Context is King

Nato, diversity, rule of law: the same royal script hits different in a more anxious age

“A stunning rebuke to Donald Trump!”

“A highly political speech.”

“UK to cancel American independence.”

Sure, one of these descriptions of King Charles’s address to a joint meeting of Congress is fabricated. But it won’t take long, scrolling through the newspaper coverage or short-form video, to find interpretations that cast the speech as unusually political.

And at first glance, it is not difficult to see why.

Amid the usual jokes about the absence of a common language, quotes from former presidents and allusions to shared histories between great nations, the King:

• Highlighted the principle that “executive power is subject to checks and balances”

• Deployed terms such as “diversity” and “equality” — words that have literally been scrubbed from US federal websites on Donald Trump’s order

• Spent quite some time on the importance of interfaith dialogue

• Praised the transatlantic alliance and reminded his audience that Nato invoked article 5 following the September 11 terrorist attacks

• Drew attention to increased UK defence spending (though, as ever, no sense of where the money is coming from but then again, this speech was signed off by the government)

• Called for the defence of Ukraine from Russian aggression

• Praised “the rule of law” and an “independent judiciary”

• And finally, warned that we “ignore the clarion calls to become ever more inward looking.”

And yet, this interpretation is worth challenging. I took the liberty of watching (actually, because I am beyond sad, rewatching) the address delivered by Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, to a joint meeting of Congress in 1991. A time of great triumph for the West and the United States in particular, when the march of progress, peace and human dignity seemed far more assured.

And much of the sentiment — indeed many of the words — were near identical.