HOME is the most important place in the world announces the front page of the 2008 Ikea catalogue, paying tribute to the atomisation of English life.
Meanwhile, in a short statement last week in the House of Commons, one of those places less important than your home, the defence secretary announced without consultation or discussion that Menwith Hill, the listening station in Yorkshire, will be used by the United States for its missile defence system. Why? “To address the emerging threat from rogue states”. As George Monbiot says, “This is a claim that only an idiot or a member of the British government could believe.”
High hopes are easily dashed. Our new prime minister, of whom we hoped so much, is instead emphasising continuity in our mad and intermittently criminal foreign policy. Now we’re officially part of the Bush programme for giving nuclear war a second chance in Europe.