No one does historical pageant like the British. Uniquely in Europe, and in the West, we have retained the historical arterial connections with our national identity.
There are contexts when it counts against us, for example the new hyper-sensitivity to colonial adventurism, and other contexts, like a coronation when it floods the body politic and the cultural imagination with refreshing energy, beauty, delight and enthusiasm.
There are always two perspectives to make an assessment - glass-half-full or half-empty mode - and if ever a moment in our national story deserved the half-to-very-full treatment, the coronation of King Charles III does.
