The First Royal Visit to the US (1939)

Meanwhile... The White House posted a picture of President Trump and King Charles III with the caption “two Kings” amid the monarch’s visit to the U.S. on Tuesday.

The UK is a Warning to the Rest of the World

HT Blog reader Kurt.

I had never heard of this guy before but found the arguments presented to be cogent and well backed by sources and statistics. 

Britain's Defense Buildup: Lots of talk but not so much money

LONDON — Keir Starmer tore up the script this year to pledge a massive British defense spending hike. So why is the country's military still preparing to make cuts?

Just ahead of his crucial first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in February, the U.K. prime minister announced his government would spend 2.5 percent of GDP on defense by 2027 — and hit 3 percent in the next parliament.

In June he went further — joining NATO allies in promising a move to 3.5 percent by 2035. Britain’s bold direction of travel was warmly welcomed by NATO members, including the U.S., which has sent a clear message under Trump that Europe must become more self-sufficient on security.

Yet inside Whitehall, anxiety is rising about how the U.K. will match lofty rhetoric with reality — and military chiefs are already locked in a fight with the all-powerful Treasury to get cash in the here and now.

The recent government-wide budget delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves contained nothing new for national security, while the Ministry of Defence is currently locked in a fraught battle with the Treasury over a landmark investment plan.

One U.K. defense official, not authorized to speak publicly, said: “Our position is becoming untenable. You can’t talk about leadership in Europe when we haven’t put our budget up at all.”

Read the res here.

UK: Mass migration is only part of the problem.

The other part of the problem is all the skilled workers and the well off who are leaving.

A Photographic Tour of 19th Century Colonial Hong Kong

A (rare) Victory for Legal Sanity

LONDON — Britain’s highest court ruled Wednesday that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.

More Admirals than Ships?

UK: New Law to Remove Last of Hereditary Lords from Parliament

The government is proposing to banish all remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords in the biggest shake-up of parliament in a quarter century.

The UK’s 92 remaining hereditary peers – who have inherited their titles from their parents – will lose their right to sit and vote in the upper chamber under proposals put forward by ministers on Thursday.

The move would complete reforms first made by Tony Blair’s government, which revoked the 700-year-old right of all hereditary peers to sit in the Lords in 1999. Just 92 of them, elected from the whole group, were allowed to remain until an agreement could be reached to phase them out altogether.

All 92 hereditary peers who now hold seats in the Lords are white men, and their average age is just under 70. They have continued to top up their numbers by holding byelections when one of them retires or dies.

Campaigners have long called for the system to be overhauled. In its manifesto, Labour said the continued existence of hereditary peers was “indefensible”.

The government’s bill will mean that there will no longer be any hereditary peers in the upper chamber. The earl marshal and the lord great chamberlain, who had been expected to keep their seats because of their ceremonial functions, will also be removed.

The bill is likely to become law sometime next year, and will fulfil a Labour manifesto commitment.

Read the rest here.

Historical trivia

Britain's crazy old money system...

UK Election: Poll predicts huge win for Labour

A new poll commissioned by the right leaning Daily Telegraph suggests Labour is heading for a landslide win in the July 4th election. The poll puts Labour on course to win more than 500 seats in the next parliament, while the Conservatives may hold as few as 53 seats. If this proves even remotely accurate, it will deliver the largest electoral majority in British history and leave the Conservative Party on political life support. Among the secondary parties, the Liberal Democrats are predicted to be only a few seats short of the Tories while the secessionist Scottish National Party would see its numbers drop by 40 to just eight. More than half of current ministers are believed in danger of losing their seats, including Rishi Sunak who could become the first sitting Prime Minister to lose his seat in a general election. The right-wing Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) headed by Nigel Farage is not expected to win any seats but is likely to contribute to the Tory collapse. 

The poll is a bit of an outlier, with most others showing a big win for Labour but not quite the existential collapse of the Tories that this one is predicting. And the pollsters acknowledge that around 100 seats are close enough that some could remain Conservative. But even in a best-case scenario for the Conservatives, Labour is likely to walk away with a de facto election proof majority leaving them firmly in government for at least the next ten years.

