The grandeur and pageantry surrounding the state visit cannot disguise the fact that we have absolutely no vision for our future
B
ritain has made its point. We can do the past. The rest of the world may be more powerful and richer than we are, but only Britain can embody statehood in a banquet. Only Britain can force the titans of the digital age into white tie and tails, and reduce an American president to quivering admiration.
The question is where now? Trump’s itinerary mostly avoided central London. He did not go near Downing Street, let alone address parliament. Imagine a state visit to the US that did not include the White House or the Capitol. This week was all soft power and flattery. It probably did more for British tourism than for steel tariffs or pharmaceuticals.
Yet as I watched the golden carriage trundle through an empty Windsor park and into a gathering of bear-skinned soldiers, I did wonder what real message was being given out. How could such a country handle a struggling NHS, with its courts and prisons in disarray and its Treasury not knowing where to turn? What of its prime minister, embedded in woes of past and present, but with no vision of the future?
