Is Biden bad news for Britain?
If Joe Biden becomes the 46th president of the United States, one thing is certain, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer: Boris Johnson won’t be high on the list of foreign leaders invited to the White House. No. 10’s relationship with the White House is likely to be one of “the frostiest” for half a century. For one thing, Biden is a proud Irish-American who didn’t take kindly to Johnson’s threat to break international law and endanger the Good Friday Agreement, by dishonouring some clauses of the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU. But the real problem is more fundamental. To many Democrats, Johnson is “Britain’s Trump” – part of a reviled gang of “rule-breaking populists who have polarised their countries” and “trashed historic alliances”.
The UK Government is certainly preparing for a “bumpy ride”, said James Forsyth in The Times. Biden has always been hostile to Brexit and would no doubt start his term by ignoring Britain, and mending fences with the EU, France and Germany. But the UK will have plenty of chances for bridge-building. Next year it will host the G7 summit, where it plans to propose a new “D10” alliance of democratic states as a counterweight to China. Later that year, Glasgow will stage the UN’s delayed conference on climate change, a cause close to the heart of both Johnson and Biden. Simple pragmatism should be enough to bring the two leaders together, said Robert Shrimsley in the FT. The transatlantic relationship “lies less in leadership bromances than in deep defence, economic and diplomatic ties”. Anyhow, it’s wrong to demonise Biden as a knee-jerk Anglophobe, said Dominic Lawson in the Daily Mail. Back in 1982, he proved to be one of the UK’s “staunchest supporters” in Washington over the Falklands War.
It’s not as if Britain would be losing a great friend in Trump, said Martin Ivens on Bloomberg. His “avowed” admiration for the UK, his love for the Queen and his Scottish golf courses didn’t stop him clashing with the UK over the Iran nuclear deal and “browbeating his ally” over trade with China. Indeed, the last four years have seen plenty of “sulks and bust-ups”, not least the forced resignation of our ambassador in Washington after the leak of a cable “pillorying Trump”. A Biden victory might dash hopes for a quick trade deal, because the Democrats will certainly have “different priorities”. But the prospects for a more constructive relationship are bright – if London is prepared to extend “an olive branch”.