Story here (paywalled)

Update: Another poll, this one from Sky News. It's also pretty grim for the Conservatives, if perhaps just a bit less apocalyptic. 

Britain to Vote on 4th of July

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday set July 4 as the date for a national election that will determine who governs the U.K., choosing a day of good economic news to urge voters to give his governing Conservatives another chance.

“Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future,” Sunak said as he stood in heavy rain outside the prime minister’s residence.

Sunak’s center-right party has seen its support dwindle steadily after 14 years in power. It has struggled to overcome a series of crises including an economic slump, ethics scandals and a revolving door of leaders in the past two years.

The center-left Labour Party is strongly favored to defeat Sunak’s party.

The prime minister’s announcement was nearly drowned out by protesters blasting “Things Can Only Get Better,” a Labour campaign song from the Tony Blair era.

Bookies and pollsters rank Sunak as a long shot to stay in power. But he said he would “fight for every vote.”

Read the rest here.

Not a date generally associated with favorable events in British history.

King Charles has cancer

Respice post te. Hominem te esse memento. Memento mori.

Charles I

Who is rich?

The Guardian thinks anyone who makes over £60,000 (around $76,000) is wealthy and should be taxed accordingly. In the United States, that is considered middle class. In some parts of the country, it is on the low end of middle class. 

David Starkey: What is to be done?

James II/VII

In mass protest, some British police are refusing to carry firearms.

Most UK police do not carry lethal weapons. This is a longstanding national tradition that enjoys widespread support both from the public and within the police itself. Great Britain has some of the strictest gun laws in the world with private ownership of handguns more or less illegal and rifles and shotguns subject to stringent regulation. Firearms related violence is rare in Britain and the overall homicide rate (per capita) is a fraction of that in the US. 

That said, around one in ten police are selected following a rigorous vetting process for specialized training in weapons that is generally much more intensive than what American police receive. It includes not only training in the use of guns and other weapons, but also comes with a heavy emphasis on de-escalation of confrontations, and critically, when not to use lethal force. Upon completion of their training these officers are given special certificates allowing them to carry firearms on duty. Many are assigned to routine mobile patrol where they can be called in quickly if needed to handle potentially dangerous situations. Others are assigned to elite counter-terrorism units while some handle security at important locations such as the Houses of Parliament. Still others are assigned to plain clothes duty as close protection officers for members of the Royal Family or senior government officials and visiting VIPs where they perform duties similar to the US Secret Service but with a reputation for being a bit more discreet. 

As a result of all this, police involved shootings are incredibly rare in the UK. But even so, they do happen. A few years ago, an unarmed young man of African descent was fatally shot by a police officer under circumstances that provoked a great deal of controversy. Last week that officer was charged with murder and the police are up in arms. (Pun intended.)

Within the ranks of London's Metropolitan Police, that's Scotland Yard to us Americans, large numbers of firearms certified officers have handed in their permits and weapons and are refusing to carry out armed police duties. They are protesting not only what many perceive as unjustified charges against a fellow officer, but what they see as the extreme legal hazard this is signaling for armed police in general. In a very high-pressure job where officers may be required to make life and death decisions in a split second, they are not prepared to risk being criminally prosecuted for making the wrong decision in the minds of uninvolved parties second guessing their actions. So many have in fact walked off the job, or at least this aspect of the job, that the government is considering calling out the military for situations that would normally be handled by specialized police services.

Read the latest details here. 

David Starkey on the Duke of Woke

Rishi Sunak Likely to be the Next Prime Minister of the UK

It appears that he has all but locked it up and will be the fifth PM in the last six years (if you're keeping track). On which note; the Conservatives better get their act together. When people are making unfavorable comparisons between your party's track record of governance and Italy, that's not a great look. A general election must be called not later than two years from now. And according to current polls, if that election were being held in the here and now, the Tories would be in for a severe thumping. 

Funeral Rites for Queen Victoria

News coverage from 121 years ago.