Is Britain still Great?
London, one of John Le Carre’s characters reflects in The Night Manager, is ‘the land of make-believe power’. These lines were written in 1993, a year when the British economy was in dollar terms larger than that of India and the People’s Republic of China combined. What Le Carre would have made of Britain today, long since overtaken economically by China, and grappling with a host of problems at home and abroad, does not bear thinking about. Pessimism about the United Kingdom’s position in the world has a long pedigree Pessimism about the United Kingdom’s position in the world has a very long pedigree.
