Only God knows why Britain believes in some kind of special relationship with the US! All evidence to the contrary, one would argue. The sooner Britain wakes up to the idea that not only is the British empire long dead but also the US empire is on its last legs and there is no special relationship, the sooner it can move on and start forging new alliances to suit national interests rather than those of its few transnational corporations and their key shareholders.
At the moment, I am not sure if we are completely out of the woods with the first two stages of grief yet (denial and anger) but, hopefully, someone in the government can actually move on to some kind of bargaining, get us all through depression and, finally, acceptance of the new order in the world that's not based on some imaginary rules but rather recognition of the idea that all countries have their interests, and we will all have to learn to co-exist and work with them rather than do everything to supress them!
I don’t know what is more surprising - the fact of Starmer apprenticing in realpolitik under the Prince of Darkness himself, or the sad realisation that it’s better for the UK than the alternative: Starmer continuing with useless and counter productive ideological sniping a la Harman.
I can't see how the UK can ride two horses at the same time here, the US and China have an ongoing tariff war and the American stance on these matters is simple, you are either with us or against us, so they will not be happy to see a blossoming UK-China partnership.
Moreover, the Chinese will be very wary, they were hugely embarrassed and very angry at the treatment Huawei received in the UK, the company invested billions in the UK and then got kicked out of the market, simply because the US told the UK to do it.
The last thing the Chinese want is to have their companies invest heavily in Britain and then get kicked out again, remembering, of course, that the US basically portray any Chinese products, from mobile phones to EV's as being security threats.
Vague impression from afar: UK policy slowly approaching a similar state of the US State dept after it fell under the spell of the neocon's. Still capable of formulating ideas which, in the right light at least, made some sense at their core. Even if they were immoral. But not able to execute due to expelling 20th century generation of professionals who had some concept of humility, and valued understanding the counterparties. They just spent 3 years trying everything possible to harm Russia. There's no chance that relationship goes anywhere.
There may even be a comeback from the dead so close to Easter even for the non-religious like myself with Mandelson trying to play god. The alternative is too painful to contemplate.
Thanks Ian, I am ridiculously happy that there might yet be signs of intelligent life in King Charles street. Good grief, even a strategy of sorts! But, to raise our hopes like this......could be the unkindest cut of all....
Ian. Here is a question for you with a slight clue. Since the fall of communism in 1991 what has been the philosophical, economic, diplomatic and geopolitical costs of the West's war on the concept of relativism and relativity in general actually been and how did we come to think that way?
multi-vector diplomacy is preferable to strategic ambiguity which, like a backhanded compliment, is always insulting
As well as meaningless
Only God knows why Britain believes in some kind of special relationship with the US! All evidence to the contrary, one would argue. The sooner Britain wakes up to the idea that not only is the British empire long dead but also the US empire is on its last legs and there is no special relationship, the sooner it can move on and start forging new alliances to suit national interests rather than those of its few transnational corporations and their key shareholders.
At the moment, I am not sure if we are completely out of the woods with the first two stages of grief yet (denial and anger) but, hopefully, someone in the government can actually move on to some kind of bargaining, get us all through depression and, finally, acceptance of the new order in the world that's not based on some imaginary rules but rather recognition of the idea that all countries have their interests, and we will all have to learn to co-exist and work with them rather than do everything to supress them!
Penurious Albion
Perfidious, auch.
I don’t know what is more surprising - the fact of Starmer apprenticing in realpolitik under the Prince of Darkness himself, or the sad realisation that it’s better for the UK than the alternative: Starmer continuing with useless and counter productive ideological sniping a la Harman.
I can't see how the UK can ride two horses at the same time here, the US and China have an ongoing tariff war and the American stance on these matters is simple, you are either with us or against us, so they will not be happy to see a blossoming UK-China partnership.
Moreover, the Chinese will be very wary, they were hugely embarrassed and very angry at the treatment Huawei received in the UK, the company invested billions in the UK and then got kicked out of the market, simply because the US told the UK to do it.
The last thing the Chinese want is to have their companies invest heavily in Britain and then get kicked out again, remembering, of course, that the US basically portray any Chinese products, from mobile phones to EV's as being security threats.
Vague impression from afar: UK policy slowly approaching a similar state of the US State dept after it fell under the spell of the neocon's. Still capable of formulating ideas which, in the right light at least, made some sense at their core. Even if they were immoral. But not able to execute due to expelling 20th century generation of professionals who had some concept of humility, and valued understanding the counterparties. They just spent 3 years trying everything possible to harm Russia. There's no chance that relationship goes anywhere.
Mutual cooperation diplomacy and dialogue is the key to economic prosperity instead of never-ending, divisive, destructive proxies ...
There may even be a comeback from the dead so close to Easter even for the non-religious like myself with Mandelson trying to play god. The alternative is too painful to contemplate.
Thanks Ian, I am ridiculously happy that there might yet be signs of intelligent life in King Charles street. Good grief, even a strategy of sorts! But, to raise our hopes like this......could be the unkindest cut of all....
Ian. Here is a question for you with a slight clue. Since the fall of communism in 1991 what has been the philosophical, economic, diplomatic and geopolitical costs of the West's war on the concept of relativism and relativity in general actually been and how did we come to think that way?