Tag: Buckingham Palace

America has been a free speech zone since our founding. Free speech led to The Revolutionary War. It stopped bad wars and ended slavery. America was founded on activism by men of honor whose actions spoke louder than their words. If it wasn’t for Paine’s activism, we’d still be subjects instead of citizens. “A man’s actions say much more than his most noble words.” – Thomas Paine Throughout our modern history, the activism of true leaders has made our nation stronger and far better than it would have been without them. Following the Tea Party Movement, tribal clans of self-anointed activist groups sprang up around America faster than Obama could say “change.” And the America Obama had divided, subdivided into activist bedlam. They were heroes of the day with mock activist groups. But their social media fame faded on Election Day as voters elected people who’d write laws to improve their lives, not to entertain activists. They had no experience, or knowledge of law, and campaigned to cause chaos in Congress.

It gives the party’s chief whip an automatic seat at the top table in Downing Street because Theresa May has to rely him to steer Brexit through an increasingly hostile House of Commons. With 94 Tories claiming they will vote down May’s final deal, the scale of the task ahead of Smith in the run up to the meaningful final vote on 11 December is, colleagues acknowledge, considerable. In the short time since, “the chief”, as his staff call him, has become one of May’s most important advisers, alongside Gavin Barwell, her chief of staff, and Peter Hill, her private secretary, helping with not just keeping the party’s 315 MPs in line but shaping wider political strategy. Chief whips are meant to be seen but not heard, but a fortnight ago, as the first phase of the Brexit deal was concluded and ministers were threatening to resign, the loyal Smith was in Downing Street telling reporters that May had “worked day in and day out” and “stuck with it through a really, really tough year or two”. When it comes to the party’s rebellious backbenchers, however, Smith has yet to get stuck in, although some say this is reflective of an attempt to take a “softly softly” approach. A key tactic for the Brexit vote is to allow all the other options to be voted on via MPs submitting amendments, and let them fail first, forcing MPs to consider May’s deal as the only realistic option on the table. The Smith argument is that none of the various alternatives command a majority in the Commons. The job of the government whips is to get the prime minister’s business through the Commons, monitoring the mood of backbenchers, picking up concerns early, soothing, persuading and threatening where necessary to ensure MPs troop through the division lobbies behind the party leader. There are also two actual whips on Smith’s Downing Street office mantelpiece – one with a bone handle and the other black leather with metal studs. The Yorkshire MP entered the government as a junior whip in 2015 and was promoted to become deputy a year later, where he caught the eye of the new prime minister.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry joined members of the royal family as they celebrated Queen Elizabeth II's official birthday with the traditional Trooping the Colour, a spectacular military parade.