King Charles III will preside over Britain’s State Opening of Parliament, where pomp meets politics

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III is preparing to deliver the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament. It’s a role fulfilled for seven decades by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and by British monarchs stretching back hundreds of years. Centuries-old ritual meets modern-day politics at the ceremony, where the monarch sits on a golden throne and reads out a list of legislative plans written by the government. Tuesday’s speech will give clues to how U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives plan to woo voters for a national election next year. The ceremony is steeped in centuries of pomp and ceremony that symbolizes the balance of power between Parliament and Crown in Britain’s constitutional monarchy.