UK plc is nearly ready for Trump's new world order

At times like these, any port in a storm will do.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

In the modelling and role-playing currently underway around the globe, the UK suffers in Donald Trump's trade war, like everyone else. But, cross fingers and toes, things might turn out to not be so bad here as elsewhere.

The reasons for this are laced with irony. Britain is not in the EU any more, thanks to Brexit, so the hit from the White House is reduced. They’re being clobbered with 20 per cent, the British penalty is 10 per cent. That is a sizeable difference.

So, exiting the EU, which has damaged the UK economy, has come good in the end. That, at least, is the Brexiteer interpretation of events. They ignore the first part and focus on the second. They prefer not to dwell on the fact that businesses miss the customs bloc terribly, that companies would dearly love to return to the free movement of goods and people.

Still, let us concentrate on this unexpected “Brexit dividend”, and give thanks.

Britain has long since ceased to be a manufacturing nation. The economy is heavily skewed towards services, something we’re exceptionally smart at providing. In his onslaught, complete with game-show-style scorecard, Trump was devoting all his vitriol towards items that Americans are choosing to buy, instead of the homegrown variety. They drive him mad, the Toyotas and Mercedes cars blocking the Manhattan avenues rather than Chevrolets.