Don't dismiss the daylight between us. It's where we find common ground

A British colleague once complained to me, “we used to be innovators, now we're just regulators”. But that misses the point.

- Matthew Barzun

Britain has always been both at once - innovators in regulation - and that is precisely what this testing time needs.

The president of the United States is in the UK this week. Breaking rules is kind of his thing. That has unified our rivals and undermined the American idea in ways too many to count. Meanwhile, with every rule smashing, half of American voters cheer. Many here, too.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the data tells us we shouldn’t be so surprised. Only 22% of Americans today say they trust the federal government to do the right thing “most of the time” - nearly a 70-year low. In Britain, trust in politicians telling the truth is just 11%, the lowest level in nearly four decades. Trust in the press, in business, in universities and trade unions has also dropped.

One of the very few things vast majorities seem to agree on is that the rule makers and referees have rigged the game. I am not one for conspiracies and I don't think it's that simple. I think it might be simpler.