ONE transatlantic alliance suffering from early hiccups is the ‘special relationship’ with Britain. Prime Minister Keir Starmer might already be regretting his choice of David Lammy as Foreign Secretary. On the eve of Trump’s visit to Britain in 2018 Lammy described Trump as a “neo- Nazi sympathising sociopath”, “tyrant in a toupee” and a “profound threat to the international order”. Not very ambiguous. When Trump once complained that he had been treated very badly, Lammy tweeted “4 US Presidents have been assassinated snowflake”.
Has God changed Trump so radically that he will turn the other cheek to both Americans and the British? Maybe there are limits when he juxtaposes Hitler, sociopath, tyrant and toupee. We shall watch with interest. The hand of God will not write American foreign policy, but it will influence, even if obliquely, some of the thinking in a Trump administration. Using high exaggeration to squeeze a headline out of a stray thought is common enough in the rhetoric of democracy, but Vance may have touched a Conservative nerve when he wondered if Britain would become the first Islamist country with nuclear weapons.
God save the King!
Half of Starmer’s Cabinet and 40 per cent of MPs took their oath in the name of the King because they did not believe in God in a country whose motto is ‘God Save the King!’ This was fine when the British used to believe in both God and King. Today, they seem to believe in neither, but are more distressed by heresy towards the monarchy than divinity.
Agnosticism is not a Labour malady or virtue; it extends across all sections of Christianity in Britain. Go to church on a Sunday afternoon and instead of evensong it might be preparing for disco. When was the last time a Britparty of pantomime characters which add some colour to the drab struggles of ordinary life. With their extraordinary theatrics, all scripted in correct grammar and snob diction, they are the perfect upper-class soap played out by drama kings and drama queens, not to mention uppity daughters-in-law. Could a King ever win an election to become Prime Minister of Britain? Why then do elected prime ministers bow before a chap in a well-cut suit trained to speak in banalities?
But British royalty may have one great service left to perform. A divine service, if one may be permitted a delicate pun. King, Save the God!
