s role in governance and the pageantry associated with the Crown.

By the Tudor period, the State Opening had become an established tradition. Henry VIII’s reign saw the development of the ceremony’s structure, including the monarch’s procession and the delivery of the speech outlining the government’s agenda. The procession from the royal residence to the Palace of Westminster symbolises the connection between the Crown and Parliament. Accompanied by the Household Cavalry, the monarch travels in a State Coach, an emblem of royal continuity and national history.

A critical component of the ceremony is the search of the Palace of Westminster’s cellars by the Yeomen of the Guard. This tradition, initiated after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, serves as a reminder of the historical threat posed by Guy Fawkes and his conspirators, who attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Not the gin-soaked Hull University graduate Guy Fawkes, purveyor of an inferior politics blog obsessed with SPAD lists and Greggs, but the one executed opposite the Palace of Westminster in 1606.

The centrepiece of the State Opening is the monarch’s address from the throne in the House of Lords. Dressed in ceremonial robes and wearing the Imperial State Crown, the monarch reads the King’s Speech, a document crafted by the government outlining its legislative priorities for the upcoming session.

And so it was on Wednesday when King Charles delivered Kier Starmer’s agenda for the next Parliament. This was King Charles III’s third such speech, having previously deputised for his elderly mother. Typically occurring in May, this one was delayed until mid-July because of the general election and the resulting incoming new Labour government.

The last time a King presented for such was in 1950 when King George VIth began his address thus:

Five years ago, in the hour of our deliverance from war, I declared it to be the firm purpose of My Government to work, in concert with the Governments of all other peace-loving nations, for the attainment of enduring world peace. Yet despite the untiring efforts to this end of all My Peoples, helped by My Allies across the seas, the world is once more troubled with the menace of war. The avoidance of war remains the supreme desire of My Ministers, and under this new peril they will seek by all means in their power to ensure the success of the measures for rearmament which they have taken.

Those wars were in the Colonies and Korea. Different times – we hope.

Returning to the present day, following the departure from the Palace of The Controller and his symbols of state, came King Charles and Queen Camilla in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach. This was drawn by six horses and surrounded by horses and riders of the Household Cavalry.

The King presented as an admiral, the Queen wore a white dress. It being the Queen’s birthday, a forty-one-gun salute sounded. Or was it a sixty-one-gun salute? Or a forty-one and a sixty-one? A plummy voice on Lie News explained the differences, something to do with Royal Palaces and Royal Parks, while his co-presenter giggled like a schoolgirl and the Ruritania needle headed towards the max.

The television coverage was from above, with a helicopter following the route. At ground level, another camera showed occasional glimpses inside the House of Lords. In the upper chamber, unelected judges – some in red, white and wigs, and others in black, white and wigs – sat in a heap before two thrones. Surrounding them were unelected Lords in red and white. Amongst them 92 unelected hereditaries and 23 unelected bishops. To one side, an enclosure held unelected diplomats, one or two of them Arab chaps of a Muslimic appearance.

What was noticeable by their absence were members of the public. A few people stood around the Victoia Memorial at the entrance to Buckingham Palace. At a guess, invited guests and press photographers. Along the mall, no one could be seen. The pavements were empty. One assumes there’s a line of barriers on the other side of the pavement to keep the plebs at a distance. From the helicopter this area is hidden by trees. Parliament Square was deserted, and when the camera came to ground level, all that could be seen outside the Palace of Westminster was a row of horse’s bottoms as the Household Cavalry lined up upon the arrival of the King and Queen’s carriage.

The Lord Great Chamberlain enjoyed a few mentions in commentary. This reviewer understands it’s that Lordship’s job to dress King Charles after he’s arrived at Westminster. The admiral’s uniform having been returned to a hanger, the King and Queen appeared in full regalia on the thones in the House of Lords. ‘My Lords may be seated,’ announced the King before a lady Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod marched to the Commons with her gold lion-topped black stick to summon MPs with three hard knocks to a closed door.

This year, Jacobs, ‘Captain’ Pennys, Lizs and Johnnys were notable by their absence, having been replaced by Iqubals, Shokats, Adnans, Ayoubs and at least one Nigel.

So much for the ceremonial, what about the actual contents of the speech? The King began by saying his new government intended to be ‘mission-led’. Oh dear.

The first two missions being to beef up the Office of Budget Responsibility and introduce an ‘Industrial Strategy Council’. In other words, the mission is to give more control to unelected new New Labour technocrats. There followed a list of about 40 bills, some disguised as intentions, aims, resets, controls, modernisations or things to be established or re-established. Remaining with interpretation of language, a ‘new deal for working people’ translates to a better deal for the government’s trades union pay-masters.

Did Aston Martin-driving wind farm billionaire King Charles lick his lips upon reading out loud of a global climate challenge green energy transition funded by a newly set up and funded GB Energy? Before you ask, funded by the taxpayer as it will be commercially untenable. As I write, according to Gridwatch, mid-summer electricity demand is low. However, wind farms are providing only 15% of our electricity. Five-sixths of installed wind capacity is going unused. We are importing over one-fifth of our electricity from the Continent, much of that comes from gas, coal and lignite. Remember, as gas central heating and internal combustion engine-powered cars are banned, electricity demand will rise. Madness.

A bill for sustainable aviation fuel. To modernise asylum, ie open the borders. A plan to halve violence against women and girls. His Royal Highness omitted to mention according to the crime survey, the vast majority of the victims of violence are men and boys. No fault evictions where landlords lose even more control over their properties. Bigger and more interfering government via an Independent Football Regulator. Why? Other than a quangoland job for life for a black woman. Modernise the Mental Health Act by giving the violent mentally ill the right not to be incarcerated. A bill to ban conversion therapy. In other words, outlawing any criticism of the London bubble’s LGBTQ++ agenda.

Big government, unelected quangocracy, mad projects that are unviable comercial burdens on the taxpayer, capped off with a ‘reset’ which will see Lammy going cap in hand to the EU. Oh, and a reform of the House of Lords, meaning King Charles, bereft of hereditary peer The Lord Great Chamberlain (Rupert Francis John Carrington, 7th Baron Carrington, DL) will have to dress himself. Legislation on race equality. In other words, institutionalised legally binding second class status for the native British. Housing targets – rabbit hutches for commuters in the South East and a giant human dustbin for immigrants, illegal and otherwise, in the rest of the country.

Back in the Commons in the following speeches, Leader of The Opposition Mr Sunack was demob happy, self-deprecatory and too magnanimous towards the new prime minister. When Mr Starmer spoke, he put on his serious face and continued the tired election campaign mantra of 14 wasted years of Conservative rule and the now apocryphal consequences of Mrs Truss. Expect much more of this over the next five years as the unpleasant consequences of these forty bills fall upon the voters.

Did somebody mention Ruritania? Rather, both Houses, the Monarch and their lackeys, show all the hubris, arrogance, self-importance, entitlement, privilege, self-delusion and detachment from reality of Prussia at its lowest ebb – except without the big army.
 

© Always Worth Saying 2024