“In Britain, such openings [Throne Speeches] are preceded by a ceremonial inspection of Westminster Palace for explosives, a relic of the foiled 1605 Gunpowder Plot. A ceremonial hostage is taken by Buckingham Palace to ensure the safe return of the King. Perhaps most notably, before delivering the British speech from the throne, King Charles III is required to wait in a room that is specially decorated to warn him of the potentially fatal consequences of subverting Parliament. The official Robing Room in which the King dons his state crown before delivering the speech features a conspicuously framed copy of the death warrant of King Charles I. In the words of the BBC, ‘if ever there were a symbol to express the end of the divine right of kings and the limits of a constitutional monarchy, that document is it.’”

Tristin Hopper in National Post May 28, 2025 [and in my files under the heading “Say, Chuck, about your head…”

In my latest Loonie Politics column I say the American withdrawal from liberal global policeman isn’t some weird departure from their geopolitical traditions, it’s a return to business as usual pre-1945. It was the intervening 80 years that was extraordinary and if people valued it they should have been more helpful to and less unpleasant about the Pax Americana.

“… to reassure us generally of the good intentions of the average German. Eulogies are pronounced on his good-humour and domesticity, and the warlike house-burners are praised as peaceful householders. It is, perhaps, admitted that there was something tactless in torturing the Belgians. But it is regarded as the exuberance of a young nation; and an indulgence is asked for such pastimes of Prussian officers on the principle that boys will be boys. That dark and watchful enemy, the sower of tares, is represented as having merely sown his wild oats.”

G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News Jan. 1, 1916, quoted in “The Golden Key Chain GKC on Scripture Conducted by Peter Floriani” in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #3 (Jan./Feb. 2025)

“Not that bore again.”

Queen Victoria on being told she must yet again send for the now-83-year-old William Gladstone to form yet another ministry, quoted in Conrad Black Rise to Greatness: The History of Canada from the Vikings to the Present

In my latest Loonie Politics column I say since nuclear weapons are a crucial feature of geopolitics including the structure of deterrence that has prevented major wars for three-quarters of a century, it’s asinine or worse to be against making sure they work the way we expect them to.

In my contribution to the National Post “Woke Museums” series I describe how the “history” now on display at the Canadian Museum of History is, as C.S. Lewis wrote of what was taught in Narnia under the usurper Miraz, “duller than the truest history you ever read and less true than the most exciting adventure story.”

In my latest National Post column I ask what Parliament and MPs are even for if the people we send to keep the executive branch in check holler that its policies are plunging us into catastrophe then cunningly give the Prime Minister the money he needs to carry them out.

In my latest Epoch Times column I say various judicial, academic and activist claims that the Canadian state does not exercise legitimate sovereignty over Canadian territory, including granting valid “fee simple” land titles, are a recipe for confusion, bitterness and disaster.