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• @flick@spinster.club 2026-09-19 20:10

  Except of course the King didn’t do that. He went to Washington and was the epitome of grace and charm. He sought to honour America’s traditions and history and steered clear of any controversies. He certainly at no point questioned its territorial integrity, even as it threatened the position of one of his realms to its immediate north. Contrast the King’s behaviour with that of Donald Trump this week in Dublin, where he claimed that the annexation of British territory in Northern Ireland by the Republic would be ‘a great thing’. His comment comes off the back of months of joint sabre-rattling with Israel about the Falkland Islands. The long, zombified existence of the Monroe Doctrine means that many of the claims to territory now held by the US, at least as valid as republican claims to Northern Ireland, have been brushed under the carpet. If America thinks it’s open season on pulling apart the territorial integrity of its supposed allies, why shouldn’t the Foreign Office or the Quai d’Orsay start endorsing Russian claims to Alaska? Surely now is the time to restore the Hawaiian monarchy, which, after all, the US snuffed out illegally and unfairly, in part because they feared that Queen Liliʻuokalani was too keen on us? I jest, but this is no less deranged than the President’s outburst. True, Trump’s dyspraxic bull-in-the-china-shop attitude to foreign policy can easily be blamed on his demonstrably flawed personality. It is also true that he says many things which don’t always come to pass. Such is his unpopularity over here that his Northern Ireland intervention may actually help the cause of Unionism. Leftists are already dancing an elaborate polka around this issue as they unexpectedly find themselves on the same side as ‘bad orange man’. Yet the grim reality is that Trump’s comments aren’t so far removed from what might be expressed behind closed doors by the most sensible old-school Republican or the most progressive Democrat. Contempt for allies – especially Britain – is a feature, not a bug, of American foreign policy. That asymmetry works on a micro and a macro level. Indeed, America’s micro-aggressions are if anything more egregious. This week it was reported that a diplomat based in London had been secretly flown to America with the help of US Marines while under investigation for child sex offences. British police were reportedly informed only after he was already airborne and beyond the reach of extradition requests. There are echoes here with the case of Anne Sacoolas, the CIA officer’s wife who in 2019 mowed down 19-year-old Harry Dunn while driving on the wrong side of the road. Sacoolas invoked diplomatic immunity and scuttled off to America before Dunn’s family had even learnt the name of their son’s killer. In the event, Sacoolas received a suspended sentence in absentia for taking the life of the British teenager, having been advised by US authorities not to return to face justice. That’ll learn her, as our friends across the pond might say.

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