Feeble, Inert and No Influence: The World Misses British Political Wisdom

It does not seem that the world is paying much attention to the vacuum in international relations and public policy that has been created by the sudden transformation of the United Kingdom from one of the world’s most politically respected and accomplished countries to a ludicrous Gong Show that descended to its lowest point to date this week with 70 Labour members of Parliament demanding that their Prime Minister resign because of rank incompetence and 100 of their colleagues demanding that he remain and be given a chance after nearly two years of floundering to demonstrate his capacity to lead the country.

Great Britain was, with France, the first of the great nation-states of Europe to emerge and eventually exercise immense influence throughout the world. The first great gathering of European leaders was in the last days of the 12th century when King Richard the Lionheart of England, King Philip Augustus of France, Friedrich Barbarossa, proverbial founder of the first German Reich, and Saladin were simultaneously in the Holy Land in different capacities, shortly before the blind 96-year-old, recently excommunicated, Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, conquered and pillaged Constantinople, his supposed ally that he was coming to support in holy crusading endeavours.

When the Hundred Years’ War and other disagreeable formative nation-building experiences had been endured, the four great monarchs of Europe in the mid-16th century were the supreme governor of the Church of England and flamboyant royal husband, King Henry VIII of England, King Francis I of France, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, as the huge wealth of its discoveries in what became Latin America were being exploited, and Suleiman the Magnificent leader of the Turks. Britain was already the most advanced important country in parliamentary matters. As the great French statesman Cardinal Richelieu suppressed governmental collegiality and dismissed the Estates General with such finality that it did not have the temerity to reassemble for 175 years, in Britain power steadily devolved to representatives of a gradually increasing electorate, leading to the shameful execution of King Charles I in 1649, and the betrayal and expulsion by his daughters and son-in-law of King James II in 1687.