If a week is a long time in politics, a week dominated by the fascination and fear as to what President Trump may do next is an eternity. Fresh off the plane from Washington, Keir Starmer will spend this weekend hosting the great and good of our continent as they take stock of prospects for Ukraine. For the third time since the second world war – after Suez in 1956 and Iraq in 2003 – the United Kingdom is being forced to work out where it stands between the US and Europe.
In the aftermath of those past crises, Britain chose to hug the US as tightly as possible, even if that meant drifting away from European friends. The prime minister appears to have secured a diplomatic coup in getting through his crunch encounter with Donald Trump mostly unscathed. But don’t let bonhomie and bad taste comments about wives fool you: we are still in crisis, and the old routine won’t save us.
