Analysis by Keith Rankin, 29 April 2026.
Are we witnessing, for the first time, a British King appeasing a foreign emperor? And on the quarter-millennial anniversary of Britain’s greatest ever geopolitical humiliation. Could King Charles be enacting one of the final straws in the deathknell of the Monarchy?
To Mr Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom: Man-up. Grow a spine. Otherwise, you too may fall. Call an election if you must to re-establish your mandate, and the mandate of the King.
According to the ABC’s Brad Ryan: “The king was clearly keen to communicate that not only was the UK a friend to the US, it was also actively supporting the Trump administration in its efforts to project military might around the world.” (Takeaways from King Charles’ speech to the US Congress, on RNZ News, 29 April 2026.) Not even a capital ‘k’ for King.
In the light of Trump says his mother had a crush on young Prince Charles (The Independent on YouTube, 28 April 2026), I can envisage the expiration of the Monarchy being marked by a tabloid broadcast of an AI fake mashup of the late Mary Anne MacLeod Trump singing Charlie is my Darling. It would be an ignominious end to a line of English Kings and Queens dating back to 1066.
My reading of British politics at the moment is that there are many angry men (and women) in the United Kingdom (and elsewhere); The Educated Miserables, as Victor Hugo might have called them. The ruling classes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are just so out-of-touch with the demos; the people who work, live and die under their semi-democratic jurisdictions. (Refer UK healthy life expectancy falls by two years in past decade, BBC 27 April 2026.)
The election of the barely mentioned never debunked President of Iran in 2024 today looks much more like a transparent exercise in people power than the elections that same year in the United Kingdom, the United States, and France. To eyes foreign to the above-mentioned countries, Iran may not be the only nation for which regime change is being sought. To the western Emperors, Presidents, Kings, Prime Ministers and counsels: “first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Gospel of Matthew).
In the meantime – beams and motes notwithstanding – just stop holding the world to ransom. And resign, if you cannot at least try to act in the interest of the world.
————-
Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.