Starmer’s Peril Sets Up Stranger-Than-Ever UK King’s Speech

King Charles III during the last King’s Speech, in the House of Lords on July 17, 2024.Photographer: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images

The King’s Speech is an unusual way to announce government business.

Governed by arcane rituals such as the searching of the cellars in Parliament and the capture of a member of the House of Commons to be held as a hostage by the monarchy, the person at the center of it all sits on a gold throne and delivers an agenda he’s had no hand in drafting.