Last week I wrote of the relative peace that seemed to have emerged after a hectic period in British politics. Of course, the instability crated by the ‘mini-budget’ meant that peace was not going to last for long. Sure enough, on Friday Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng flew back from a meeting of the IMF to find Jeremy Hunt already lined-up as his replacement. Liz Truss then gave a press conference that was so bad it made the situation even worse. The King summed up the national mood when at the start of his weekly audience with the prime minister he was recorded greeting her with the words, ‘Dear oh dear.’
The Daily Star meanwhile wonders if the King will appoint a new prime minister before a lettuce (one sporting googly eyes and a wig) reaches the ends of its shelf-life.
Here then are my British Foreign Policy 10 from the week that saw Liz Truss in office but not in power: 10 of the best reports, podcasts, twitter threads speeches etc. that I’ve added to my Zotero database this past week.
Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian is scathing about Truss’s and Kwarteng’s decisions, describing the chaos that has unfolded since the mini-budget as the biggest humiliation of Britain since Suez. For Freedland, at heart it’s all been a reminder that Brexit has left some Leavers - especially those in government - living in denial about the realities of sovereignty. 'The markets have taken back control: so much for Truss’s Brexit delusion of sovereignty.'
Tom McTague has a similar eviscerating message in The Atlantic: ‘The Liz Truss Travesty Becomes Britain’s Humiliation’
While surveying the damage of the last few weeks, Jeremy Warner in The Telegraph writes that ‘Project Fear was right all along: Six years of policy confusion and ineptitude has brought a calamitous loss of standing’. Yes, this is in 'The Torygraph.'
The Home Secretary’s hostility to immigration has become an obstacle in negotiations over a UK-India trade deal, Matt Dathan reports in The Times: 'Indian trade deal in peril after Suella Braverman migrant comments'
Meanwhile Dave Hill at On London looks at a report by Higher London arguing that London should have its own strategy for attracting international students: 'London should have own strategy for attracting international students, says new report.'
In the JCMS, David Phinnemore assesses how the UK has used the institutional framework of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement to influence the EU: 'The United Kingdom: Turning its Back on Influencing the EU?'
Peter Foster in The FT reports that the Commons Public Accounts Committee has warned in a report that the UK lacks the necessary regulators and inspectors to carry out post-Brexit checks and work: 'Big UK regulators are struggling to adapt to post-Brexit roles, say MPs.'
Filipa Figueira writing in British Politics looks into why the UK took such a hard position in the Withdrawal Agreement despite being the weaker party: 'Unmasking the Brexit negotiations: the behavioural psychology of two-level games.'
Over in International Affairs, Richard Toye looks back at the the Munich crisis of 1938, the Suez crisis and war of 1956, and the Iraq war of 2003 as examples of ‘How not to run international affairs’.
And finally… Brendan Simms, writing at Engelsberg Ideas, wonders if making King Charles the King-Emperor of Europe is the way forward for a united Europe. Dear, oh dear...
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