Will we always have Paris?

There are times when you might be fooled into believing all is well. I had a moment of such weakness the other day when I saw our new Prime Minister welcoming his European counterparts to a summit at Blenheim Palace. When Keir Starmer came down the steps to greet King Charles, he even did a pretty good job of pretending he wasn’t just Airbnb-ing the place for a few days.

At such points our country can look at peace. The English baroque architecture stood out against a blue sky and everything in England seemed to go on as it should.

Of course, at the same time people in Leeds were turning over police cars and burning the place down. It took a while to find out even roughly what was happening, and no one seemed especially interested in trying.