Re: Suez?
I always got the impression that Suez's importance in historical terms- as much as the specific details of the conflict- lay in the fact that it really laid bare and made concrete for the first time just how seriously Britain's power and influence had declined since the end of the Second World War. That the Empire was over. That it couldn't do things that way any more.
That despite the fact "we" had won the Second World War (conveniently forgetting for reasons of national pride how important the Americans were to that) when push came to shove, it was no longer able to pull this sort of thing off as it might once had done.
That Britain was no longer top dog and that when the aforementioned Americans were no longer in support, but actively opposed to this latest military adventure, *they* were the ones in a position to dictate that Britain call off the whole thing or face a punitive financial response.
The same blinkered arrogance that today's "Suez never happened" hard right Tory Brexiteers think will let them dictate terms to India- a country of 1.3 billion people rapidly progressing in economic importance. That lets them look back on Empire as shared history, as if British rule of India will be remembered in the same nostalgically whitewashed manner by them as it is by "us".
As someone observed, it's the schoolyard bully at a reunion 20 years later assuming the same playground power dynamics are still in place, that it was all just a bit of fun and they'll be welcomed by others that have long moved on and are far more successful. The Little Englanders who voted for Brexit to control foreigners are going to be in for a shock when they find out what India wants in exchange for a beneficial trade agreement- spoiler, it's much greater access to the UK labour market.
Another spoiler; "we" are going to find out why many Americans are so keen on negotiating unilateral trade agreements with a partner several times smaller than themselves, as opposed to the EU.
Watch out for May- or, more likely, whatever self-serving hard-right Tory Brexiteer succeeds her- scrabbling for a trade deal, desparate for any spin to cover the fact that the Americans are able to dictate terms on imports- expect their notoriously shitty food standards to arrive along with a shipment of pink-slime-containing minced "beef" only to realise too late how well off we were in the EU- and the right for their corporations to get further entrenched in the NHS and public life, and sue if they don't get their way.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
