I remember when the Cameron government were looking to China as big potential trading partner with friendly diplomatic relations.

Tory ministers were all having their kids take Mandarin lessons. We were penning energy deals and planning to built power plants with them. Huawei was an important part of modernising our telecoms and building our 5g infrastructure. There was supposedly even talk of shifting our steel industry towards specialist production for trade with China who were undercutting us on cheaper varieties.

And then the issue of the EU came to a head, partly through Cameron's own party mismanagement, but also due to massive pressure from the groups of hardline anti-EU Tory backbenchers and the rise of UKIP. Both of which have their share of simply nationalist return to empire delusionals, but also both of which have vast and very murky connections with the US - from the Heritage Foundation, to intelligence services, to billionaires like David Mercer. The referendum was a shitshow, with plenty of dodgy stuff too, and Cameron resigned.

So instead the steel industry was left to die. Energy and trade deals were scrapped before they were signed. We were no longer a useful trade route into the EU of China. And of course China became the enemy as we once again became wholly an outpost of the US' new cold war.

This isn't to lionise Cameron. He was and is a self-interested, racist, genocide enabling, wannabe aristocrat who was happy to kill over 100k people with crushing austerity and ruin man more lives. But I do think that there's books to be written about just how deeply involved the US has been in the anti-EU movement and the myriad ways it's used to oust British governments, ensure hard right control of parties, asset strip Britain and ensure its total compliance on geopolitics.

Also we got a picture of Xi drinking a pint in the pub which I might work out how to submit to the emoji comm if people like it: