In his 73 years of life, Prince Charles had never been so close to the British throne as yesterday when, in the absence of his elderly mother, he opened the parliamentary year and read the Government program for the coming months to the House of Commons. He did not dress as a king but as an admiral, with his chest full of medals. And without the crown, which she was sent from Windsor Castle to the Palace of Westminster as a DHL parcel to comply with tradition, but no one was wearing it. Two future kings for the price of a queen.
The absence of Isabel, her substitution by the heir (supported by his wife Camila and his son Guillermo), a crown without an owner… Quite a metaphor for the state of the nation, with a prime minister who breaks the law (parties during the pandemic), an opposition leader whose political future depends on a curry (he has promised to resign if the police fine him for having a beer and Indian food for dinner in possible violation of confinement rules), corruption to the eyeballs, a resigned MP for viewing pornography, another for suspicion of sexually abusing a minor, several accused of harassment…
Behind the speeches of one and the other, the announcement of some laws and others, the atmosphere yesterday in Westminster was one of fin de siècle decadence. Not because of the more than twelve consecutive years of an exhausted Conservative government devoid of ideas once Brexit became a reality, but because the same or even more can be said of a Labor opposition obsessed with its internal battles (between Corbynists and Blairites, left and right). All this while the world is changing visibly, climate change is a reality, young people are disengaging from conventional politics, inflation unknown for generations is looming, energy prices have skyrocketed, one in five Britons depends of food banks, the constitutional crisis deepens, half of Scotland wants independence, the reunification of Ireland is no longer a utopia, Europe at war, the pound sterling on the floor, the highest taxes in seventy years, the State indebtedness is a powder keg…
In the face of such a crisis, Boris Johnson responded by making Boris Johnson a leader with great verbal intelligence but little analytical capacity. Faced with the dilemma (evidenced by the results of the municipal elections) of how to maintain the fragile coalition of pro-Brexit social ultra-conservatives – many of them former Labor Party members – and traditional Tories with which he won the absolute majority, he has chosen to throw bait at both groups. To the first, with a law that curtails freedom of expression and makes it more difficult for groups like Extinction Rebellion to protest, by imposing prison sentences for blocking bridges, highways, train tracks, airports and other infrastructure. To the latter, by modifying the regulations of urban planning, so that the idyllic landscape of the English countryside in which they live cannot be altered without their consent.
Paying lip service, Johnson made it a goal for the legislature to alleviate the growing cost-of-living problem, but without any concrete action on the matter (as has happened with his grand ambition to equalize the poor north and the rich south of the country). And to keep the Brexit flame alive, a whole series of laws that open the way to repeal European legislation in financial services, high technology, data control and the genetic industry, in order to try to attract foreign investment by eliminating regulations.
And behind it all, the explicit threat to cancel in the coming days (or weeks) a fundamental part of the commitments with the EU, to eliminate customs controls on British products entering Northern Ireland, to allow Ulster companies to ignore the requirements imposed by Brussels for the permanence of the province in the single market, and deny any role to the European courts for the resolution of Brexit disputes. Basically, London is going to keep the aspects of the agreement that are convenient for it, and break those that are not, ignoring its international obligations, even if this provokes reprisals from its partners and the anger of Washington.
On a strange day due to the absence of the queen, a symbol of changing times, the “heir’s speech” (although Carlos neither punctured nor cut, he only read the text that Downing Street gave him) was a reflection of a country that does not work, or it does it like refrigerators in vacation mode or dishwashers in eco mode. Who responded to the pandemic by paying citizens not to work and now finds that millions do not want to return to the office, postmen do not deliver letters, doctors do not see patients, airports are overwhelmed and bureaucracy is paralyzed; who printed money like someone who makes churros, and now is on the way to 10% inflation; where people have water up to their necks and what the State does is raise taxes and cut subsidies; with economic growth lower than any country in the EU, and productivity and investment (both internal and external) at rock bottom; with an increase in crime of 18%; a shattered sanity that is a bottomless pit; unbridled public spending that constitutes 71% of GDP; a prime minister whose honesty is questioned, and a Labor leader who appears to be leading an NGO rather than the opposition.
If things don’t get fixed a lot, that’s the country that awaits Carlos when he puts on that crown that was vacant yesterday.
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