Every year, the British constitution performs a magic trick. A monarch dons a crown worth more than most pension funds, rides through London in a gilded coach, and reads aloud a script written by politicians who, in any other context, he would be constitutionally forbidden from agreeing with. The Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars for gunpowder. Black Rod gets a door slammed in his face. An MP is held hostage at Buckingham Palace. And everyone pretends this is normal.

Welcome to the State Opening of Parliament — or, as it might more honestly be called in 2026, the State of Parliament.

King Charles III delivered his second Labour-era speech on 13 May to a chamber groaning with ermine and tradition, just days after local elections in which the governing party secured the magnificent backing of 15 per cent of voters. Over eighty Labour MPs had publicly urged Keir Starmer to resign. Catherine West briefly floated a leadership challenge before retreating faster than a gilt yield in a liquidity crisis. The Prime Minister called the results “tough” and vowed not to “plunge the country into chaos” — a promise that, like many of Labour’s manifesto commitments, may prove aspirational.

Into this carnival of confidence stepped the King, tasked with reading out a legislative programme so sprawling it would make a graduate student weep: the European Partnership Bill, the Energy Independence Bill, the Civil Aviation Bill, the Highways (Financing) Bill, the Northern Powerhouse Rail Bill, the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill, the Police Reform Bill, the NHS Modernisation Bill, the Courts Modernisation Bill, the Immigration and Asylum Bill, the Clean Water Bill, the Railways and Passenger Benefits Bill, the Education for All Bill, the Digital Access to Services Bill — and that was merely the warm-up. One half-expected Charles to pause, adjust his spectacles, and ask whether anyone had considered governing instead of legislating.

The speech opened with a line that deserves to be framed: “An increasingly dangerous and volatile world threatens the United Kingdom, with the conflict in the Middle East only the most recent example.” This is the diplomatic equivalent of describing the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)