Here are some more photos of King Charles and Queen Camilla in Northern Ireland this week. They were in Belfast on Wednesday, and on Thursday, they were in Limavady. They did a “walkabout” and there were some official-looking events, but the best photos were from their visit to Hunters Bakery. I would say that Charles and Camilla – much like William and Kate in Wales several weeks ago – made a point of handling food and doing a cooking “photo op” as some kind of message for/about the Duchess of Sussex and her show. But I have to admit that Charles and Camilla always do food-based photo-ops. It’s one of the few things I like about them – wherever they go, they stop by local bakeries, pubs and delis. Charles has always had a particular interest in what locals are baking, while Camilla has always had a particular interest in local spirits.
Charles also stopped by Ulster University’s Pharmacy and Pharmacology Department, where he met some fellow cancer patients. Charles quoted Winston Churchill, telling them “keep buggering on.” That was Churchill’s sign-off during WWII too, often abbreviated to “KBO.” Speaking of WWII, Donald Trump is “considering” giving up America’s long-standing position at the command of NATO. NATO is one of the strongest alliances in history, built in the wake of WWII, and America has maintained the American-only command position since the Eisenhower administration. Any day now, Trump will take the US out of NATO completely, I’m sure. All of which brings me to this ridiculous piece by the Mail’s Richard Eden – apparently, King Charles is going to invite the US into the British Commonwealth.
When Sir Keir Starmer personally delivered a letter from King Charles to Donald Trump at the White House last month, inviting him for an unprecedented second state visit, the American President said the monarch was a ‘beautiful man, a wonderful man’. It would, Trump added, be an ‘honour’ to visit the King’s ‘fantastic’ country.
Now, I hear that the monarch could make the president an offer he might find tempting.
And one which could help dampen down tensions between the White House and Canada, of which the King is head of state. Plans are being made for the USA to become the next ‘associate member’ of the Commonwealth.The King shares his late mother’s deep affection and respect for the global ‘family of nations’, and sees it as particularly important at a time of international conflict and global uncertainty. The Commonwealth, whose nations have a total population of more than 2.7billion, is one of the world’s oldest political associations of states, with its roots in the British Empire.
Although America declared independence from Britain in 1776, this would be no impediment to its becoming the 57th member of the Commonwealth. The last four countries to join (Mozambique, Rwanda, Togo and Gabon) have no links with the British Empire, underlining the Commonwealth’s role as a voluntary organisation of independent and equal states.
The proposals were made by the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS), with the apparent backing of Queen Elizabeth, during Trump’s first term as president, but did not come to fruition. Now, the plans have been revived, with members of the society hopeful that the King will make the case to Trump when he meets him.
‘This is being discussed at the highest levels,’ a member claimed this week, telling me: ‘It would be a wonderful move that would symbolise Britain’s close relationship with the US. Donald Trump loves Britain and has great respect for the Royal Family, so we believe he would see the benefits of this. Associate membership could, hopefully, be followed by full membership, making the Commonwealth even more important as a global organisation.’
The source added: ‘The Commonwealth is also a great forum for resolving differences between nations, and the King has shown that he is a natural peacemaker.’
Charles can offer, but as soon as Trump sees the list of Commonwealth member nations, he’ll say no. Because of woke. Global politics is a joke these days – Trump is seriously going to destroy NATO and then Charles will be like “hey, do you want to join our Former-Colony Group?” What’s even dumber is that the Commonwealth isn’t going to last much longer either – it will not survive past Charles, let’s be real.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
