Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the podcast with me, Steve Richards.

Thanks for tuning in wherever you are. And of course, we've got a lot to

cram in in our time together. We'll come to your emails fairly shortly. They are, as ever,

illuminating, thought-provoking, insightful. And before that, if it's okay with all of you,

just a couple of short reflections from me at the end of this

strange week in both domestic and international politics. First of all, the visit of the king to

the United States. Like all of you, I suspect, or nearly all of you, I was impressed with the speech he gave

to Congress and the follow-up speech at the dinner he had, which Trump hosted. It was beautifully

judged, funny. I forgot, because you don't often see him giving speeches in sensitive

situations, that he's got the timing of a comic. He, of course, has been a big fan of certain

comics. He was a huge fan of the goons when he was young, which is all to his credit.

Clearly, he's got a sense of the absurd. And boy, do you need one in the kind of life that he has

had. And then there were the references, which were on one level rather courageous to the constitution of the United States.

He paused and then said with its checks and balances, big cheer from certain parts of the audience,

a reference to Ukraine, a reference to the sort of multicultural emphasis that he always places

when he makes speeches about social priorities. He's good on all these things and also a reference

to the state of the planet where he was ahead of the game

decades ago. And in the context of the Trump presidency, you know, this was quite courageous

stuff. And he had Vance sitting or sometimes standing behind him, who I suspect would have

disagreed with most of the speech.

But Vance joined in the standing ovation, which punctuated the speech.

This is a tradition in Congress.

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