The Chinese characters for “Hong Kong”. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To answer Dr Alf’s unspoken question first to the Chinese we (in the UK) are yesterdays news, and George Osborne does not feature in their calculations because they know that he is a man on borrowed time.

They are interested in the power that the Queen wields through her various Governors General and through puppet leaders in various Commonwealth countries, particularly those in countries where they have interests in oil and minerals.

What interests the Chinese is power and they see Chancellor Merkel in Europe as having it, and also as instrumental to helping their allies such as Russia and Brazil with economic modernization.

They see America as militarily powerful and understand that they are tired of receiving British instructions so they focus more on them than they do on us.

The UK was once very powerful and influential through the City of London, which prior to 2012 had 50% of the world’s financial transactions flowing through it.

In 2012, London was eclipsed by New York and by 2016 Hong Kong will have the pre-eminent position, Singapore will be second, New York will be 3rd and the City of London pushed into 4th place.

The Chinese want to develop a world currency as an alternative to the US dollar which will initially be shared by them, Brazil, Russia, India,Malaysia and other countries outside of the Western orbit.

The UK is seen as a declining power, which has given away many of its key assets such as the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk, through which 50% of our imports and exports flow (owned by China), the infrastructure company which runs the London Underground (owned by a company in Hong Kong), the infrastructure company which will be responsible for transmitting electricity through wind-farms and alternative sources of energy in an expanded National Grid.

Under Osborne and Cameron, the UK is planning to let the Chinese build the next generation of nuclear power stations at a time when we have a rising population and just 4% spare generating capacity.

One does not need to be a Doctor in Business Administration, like Dr Alf, to see the strategic folly in all of this or wonder what on earth the Coalition will do next.

Dr Alf wonders whether there is more “spin” now than there was under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown?

In the sense that we really are the “Emperor with no clothes” economically, militarily, strategically and educationally” there must be more spin because we have allowed others such as Chancellor Merkel to out think us and ingratiate themselves with the Chinese by offering them what they want and engaging with them without causing loss of face.

Our ruling elite in the UK, does not want to admit this state of affairs to itself let alone the rest of us, so it creates distractions such as the Olympics, the Jubilee and now the football World Cup to “talk up ” Britain and convince the public that things are going well.

The Osborne trip is a belated attempt to repair damage created by David Cameron‘s insults which the Chinese will punish us and are punishing us for by giving trade and contracts, investments and co-operation to others.

As a member of the EU, we (in the UK) are effectively in thrall to Germany as the leading power which means that when Europe speaks with “one voice” it is the voice of Chancellor Merkel.

This is why I say we would do much better giving up on all the pretense and becoming an offshore tax haven, politically neutral like Switzerland or Norway AND outside of the EU.

In that way, we could control our borders, reduce population to what we can afford, stop trying to “punch above our weight” and stop kidding ourselves about how important others like the Chinese think or don’t think we are.

John Gelmini

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