It's Monday, February 9, 2026.

I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Back in 1867, Walter Badgett wrote a book entitled The English Constitution.

And in that book, he argued that there are two

essential dimensions to government. He was speaking of the British government, but it applies actually

to any constitutional order. There are two parts. He identified those two parts as the dignified

and the efficient. Now, we have been through a very tumultuous weekend here in the United States. And other tumultuous events are happening around the efficient. Now, we have been through a very tumultuous weekend

here in the United States.

And other tumultuous events are happening around the world.

And it brings me back to those two categories

of the dignified and the efficient.

Walter Badgett defined the monarchy in Britain

as the dignified part of government.

And he argued that the monarch's function is to embody

and exemplify the dignity that belongs to the British state. The monarch's function is to be

respectable, is to be dignified, and to give respect and dignity to the entire governmental order.

Now, of course, this requires a dignified monarch and a dignified monarchy.

Parliament and government agencies in Britain, they were seen as the efficient part, and this means

where the sausage, so to speak, is made of legislation and government and policy. Badgett argued

that if the British people ever really watched Parliament at work, watched Parliament closely, they'd be appalled. A modern government to be efficient, well, it has to be sometimes messy. Politics is messy. Sometimes the entire enterprise of politics can mean downright tawdry. In Britain, the monarch is the head of state,

whereas the prime minister is the head of government. And those are two very different positions.

Now, back in the time that Margaret Thatcher was prime minister in the United Kingdom, I had the

...