Prime Minister Teresa May has called the visit  of President Trump to London “a significant week for the special relationship and an opportunity to further strengthen our already close partnership”. She stressed the need to build closer trading ties (she is a out to depart, unmourned).

Trump’s US ambassador in the UK, Woody Johnson, has meanwhile suggested that the National Health Service  should be ”on the table” in future trade negotiations with the US. Trump’s man in London also indicated the UK would need to allow US agricultural products, including chlorinated chicken, onto the UK market as part of any post-Brexit trade deal.

Firstly, there is no “special relationship” between the US and the USA.  This is a fantasy on the extreme Right. The special relationship (very special) is with Israel.  Secondly, if there is any move to allow American companies to take over the NHS there will be riots on the street.  American health corporations, ( by the way, in the midst of consolidation, with a huge number of takeovers  and mergers), already have a presence in the UK market, pushing up costs, and their undermining of the NHS is unpopular.  Lastly, chlorinated chicken is shorthand for what is perceived abroad as mass produced, chemically treated, tasteless and unhealthy food.  Further riots would ensue.

How can one achieve ataraxia with such idiots talking past one another?