The press was ecstatic over Charles III’s visit to America – but fawning can’t mask the reality of British subservience

~ punkacademic ~

The British press has lately been in a state of fevered unreality beyond even its typical daily delusions. As commentator Mic Wright has noted, it has given blanket approval to Charles III’s visit to the United States, an apparent work of genius transcending even the 3D chess they so often applaud Keir Starmer for. A ‘diplomatic tightrope’ has been walked, and the ‘special relationship’ affirmed.

All of this is bullshit, of course – as was almost every word in Charles’s much lauded address to a joint session of Congress. To keep putting it bluntly, most of us realise in life that saying things doesn’t make them true. The British monarch can receive ovation after ovation in the Capitol as he asserts the two nations’ supposed shared commitment to ‘democracy’, but the reality is the US is becoming a fascist dictatorship whilst its British cousin is a nightmare of passive-aggressive authoritarianism.

In America, people are shot dead in the street by police for daring to protest for the rights of those seized by ICE, now Trump’s private army. In the UK, elderly people are arrested on terrorism charges for the temerity of quietly speaking out against a genocide. In both countries, centres of potential dissent from universities to youth groups are being crushed, both through active persecution and the withdrawal of funding.

Yet for aggro-centrists raised on The West Wing (and much of the Westminster press fits that bill precisely), a state visit is a thing to behold. The narrative is set – Charles managed to reassert British influence, issue some ‘mild rebukes’ to Trump, and ‘charm’ Washington with a ‘beautifully crafted’ speech, as one sycophantic academic put it.

The problem is that when it comes to America, no message actually gets through – even if a hereditary monarch were the right person to deliver it. The American press noted the applause came from different quarters depending on which note Charles was hitting at the time. The Democrats liked the checks and balances, the Republicans liked the religion. He was, as he was supposed to be, all things to all political people.

Other parts of the speech were simple grovelling. In one section, Charles discussed his pride in his own naval career, before noting the UK government’s commitment to defence spending and buying billions of dollars worth of American tech. As for presenting the ship’s bell from WWII submarine HMS Trump to its human namesake – it looked like every other snivelling gold gift he has received, from Apple’s gold-based disk to Gianni Infantino’s FIFA Peace Prize.

But all the British media can do is manufacture consent for the status quo and ensure no-one learns anything.

Last year Starmer grovelled at Trump’s feet at Turnberry to get a trade deal, with the usual suspects in the press celebrating the Prime Minister’s seemingly unerring ability to manage his American counterpart. Those of us who called it out at the time were vindicated when Trump tore up the deal and threatened action against the UK for not being subservient enough over the war in Iran.

This time it didn’t even take quite as long. Hardly had Charles pleaded for the centrality of NATO and military alliance when Trump went unilateral again and threatened Iran with a laughable AI-generated social media post. He also claimed that Charles backed his position on Iran. Simultaneously, the new British ambassador to the US Christian Turner was reported to have let slip that he did not think the US had a ‘special relationship’ with the UK, but only with Israel.

Back in Blighty, awkward questions were being asked of defence minister Al Carns about the use of Scottish civilian airports by the US military in its war with Iran. Carns did the usual, refusing to confirm or deny – yet in the weeks since B-1 bombers flew directly from British bases, scepticism has grown as to how the British government might have enforced the ‘defensive’ nature of such missions.

Americans have long viewed the UK as a historical theme park, and the Feudal-Throwback-in-Chief played up to that with aplomb. But indulging American fantasies is hardly the main event. While the vassals pay symbolic tribute to their liege lord, Peter Thiel and Alex Karp’s Palantir continues to embed itself in the health service and the military, even as the company’s social media openly promotes dystopian manifestos. That will be of far more profound significance for Britain’s real subordination to Trump’s whims than any golden bell given to that… well, you can finish that sentence yourselves.