This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batch with my colleague, Joseph Sternberg, who's a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. He's in London.

He writes politically, economics on international and global affairs. But right now, I'm going to be parochial. I'm learning the geography of Mother Britain as best I can, having only ever been in London a few times in my life, not traveling in the counties around.

But life in London has been troubled these last weeks, not by the pandemic, but by a series of railroad strikes. They were always scheduled the way railroads do. They liked to keep the timetable.

That now seem to be a bad thing. At the same time, there's been trouble all winter about the National Health Service. I see that still in the news. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, refuses to get in the middle of N.H.A.S.Pay-Row.

But N.H.A.S. has agreed upon as a trouble for all of its lives since the postwar period. So I turn to life in London in general. I want to be positive here.

Joe, the parks should be momentarily aflame. And the weather should be a bit at least lightning. Is that the case in London?

Yes, I mean, we have finally changed our clocks forward this weekend. So we're now getting some of those longer evenings that you know, become such a pleasant feature of Northern Europe in the spring and summer.

Still very rainy here, but I think that, you know, there is the sense that things continue to get back. And I think that the end of the rail strikes coming into focus, going to make a huge difference for people's quality of life, because it means that they're going to be able to plan further in the future.

There weekend trips, they're shopping potentially could be very good for the arts and culture here in London, because one problem that theater is in particular have had is that people were wary of buying theater tickets too far in advance, because they were afraid that rail strikes would make it difficult for them to get to the show.

So I think that the slow resolution of some of these labor relations problems that we've seen in the economy are going to hopefully improve the mood and the economy a bit as we head further into the spring and early summer.

And a tale of two cities, Dickens, involving the King of France and the King of Great Britain once upon a time leading to the revolution in France.

And the refuge offered fleeing French royalty in London. I note that updating all of this King Charles has King Charles III has delayed his trip to France because of the troubles. Is that seen as significant show or is that just, you know, just scheduling?

Well, I think that it is in a sense more of a commentary on France than it is in the UK, because there appears to have been a desire not to have him arriving there with pictures of such disorder in the streets, but I think that they're also, you know, sometimes I detect here a concern about still wanting to firm up his popular image now that he is on the throne and make sure that nothing happens that might interfere with the affection that is not going to be there.

The affection that they're still very much hoping will develop between him and the British people.

And there was probably a sense that putting him in an environment where he might be surrounded by news images of civil unrest in the streets and where that kind of news might distract from the visit.

And I think that they would probably not be helpful for his own image. And I think that they are very, very careful about how they are stewarding that image right now, because I think that this kind of transition is always something of a sensitive sensitive time. And with the coronation now only a couple months away, I think that there is real concern to manage his image in the right sort of way.

And I think that the strain of a 20th century speaker I reached for the word coronation and came up with an inauguration you correct me.

Thank you, Joe. It is a coronation. And finally, the question in the parks always are they a bloom, Joe?

Again, this is one of those signs where spring is coming despite all of the political turmoil and the thing about Britain is that it is a beautiful country and you go out into the parks and London or the countryside around London.

And you see the natural life, which I think the the Brits have a particular appreciation for.

And so I think that kind of improves the national mood heading into spring as well.

Joseph Sternberg, member of the editorial board, based in London, I'm John Batch.

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