Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams

The rulers of the old America and their supporters revered Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin.

They were sincerely baffled at the reactions to Thatcher's and Yeltsin's deaths in Britain and Russia respectively.

But they have seen nothing yet.

Meanwhile, it says a very great deal that, whereas the new America's favourite Russian politician is no less than Vladimir Putin, the new America's favourite British politician is no more than Nigel Farage.

That Donald Trump really is going to conduct all dealings with this country through Farage means that UKIP is as dead organisationally as it is ideologically.

There is not much United Kingdom Independence in the view that a foreign power ought to appoint the British Ambassador to it.

And there is no UKIP without Farage.

Farage has devoted the whole of his latest attempt at leading UKIP to promoting his new career in the United States.

Other than for memorial services, and then only if he were asked to speak, he is no more coming back than James Corden is.

After all, do they have golden lifts in Thanet?

Although Corden, like Peter Sellers or Dudley Moore before him, remains at least remembered in Britain.

Whereas Farage is already well on the way to becoming Craig Ferguson or Robin Leach.