The next two months will be hugely significant for King Charles, this country, and the world. The monarch will lead the nation in its annual Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph on November 9 and a little over a month later he will deliver his Christmas Day address. The red poppy is an international symbol of hope for a peaceful future, while also commemorating the service and sacrifice of those who perished in the fight for the very freedoms now at risk the world over.
How deeply ironic it is that in this year we are witnessing hatred, violence, division and discord, on an unparalleled scale. This year marks eight decades since the end of the Second World War. The price of returning peace and freedom to Europe was unimaginably high. Charles now faces a defining moment as the head of a state ravaged by inequality and religious resentment. If he wishes to achieve anything in trying to heal deep societal divisions is it now time for words rather than action?
The Hamas murder spree in Israel on October 7, 2023 saw 1,200 Jews slaughtered.
The state’s two-year retaliatory war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip killed more than 67,000 people, with nearly one third of them under the age of 18.
To date well over 1 million have been killed or injured after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Six million Jews were slaughtered during the Holocaust in state-sponsored gencide on an industrial scale.
Anti-Jewish hatred is now running at record levels, worshippers were murdered at a synagogue in Manchester, Maccabi Tel Aviv football supporters have been banned from travelling to Birmingham, and war in Ukraine is approaching its fourth year.
As the world stands on a precipice it is desperately looking to Charles for leadership.
Charles and Camilla have made three donations to the Disaster Emergency Committee Middle East Humanitarian Appeal, publicly prayed with Pope Leo in an act of historic rapprochement between the Roman Catholic church and the Church of England, while the king has met Volodymyr Zelensky at Windsor Castle.
He cares deeply about his country and is a believer, as utopian as it might sound, in all faiths living harmoniously together.
He is also known to despise confrontation.
As head of state Charles is politically neutral and his powers are largely symbolic and ceremonial.
But with the UK on a knife-edge, the world teetering on the brink, and politicians increasingly impotent in arresting deepening hostility, never has there been a more pressing time for Charles to intervene and use the power his words carry.
It is why the one thing his Christmas Day speech must do is boldy confront the mess and the role each and every one of us has to play in helping to solve it.
It is an address that could define his reign and shape the future of the monarchy, the country, and the world.
Among those participating on Remembrance Day will be Jewish soldier Mervyn Kersh whose war was a very personal one.
In 1944 he was just 19 when he stormed Gold Beach as part of the Allied fight to capture occupied France and help free Europe from the grip of the Nazis.
He later helped liberate Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where unspeakable acts of depravity were carried out.
Mervyn said: “I’m Jewish. I could almost say going to war was a crusade, if that’s not the wrong word. To me, this had a purpose. It wasn’t just a game, or passing the time, it was to put the Germans out of action as long as possible. We knew what was happening. We didn’t know the extent of it, but we knew they had gas chambers. They were killing people, shooting them, hanging them.”
Like the monarch Mervyn, who turns 101 just days before Charles gives his fourth annual televised address, must wonder what has become of the world he and others fought so bravely to save.
