The US has sent its warmonger-in-chief to talk trade with Britain – now what could it possibly want in return?

The United States will do what it always does, and act solely in its own interests. It will ask for everything, including absolute subservience, while offering next to nothing in return

Pungently divisive: John Bolton, US national security adviser (Reuters)

For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble … but, phew, everybody, panic’s over. John Bolton, Her Britannic Majesty’s government’s new bestie, has popped over from Washington to promise a quick and bounteous bit-by-bit US trade deal. So put the diazepam back in the medicine chest and chill out. Everything’s coming up roses after all.

I hesitate to ask this, not wishing to undermine the cheery tone and be a right Debbie Downer, but would anyone within several post codes of their own senses really want this horror for a BFF, or come to that for a distant acquaintance?

Donald Trump’s national security adviser is, to put it mildly, a pungently divisive figure. There are those, for instance, who see the foreign policy megahawk with the bushy Maga moustache as potentially the most dangerous person on the planet. So much for his detractors.