It was to King Charles’s great credit that he refused to fall for the Trump power handshake thing and instead retracted his own hand so that the orange psychotic was left, for a nanosecond, flailing and unsure of what to do with his right arm. It is always good to call the bluff of a bully, because they usually are bluffing. I would have preferred it if Chaz had executed a swift jujitsu move and thrown the President over his shoulder and onto the ground. But one cannot have everything – and of course the King was there to be emollient and to remind Trump of the things he quite likes about the UK: golf and class distinction, basically. He doesn’t seem to like us for any other reason – which is, in fairness, the mindset of almost every previous US president.

The US was instrumental in ensuring a British humiliation in Suez

The US was instrumental in ensuring a British humiliation in Suez

One day it will percolate through to us that the ‘special relationship’ does not exist and has never existed – not now and not when Winston Churchill coined the phrase, speaking in the US immediately after a war which had installed that country as the world’s no. 1 power and had shoved us, penniless and exhausted, down the list to about no. 8. The special relationship was always a fantasy – and now is the right time to recognise that fact and, in a sense, be proud of it. Then we can continue our lives without the needy kowtowing to a country that has, in truth, abused our supplicant faith........

© The Spectator