Damian Hinds blogspot

As both Houses of Parliament gathered in Westminster Hall for the Presentation of Addresses to the new King, it was a poignant reminder of the unique role of our Monarchy. A solemn but striking occasion, with the full splendour of the State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry, the King’s Body Guard of the Yeoman of the Guard, and the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, it followed the Proclamation of the Accession made the day before. The message of King Charles’s accession has been proclaimed across the country, read aloud by High Sheriffs, Lord Lieutenants, Deputy Lieutenants and Mayors.  From St James’s Palace the message cascaded to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to the cities and counties, and onwards.  In an age of instant electronic communication, the delivery of the Proclamation by word of mouth serves to remind us not only of the momentousness of the occasion, but that it is a personal message to each one of us. The great political thinker Walter Bagehot described th

27 Jan 2022 Today is Holocaust Memorial Day – marking the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp. The theme for this year is  ‘One Day’ , which can be interpreted in a number of different, but each important, ways. The 27th January is  One Day  when we come together to remember and to remind ourselves about the horrors wrought by the Holocaust and the genocides that have followed since in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur – in the hope that  One Day  there may be a future with no genocide. We can also pick  One Day  to learn about the events that took place on that day and how they shaped history. We could pick the 19th April 1943 – the day the Jewish inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto fought back against their Nazi oppressors – or the 17th April 1975 – the day the Khmer Rouge entered the Cambodian capital and began five years of terror. For survivors of the Holocaust and of genocide,  One Day  often means the point at which everyt