Rifle Butt

Diplomatic Britishness has reached robust new levels this year, with the ambassador to Mexico pointing an assault rifle at an embassy employee. Remarkably enough in view of its promising combination of Johnsonian urbanity and Trumpsterian tact, for some reason the ambassador's delightful jest did not go down well even in London, and although the gun wasn't fired the ambassador was. Relations between Mexico and the master race are usually free of controversy, thanks presumably to shared attitudes about the role of organised crime in government and commerce; and as the second largest economy in Latin America, Mexico is a natural trading partner for a post-Brexit Britain whose instinct for second-best is bested only by its urge for worse.