Canada
King Charles popped over to one of his other gaffs for a whirlwind 48-hour tour. He met First Nation representatives and heard some impressive drums, inspected various groups of Mounties, went to a community festival, laid a wreath at a war memorial, dropped a hockey puck, chatted in the sunshine. So far, so normal, if with somewhat greater niceness than usual.
However, in one heavily emphasised line from the monarch’s speech, the visit delivered its sub-text in one short, borrowed phrase: “The True North is indeed strong and free.” This freighted comment towards the end of the government-drafted speech “merely” repeated a central line from Canada’s national anthem:
“O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”
In the context of the King’s unstated purpose in visiting his realm, however, this amounted to as much of a direct and serious rebuke as the Crown is ever likely to issue to the President of one’s ally, the United States of America.
The Donald’s proposed State Visit to the United Kingdom is shaping up to be quite the itinerary of irony. One wonders if the Palace chefs could whip up a medley of TACO’s?
UK Defence
Clearly Lord Robertson of Port Ellen’s strategic defence review was being passed around the Cabinet table and the No 10 Spin Department in advance of its publication next week.
Rather than leaving details to be brought forward to Parliament on publication, the Spinmeisters squirted a steady drip of leaks day by day throughout the weak, hoping to plant the idea that HMG is “tough on war, tough on the causes of war” (hat-tip Alun Michael OBE circa 1992, although subsequently more associated with Sir Anthony Blair KG.)
Apparently, there’s to be more money for cyber-defence (good news for M&S and the Co-Op, if a little late perhaps), fixing up the army housing stock (which is a double whammy as it also will be good news for chippies and sparks), a load of new submarines, presumably to shadow nefarious Russian cable-cutters through the Channel and new factories to start 24/7 missile and bomb manufacture to fill the enormous hole in the stockpiles left by sending used bottle-tops, odd socks and partially inflated lifejackets to Ukraine over the last three years.
On the basis that the No 10 Spin Department will not want to be accused of leaking the entire Review, there must be something not yet leaked. What could it be? Some more nuclear in some form? Could be.
UK Immigration
The fact that it rather grates that UK immigration has to feature in the weekly round-up virtually every week is a further demonstration, if further demonstration be required, that everyone is mightily fed up with successive Governments and successive sheepish Ministers saying “we’ll fix this” and simply failing to achieve anything. Although it is by a long distance the less important immigration issue to solve, illegal immigration personified by the “small boat arrivals” hit every single headline available on Sunday after more than 1,100 arrivals across the Channel were counted in on Saturday.
The increase in illegal landings (Jan-May 2025 is up 30% on 2024) was not made any less noteworthy by the benighted Home Office’s response that it was the result of the unusually fine weather for the time of year. Really? The weather? Britain smirked, but in a rather unamused sort of way. It has been a surprisingly warm and sunny Spring, but the problem with the Home Office’s use of the British Public Enemy No1 as an explanation for increased illegal boat arrivals is that THE NUMBERS ARE UP FOR DAYS WHEN IT HAS NOT BEEN BEAUTIFUL WEATHER TOO! Lies, damned lies and statistics, eh? Of course, the weather hasn’t “helped”, but that’s so obviously not the cause for the jump in Channel crossings, which are a result of increased numbers assembling on the French side of La Manche waiting to cross, that one can only grimace. “The weather” – classic.
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