On Saturday, I had two great privileges. The first was to attend the ceremony for His Majesty King Charles III’s Coronation which was held on the grounds of Government House in Sydney.

In a city stricken with the ills of modern architecture – where Martin Place has been torn up and plastered over with scaffolding to install yet another disastrous $3 billion transport link the public neither asked for nor wanted – it is only the avenue along Macquarie Street that survives as a legacy to the beauty Sydney once held.

The crown jewel of this sandstone-and-fig-tree serenity is Government House, which rises out of the parkland as a calm fragment of our civilisational peak.

It must be said, Sydney Harbour put on a spectacular scene last weekend, with blue sky in every direction – a far cry from the traditional English drizzle that met those in London. A large warship loomed in the distance that was almost the same marine blue-grey as the distant horizon. It was surrounded by the crisp white triangles of yachts zipping across the choppy waters, ducking and weaving between city ferries.

Joggers and mothers with their prams had lined up along the ornate iron fence at the bottom of the lawn where the paperbark sapling, cultivated from the tree Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II planted on her first visit to Australia, quivered proudly with a flourish of new growth.

We were here to ‘re-plant’ it by nudging the dirt with the shovel and tugging the velvet cloth from the commemorative plaque.

Not that you would know there was anything historic taking place, as our political leaders – who wrapped every surface of Sydney in rainbows and glitter for the minority interest event of Pride – failed to put up a single decoration. Shame on their pettiness and lack of grace. Just as these lowest-tier politicians cancelled Australia Day without permission, they have attempted to sweep the Coronation out of sight.

Aside from the amusing juxtaposition of weirdly-placed climate change jargon pontificated, quite literally, through the (definitely not carbon-neutral) bushfire smoke of a smoking ceremony (that was a little too close to the newly-planted sapling of honour), the morning went off without a hitch.

The second privilege was the opportunity to interview Professor David Flint, without whom it is debatable we would still have a King.

"The familial bonds of empire and commonwealth have done more to hold the peace between nations than any bit of paper at the #UN."#Coronation #CoronationWeekend #KingCharles #KingCharlesCoronation

WATCH @adhtvaus: https://t.co/EWToDEmCuJ pic.twitter.com/vW3It2iFxC

— Alexandra Marshall (@ellymelly) May 7, 2023

Flint, convener of the Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, began by crediting Royal Coach Builder Jim Frecklington, who was engaged at Windsor Castle for a time helping to look after the coaches and horses.

‘It really enriched my life,’ Frecklington added, of working with the Royal family. He has constructed several extraordinary coaches, including a replica of Edward VII’s 1902 State Landau and the Australian State Coach used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.

‘I wanted to create a masterpiece,’ he said. Frecklington has achieved this more than once. After hearing members of the public lament the dying art he said, ‘I realised how many people loved these carriages, and with no one making them anymore, what had been lost.’

On the weekend, it was Frecklington’s spectacular six-horse-drawn Diamond Jubilee State Coach which ferried the King and Queen from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.

What an extraordinary role Australia played in this historic moment, and yet our ignorant press barely muttered a word through their race-baiting, virtue signalling, and gritted teeth. Asking the media to appreciate workmanship of this magnitude is like trying to get Karl Marx to stop living off his mates. It cannot be done.

The proposal to build the coach was given the Royal seal of approval, although it was only purchased by the Royal Collection Trust after construction was completed. It was bought with a private donation before entering the Royal Collection and was originally funded via a $250,000 grant from the Australian government. Frecklington was awarded the Royal Victorian Order by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

‘These carriages are designed as works of art, but they are mobile works of art. The great works of art – the paintings and sculptures – are homed in art galleries and museums. The coaches aren’t like that. They are used, so you need superior workmanship.’

Frecklington wished to ‘encapsulate the history and heritage of the United Kingdom’. He did this by seeking to source various artefacts and material from historic buildings and ships – by the end, it contained over 100 relics and historic fragments belonging to British, Scottish, and Irish monarchs as well as historical figures dating back a thousand years including a fragment of the Coronation Stone. Peeking inside the carriage, you can see the mosaic of wooden squares cut from the pages of history.

Just because it looks good, doesn’t mean the Australian skimped on the comforts, with Frecklington’s carriage renowned for its superior ride including air-conditioning and electric windows, making it the monarch’s favourite for official outings. Jim Frecklington is reported to be working on another coach for King Charles III.

The other magnificent coach used at the Coronation was the centuries-old Gold State Coach drawn by 8 horses which took the crowned King and Queen back to Buckingham Palace. It has performed this duty since the 1800s after being built from wood and gold-plating in 1762 for King George III.

‘Beauty’ and ‘history’ are the overwhelming features of the Coronation, unlike the bleak and lifeless offerings of socialist dictatorships or suffocating bland republics. Also of note – and missed by the press – were the repeated pledges by the King to serve with grace, justice, and mercy. These are not sentiments screeched by the power-hungry activists masquerading as politicians within the halls of our Parliament.

While some of our Australian Senators lacked the maturity to perform their rather basic pledge without making a disrespectful activist statement, the King and his Queen have taken upon themselves all the laws and duties of Britain and their Commonwealth realms with sincerity.

How many of our political leaders could we truly say act with ‘grace and mercy’? How many understand that ‘justice’, as put forward by these sacred oaths, is not the same thing as the politics of petty revenge that we see dominate the modern Parliament?

After the events of the last three years of Covid, I can safely say that there are maybe three or four politicians worthy of their office, at best – none of them in leadership positions.

What is often forgotten is that there is no politician in the Commonwealth who takes their job as protector of the realm more seriously than the monarch. Their job is forever, and if they were to fail, there is no option for a quiet retreat due to ‘family issues’ or a cushy UN job waiting in the wings.

The Coronation is not solely about nostalgia and culture – it is the solidification of that promise.

Each hymn, costume change, jewelled ornament, prayer, and oath is another latch that binds the monarch to his people as their guardian – not against foreign powers, but against the power of Parliament and its political class. In fear of God, the King watches politicians as the Sheppard keeps his eye on the wolves.

Politicians are naturally jealous around the Coronation. Hundreds of thousands of people will never fill the streets to see the swearing-in of a Prime Minister. The public do not love the political class, and nor should they, as politics has no mechanism to return that affection.

When the people swell in the streets to observe the pageantry, it is the nation that they embrace – not the King. Charles, like his mother before him, understood that they were caretakers of not only the Crown, but of liberty, grace, justice, and mercy.