Called To Order

After three days, the United States House of Representatives still finds itself unable to elect a Speaker, but that is nothing. From November 1268 to September 1271, the election of a successor to Pope Clement IV lasted three years, during which two of the 19 Cardinals died. More than a year before the eventual election of Blessed Gregory X, the Cardinals had been locked in, their rations had been reduced to bread and water, and the roof of their palace had been taken off.

But the Incarnation of the Divine Logos made no promise to George Washington. And the world is watching, in the way that at least much of it was watching Britain's Year of Three Prime Ministers. "Anglosphere" smugness is misplaced. The parallels with the last days of other once-great civilisations and polities are too obvious to miss. And that is before mentioning either of the Markles. What have both British and Hollywood royalty become? What they really always have been, but now, unforgivably, in public.

None of the main political parties can even see the problem, since they themselves are no small part of it, but in what is itself perhaps a sign of it, although one that we could turn to our advantage, we are heading for a hung Parliament. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.