Tomorrow’s spectacle is better understood as poetry than in the severely rational terms of democratic theorists who accept no need for religion and ritual.
Blair said that he wanted Britain “to be a young country again”. It wasn’t one then and isn’t one now. There is a fittingness in King Charles being the oldest monarch ever to take our throne.
Just as we find we were even more attached to Queen Elizabeth than we realised, so we find ourselves even more loyal to her successor than we expected.
In these days of her Platinum Jubilee, we give thanks both local and ceremonial for her faithful service to her people.
In looking to the monarchy’s future, we follow in his footsteps. He was its original moderniser in our times.
All three PMs did about as well as anyone could in the circumstances, and all three, so far as one can see, are doomed.
The principle behind any settlement for the Sussexes should be simple: one can’t be half in and half out.