King Charles and Queen Camilla marked the 80th anniversary of VJ Day on Friday, August 15th. They attended a ceremony at the National Memorial Arboretum alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria. Obviously, the Prince and Princess of Wales didn’t bother to show up and show any kind of in-person respect for the British and Allied veterans who fought in the Pacific. Incidentally, both Lord Mountbatten and Prince Philip were in the Pacific theater – that’s why Charles cares so much, because of his father and his godfather/mentor. It’s also worth noting that Charles, a 76-year-old man with cancer, has been busy all summer, while his work-shy heir only bothered to send a tweet on this major anniversary.
At the ceremony, several of the WWII veterans made speeches and gave readings. A 105-year-old veteran, Captain Yavar Abbas, went off-script before his reading, saying: “Before I read the excerpt, I make due apologies for briefly going off the script to salute my brave King, who is here with his beloved Queen in spite of the fact that he’s under treatment for cancer.” Abbas said that he had a cancer diagnosis too and he has been “rid of it for 25 years and counting.” In that moment, Camilla became visibly emotional, her eyes welling up with tears. She looked over to Charles, who seemed quite emotional too.
As Tom Sykes pointed out in his Substack, the British media is still operating under Buckingham Palace’s code of omerta regarding Charles’s cancer. His cancer is referenced less often than the Princess of Wales’s cancer, and Kate said herself that she’s been “cancer free” since last September. If the British media mentions Charles’s cancer at all, it’s a fleeting, optimistic reference to how he’s doing fine. This is what BP demands, and they regularly browbeat the royal rota and threaten to cut off access if any of them breaks ranks and actually raises real questions about the king’s health. From Sykes’ latest Substack piece:
In the old days, Fleet Street would have responded to this kind of browbeating by, as a block, all running the story. Sadly, however, the British media, has lost its balls. Instead of reporting, properly, on the preparations for the succession, it has allowed itself to be enlisted in an unconvincing game of Palace make-believe. It’s revealed as a charade, periodically, when exposed to the harsh light of our old friend, reality: a weeping Queen, a bloodshot eye.
We know the King has cancer. We know his treatment is ongoing and expected to last a lifetime. We can see that he is losing weight. We know that Prince Harry, his own son, has said publicly, and with obvious pain, that he doesn’t know “how much longer” his father has left. These are not vague hints. They are explicit indications that Charles’s condition is serious.
The King has demonstrated extraordinary bravery but continuing to report on his health as if he is troubled by nothing more than a mild cold is a disgrace to the proud traditions of the British press. What happened to interrogating power? Why suddenly so deferential, so willfully incurious? The answer is partly commercial. The British press has a great fear of being frozen out by the Palace. Editors know that too much digging, too much honesty, could cost them “access.”
But the public is not stupid. They don’t even need to read between the lines. They see the strain in Camilla’s face, the increasing delegation of duties to Prince William, and the sudden, emotional urgency behind Harry’s attempts to reconcile with his family.
I feel the same way, but I felt that way about Queen Elizabeth’s health as well. It was bizarre to see such an extensive coverup and a studiously incurious press, all for a queen in her 90s who was so visibly unwell. I still remember the nonsense with QEII checking into the hospital in 2021 and staying overnight, and no one was supposed to ask any questions. And the wall-to-wall ableism about QEII’s mobility issues too, like the country couldn’t handle seeing her in a wheelchair. Now it’s about Charles, the Big C and how much longer he really has. These people are heads of state, and it’s crazy that such coverups are allowed.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
