The King positioned himself in listening mode, delegating the job of discussing the details to political leaders and urging them to do so productively.
“None of us can change the past,” he told delegates. “But we can commit, with all our hearts, to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure.”
This was the King as a statesman, a palace source said, articulating the purpose of the Commonwealth – to convene, to talk, to solve – in the world today.
The shift is subtle, but substantial.
The King, where he would once have been in the personal firing line for the reparations conversation, took the role of ringmaster.