Events in these last days provide two images for me to recover.

One is the King's Speech in London, with Charles III in his robes and his crown,

and Camilla, his queen next to him, surrounded by a lot of red,

officials of the regime, the kingdom, and the king's speech is provided by the prime minister.

He reads it perfectly. There's no ah, there's no hesitation, there's no

mispronunciation. My government will. My government will. My government will. Quite beautiful.

And then they march out there. Do this in the House of Lords, much bigger chamber. And the House

Commons crowds in at the back of the room to listen in to the King's speech

because the lords and ladies of the land are on their seats listening to their sovereign.

When it's done, the House of Commons marches out first and returns to lunch, business as usual,

or dinner time. Quite beautiful, quite laid out, quite ceremonial.

Then we come to the forbidden city, the visit of the Emperor of the American Empire,

Trump, to the Emperor of the Chinese Empire, Xi. And in the course of that, they march up red carpets, they visit

ancient trees, and they have a display of military men with their automatic weapons all polished

up in different colors, white, summer and white, summer and blue. Quite like toy soldiers marching around,

a display. No big weapons, just a ceremony. Although she is in a business suit, as is Trump,

they could be in robes. And I put these together, Dramaticus, and come to you. Because it looks to me like

this is a showpiece. They don't look like warring parties. They look like two businessmen

trying to figure out the price of the hotel. And in London, Charles didn't look like he was worried about the British people.

He was going through a ceremony that's at least a thousand years old.

Good for him.

There was no anxiety, no tension in the room, even though we know that now that Starrmer has

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