We are all in shock. It seemed The Queen would live forever and for her life to come to an end so quickly on Thursday afternoon was a bolt out of the blue, especially after seeing her asking Truss to form a government at Balmoral just two days earlier. I am a monarchist - although not an uncritical one - and I think it’s an institution worth preserving if possible. To have a head of state who is apolitical is something valuable and means we can feel patriotic without having to support a man or woman we have no political allegiance to or with.
The Queen set herself high standards and met them all. She has had a faultless 70 year reign in the full glare of the public eye. How many other heads of state can say that? None. If only we had politicians who were a quarter as selfless.
Hearing the words 'King Charles III' will take some getting used to but I’m sure he will do a first class job. I think he’s a decent man if not quite in the same mould as his mother.
I am not sure he will find it easy to keep quiet on the subjects he feels strongly about and this may lead to tension with Downing Street under Truss. They can’t stand anyone disagreeing them but unlike the permanent secretary at The Treasury (more on this below) they can’t sack him.
Charles was ahead of his time on climate change and Truss is busy appointing a lot of climate change sceptics so things might get quite awkward. Let’s hope he can moderate some of her more extreme positions.
I read The English Constitution by Walter Bagehot years ago and I thought his arguments on the monarchy being the dignified part of government while the rest was the efficient part made sense. But that was when the 'good chaps' theory worked. Plus, in recent years the Windsors haven't done themselves any favours, especially Prince Andrew and now Prince Harry. And Charles himself wasn’t completely blameless over Diana, let’s be frank.
The job of the royal family (and it is a job) isn’t an easy one. They have a lot of privileges but pay a heavy price in being constantly in the public eye, meeting some truly awful people like Putin and Trump, having to show up every time looking as if everything is fine and dandy when perhaps they're feeling awful or have real troubles. I couldn't do it and I daresay most of us couldn't.
Tom Scholar
The new and totally inexperienced chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has pushed out the permanent secretary, the top civil servant, at The Treasury, on his very first day in office. Tom Scholar was a vastly experienced and highly respected mandarin, popular across Whitehall apparently so his forced resignation on the first day came out of the blue.
With all due respect to both Tom and @Gus_ODonnell, I think this misses the point.Sacking a PermSec on day 1 - so not because of personal incompatibility or job performance but for ideological reasons - is unprecedented and contravenes basic principles of UK governance. https://t.co/4SnuRchC0Z— Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) September 8, 2022
There are plenty of Scholar supporters who are lining up to defend him and say Kwarteng and Truss will regret the move. Faced with someone prepared to tell them the truth, the government prefer to move them out of the way.
When ideology collides with reality, there can only ever be one winner but the price to be paid by us ordinary folks is often a very high one. We shall see as the economic storm gathers. Kwarteng and Truss cannot use the excuse that The Treasury is blocking their plans - assuming they can get someone to replace Scholar who is happy to parrot their fantasy economics.
Trump
As the reign of Charles III begins there are plenty of other global developments which might herald a change of fortune for some of the worst offenders.
Trump’s troubles continue to get worse. A grand jury has been sworn in to look at a PAC (Political Action Committee) which he used to raise money for his political campaigning but which he (allegedly) then used to fund himself and his companies. Save America is said to have raised $130 million dollars.
It’s yet another path taking him on his inexorable journey to prison. For Trump, all roads lead to jail. Think about this, it is literally unbelievable but it is going to happen
A federal grand jury is reportedly seeking information about Donald Trump's Save America leadership PAC as investigations into the former president continue to expand.https://t.co/smNYLXt8tp
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 9, 2022
Also, the former POTUS filed a legal action back in March against the Department of Justice, the FBI, the media and Hilary Clinton claiming “the Defendants, blinded by political ambition, orchestrated a malicious conspiracy to disseminate patently false and injurious information about Donald J. Trump and his campaign, all in the hopes of destroying his life, his political career and rigging the 2016 Presidential Election in favor of Hillary Clinton.”
I kid you not.
A judge threw that out yesterday (read it HERE) with a ruling that was absolutely scathing. Trump and his legal team have been totally humiliated.
Donald M. Middlebrooks, a United States District Judge, said:
“Many of the Amended Complaint’s characterizations of events are implausible because they lack any specific allegations which might provide factual support for the conclusions reached. For instance, the contention that former FBI director James Comey, senior FBI officials, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “overzealously targeted” Plaintiff and conspired to harm him through appointment of special counsel are strikingly similar to the conclusory and formulaic allegations found deficient in the seminal Supreme Court case of Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009). What the Amended Complaint lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances.”
Ouch!
Ukraine
Meanwhile in Russia, municipal deputies, first in St Petersburg and yesterday in Moscow, have called on Putin to resign! This is quite a risky personal move in Putin’s Russia and therefore all the more significant.
Now a group of a Moscow district council members have called on Putin to resign. This is despite the fact the St Pete council members were called in for questioning today. https://t.co/B2pLtlPPT4
— Bakhti Nishanov (@b_nishanov) September 9, 2022
In St Petersburg they accused him of treason while in Moscow it’s more related to the economy. It comes as Ukrainian forces continue what looks like successful counter attacks in Kharkiv and Kherson. The Russian occupying forces are apparently falling back in disarray.
A few days ago on 1 September, Putin was demanding his military commanders take more of Donetsk by 15 September but now they are conceding ground and at quite a rate.
Lots of videos of Russian POWs (including a lieutenant-colonel) and abandoned Russian positions coming from the Balakliya-Izyum front as Russian military bloggers and analysts remain in doomsday mode. The speed of the Ukrainian advance seems to have stunned everyone.
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) September 7, 2022
Some of the places being liberated by Ukrainian forces were 60km behind the front line the day before! The speed of the advance has been a real surprise. Russia seems unable to hold on to what it's got so I can't see it making the territory back any time soon.
For the first time ever Putin is under real pressure. His military 'might' has been cruelly exposed with ill-disciplined, badly led forces suffering with poor quality, poorly maintained equipment and at home the economy is collapsing. Can he survive? Perhaps not.
We live in momentous times.
