The king’s speech from Charlie outlined the Labour Party’s first programme for government in 15 years. Wearing the diamond-studded Imperial State Crown, his Admiral of the Fleet uniform and the crimson Robe of State – whatever the hell that all is – he delivered Labour’s proposals from a golden throne in the House of Lords upper chamber after a carriage procession from Buckingham Palace.
Apparently, this is to be considered normal behaviour for a country with one million children found to be destitute. In other words, that’s children WITHOUT two or more of: “housing, light, heat, food, appropriate clothing or toiletries.”
Prime minister and professional wet wipe Keir Starmer said:
We will unlock growth and take the brakes off Britain.
Whatever that means also.
The details of the speech promised a new border security command with beefed-up “counter-terror powers” to curb “immigration crime.” Starmer pledged to “smash the gangs” behind migrant crossings of the Channel from northern France.
Great, the starving kids will be ecstatic to hear it.
King’s Speech: read the room
Commenters on X also took a dim view of the proceedings:
Just a reminder that as King Charles travels across London in his golden chariot, wearing the crown jewels worth 4 billion pounds to sit on his gold throne…
4 million children today grow up in poverty in the UK#KingsSpeech pic.twitter.com/gwt4dF2RQE
— Clifford 🇪🇺 (@holte) July 17, 2024
Green MP Sian Berry pointed out what Starmer missed out from the king’s speech:
Listened intently but what was clearly missing from the #KingsSpeech was INVESTMENT.
❌ NHS
❌ Council homes
❌ Green New Deal
And powers for councils to run buses are ✅ but little use without INVESTMENT!
Green MPs will keep making the case that our country deserves better. https://t.co/gMnx33TYA4— Sian Berry (@sianberry) July 17, 2024
And, it’s hard to get away from the cost of the whole palaver:
Britain today:
Record numbers turning to food banks while a million-pound-hat gets a private escort in its own fancy Royal carriage. And we’re made to pay for it all too.
Couldn’t make it up. Totally normal island. #KingsSpeech pic.twitter.com/uQ5FuQGz1h
— Eddie Burfi (@EddieBurfi) July 17, 2024
New figures from the NHS have found that:
Hospitals in England are being hit with disruptions to patients’ care more than 100 times every week because of fires, leaks and problems created by outdated buildings.
And Charles has the audacity to sit in front of a gold wall, wearing stolen jewels, to read out Starmer’s burbling about brakes?
Corrupt
More people couldn’t believe the sheer wealth on display during the king’s speech:
– 14.5m people living in poverty, including almost one in three children
– 30.6m Britons unable to afford the cost of essentials
– 8.5m adults with functional literacy problems
This is a grotesque spectacle.#KingsSpeech #AbolishTheMonarchy pic.twitter.com/RgvSrLzG52
— A.V. Deggar (@ADeggar) July 17, 2024
And, that wealth made its way round to the jokers not covered in furs and jewels. openDemocracy’s Adam Ramsey wrote in 2023:
In total, openDemocracy estimates that Labour shadow cabinet members and their staff accepted luxury gifts from Google worth nearly £10,000 over the months before they announced their policy U-turn. By contrast, the value to the British public of the policy Labour appears to have ditched is estimated at around £3bn.
Former leader of the Green party, Caroline Lucas, said:
Plenty to welcome in new #KingsSpeech but lots of gaps too – eg no commitment to taking water sector out of grip of profiteers & putting into public hands, no plan to address poverty including lifting brutal 2 child benefit cap, and a big hole where nature restoration should be
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) July 17, 2024
The two-child benefit cap is a shocking omission. The SNP are joining with Labour rebels to force the government to scrap the cap. The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said:
The two-child cap is pushing thousands of Scottish children into poverty – and scrapping it is the bare minimum the Labour Party government must do if it is serious about tackling poverty.
Howard Beckett made the link that often has to be made:
1.6ml children are impacted by the Tories two child benefit cap
It would cost £2.5bl to scrap the cap
Starmer says we can’t afford to scrap it
But he has £3bn every year for Ukraine
There is always money for war. But never money for ordinary people.pic.twitter.com/E2RL0wGUkn
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) July 12, 2024
Immigration playbook
For all Starmer’s barely disguised dogwhistles about immigration, his actual policies laid out in the speech don’t seem to do much to tackle child poverty, a broken benefits system, or a crumbling NHS. No matter which monarch it is, and no matter which prime minister it is, this country is broken because our political system is broken.
It’s outrageous that we even have these rich scroungers as figureheads of the country reading out a speech from a government that has dragged the labour movement further and further to the right.
As usual, Britain has no idea how much of a joke it looks to the rest of the world.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Sky News
