It's behind you!

As the leading nations of the Anglosphere grapple with their calamitous failures dealing with Covid-19, what better than a bit of serious distraction activity? So we have China and Russia to fear. The enemy without. Curious that Johnson has not described these Satans yet as ‘muggers.’ I have no doubt that Russia and China are engaged in nefarious activities—but why should we hold an exclusive licence on such behaviour? The hypocrisy becomes wearying, when e.g. in the case of Trump it is merely about electioneering? The consequences of all this pure-as-the-driven-snow Anglosphere posturing may of course not be all that serious. People talk about a new Cold War, but in the places where that war became ‘hot’ it was on foreign fields which nobody at the time really much cared about, where regime changes were as frequent as portrayed in, if memory serves a Hamlet cigar advert, where the alternating Generalissimos’ portraits were swapped around in the same frame like a tear off calendar. But in all this ridiculous political gung-honess there is an obvious risk for dear old post-Brexit UK. Our heightened tensions with China will, as their UK ambassador has hinted, have consequences. And there will be consequences too in our relationship with the US, albeit of a different variety. These are being hinted at in a Trade Bill appearing in Parliament tomorrow (20th July) which even the Consumers’ Association (Which?) is seeking to campaign against. They reckon it’s an invitation to the import of all those negligent US food standards into the UK post Brexit. The US is our largest trade partner after the EU. The direction of travel in Johnson’s eyes is that the US will replace the EU as the UK’s largest trade partner—and that means we will accept their standards, regardless of ministerial affirmations to the contrary (we know they are witless liars whose commitments are written on rice paper). Earlier today I came across an old news story which rather captures our craven Atlantic relationship. Our government has politely suggested that the suspected dangerous driver Anne Secoolas should be brought to face British justice for the killing of motorcyclist Jack Dunn. The US has simply said fuck off. Meanwhile our justice system supinely proceeds with US extradition proceedings against Julian Assange. Good to know who’s in the driving seat. And all the while Russia and China are creeping up on us! The Great Game.