As convincing as the “I’m all right Jack” pronouncements of the common downtrodden Englishman, the long-running theater of the British monarchy hit a new low this week, when King Charles opened the session of Parliament for the new parliamentary year. Looking distinctively ridiculous and uncomfortable in his official robes, with the heavy imperial crown perched oddly atop his head, Charles labored through the government’s agenda, reading through a list of 37 bills for passage and implementation in the coming session in a dispassionate monotone.
The bills were those of the Starmer government, which may be brought down by a challenge from his Health Minister Wes Streeting, who is expected to file an official challenge tomorrow. Starmer’s agenda includes more sanctions on Iran, more funds and aid for Ukraine, a perennial call for tax reform and moderate restructuring of the National Health Service, as well as a bill to nationalize the British steel industry and a “European Partnership” bill, to begin to undo BREXIT. There was a brief flurry of suspense regarding the traditional “King’s Speech for the Throne,” over whether or not it would be postponed, given the uncertainty as to whether the Starmer government which set the agenda would still be in office after it was delivered. The uncertainty was dismissed, as senior aides insisted that the “show must go on.”
The backdrop is the chaos unleashed by the unprecedented thrashing delivered to the Labour Party in the English Council/local elections on May 7. Labour lost a large number of seats, a complete reversal of the mandate received by Starmer in the national elections two years earlier, when Labour won 411 out of 650 seats in the House of Commons. Following the May 7 vote, 90 Labour MPs have called on Starmer to resign, with four government ministers among them. The Home Secretary called on Starmer to provide a timetable for an orderly transition, with Streeting emerging as the favorite.
Yet Starmer is steadfastly refusing to go. Channeling his inner Tony Blair—who created “New Labour” with his Epstein class buddies—he told The Guardian that Labour “must respond to the message the voters have sent us, that doesn’t mean tacking right or left.” He concluded his talk with Labour MPs on May 12 with an uninspiring slogan, to be “getting on with governing.”
As of the moment, it appears that the actual directors of this theater, the Lords of the City of London, are willing to allow the Starmer era to play itself out a bit longer. There is no one in the Tory Party nor Liberal Dems with any support, leaving only the volatile Nigel Farage as the leading opposition figure. Farage’s Reform Party was the big winner in the Council elections, gaining 1,400 seats, many in districts formerly in the hands of Labour.
The most likely choice of the City to replace Starmer appears to be Streeting, who is described as being close to Starmer in his politics, except for a much harder-core allegiance to Zionism. In Starmer’s address to party members, he adopted a tougher than usual defense of Zionism, calling for tougher measures to combat “anti-Semitism.” Unable to address the systemic crisis facing their declining empire, and unwilling to tip their hand as to which unacceptable alternatives they support, it appears that the Lords of the City will bide their time before unveiling the next act.