Joe Biden is in London, kicking off a European trip. He has just engaged in “climate talks” with King Charles. I will hazard a guess that these talks will have zero impact on the Earth’s climate.
Meanwhile, Biden is not getting a positive reception. In the Telegraph, Nial Gardiner unloads with both barrels: “Here comes Biden, the world’s worst diplomat.”
No president in modern American history has done more to undermine the partnership with the UK. His shameless knifing of Defence Secretary Ben Wallace’s candidacy to be the next NATO Secretary General was classic ruthlessness from Mr. Biden, who can barely disguise his sheer hatred of Britain, Brexit, and British history.
… He has built a well-earned reputation as one of the most crude, narcissistic, and rude politicians of our time. He has amply conveyed this approach in his dealings with Britain, bullying the British Government successfully over the Northern Ireland Protocol, sinking a trade deal with the United Kingdom after several rounds of negotiations by the Trump administration, and thumbing his nose at the King’s Coronation, sending his wife, Jill, in his place.
Biden treats Britain as a vassal state, not as America’s closest friend and ally, and thinks nothing of directly intervening in internal British political matters, especially relating to Brexit. His attacks on Liz Truss’s tax cuts as prime minister were outrageous and unprecedented, and played a vital role in discrediting her economic plans, and in precipitating her downfall, along with the relentless fire from the IMF. It is simply astonishing that the present Conservative Government has gone along with Biden’s socialist-style global minimum tax proposals, which are a huge attack on economic freedom, and significantly undermine the competitiveness of the British economy.
Biden is a president who exudes incredible arrogance while demonstrating a limited understanding of many foreign policy issues. Combined with a series of embarrassing gaffes, his presidency has been a monumental disaster on the world stage, from the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan through his shameless grovelling towards Communist China.
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As Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak should be standing up to Biden over the future of the Nato alliance, pushing for a trade deal between London and Washington, and telling Joe Biden to mind his own business over Brexit and Northern Ireland. But we should not hold our breath. Sunak failed to do so on his recent visit to the White House and is seen by the Bidenistas as far easier to push around compared to his predecessors, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.It may take years, even decades to repair the damage Joe Biden has done to the Special Relationship. The Biden approach is hugely counter-productive, vindictive and deeply unpleasant. The red carpet will be rolled out for the US president in London on Sunday and Monday, but in the eyes of millions of Britons, he is no friend of the British people.
Other than that, though, he’s a master diplomat.
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