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Growing up, my Dad would frequently remind me that football is 'a passing game'. Which sounds obvious, except my introduction to the sport was mid-1990s, pre-Wenger Arsenal, and so the concept of passing to your own side had to be pointed out to a small child.
In the same way, politics is a team game. This is sometimes remarkably well disguised by naked ambition and self-serving leaks, but you see it all the time. When a member of the same party calls Tories "scum" or says something racist, you will often hear colleagues say words to the effect of 'I wouldn't use that language'. This is intended to create distance without actually condemning the comments.
Speaking of which, it has emerged that Donald Trump's pick for vice president, J.D. Vance, 'joked' at a conservative political conference last week that Britain under Labour had become the first 'Islamist country' to acquire nuclear weapons. Now, Vance says a lot of things. In a 2016 article for The Atlantic, the future Ohio senator described Trump as "America's Hitler". But I'm more interested in the UK government's response.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Angela Rayner said that Vance had said "quite a lot of fruity things in the past” before deploying this classic of the genre, that she did not "recognise that characterisation" of the country she serves as deputy prime minister.
Bad taste and factual inaccuracies aside, this was a power move by Vance. He knows that no US ally can publicly condemn his language - or at least do so without risking a full-blown diplomatic incident. It is low-key humiliation, one that Britain and the West will have to get used to, should Trump return to the White House.
These sorts of comments may not carry the same geopolitical heft of a Trump announcement that the US will no longer adhere to Nato's article 5 or that he will commence withdrawal of all American forces from East Asia. Nevertheless, it may soon be the task of every government minister appearing on local radio to thread the needle. To gamely swallow the latest indignity or insult hurled at the British people without sounding like a total supplicant.
Try it at home if you like. Suppose your boss said something false and mean-spirited about you or your partner. Would you push back, or let it pass? If you were tempted by the former, what if your job were slated for possible redundancy and your pre-Truss-mini-Budget mortgage deal was set to expire?
It is the job of any British prime minister to remain on good terms with the American president, whether you're Tony Blair finding a way to be best mates with both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, or Theresa May enduring a running commentary on her Brexit deal from Donald Trump. If the polls are right, Sir Keir Starmer will soon be spending the next few years smiling through gritted teeth on behalf of a nation.
