Airstrip One

Black day for the Anglosphere

A quick thought. Now that Conrad Black is being furiously chased by just about anyone who was a business partner of his what will become of the Anglosphere cult?

The formerly Canadian, soon to be former press baron was a strong advocate of the Anglosphere before the term was formed. A strong admirer of America he saw the natural place of Britain - and Canada and Australia - as loyal sattelites of the (adoptive)mother country. This was not the main motive force behind this funny little secular strain of British Israelite thought, it was the Cold War mentality amongst many of the Conservative right which wished to maintain the sense of power that being teamed with a winning superpower gave them.

However the Telegraph's and (especially) the Spectator's unnatural disavowal of a patriotic foreign policy was largely dictated by Black. It is rumoured that the choice of Boris Johnson over Simon Heffer as editor of the Spectator was partly due to the former deputy editor's admiration of Enoch Powell, whose clear sighted view of America's foreign policy goals repels Anglospherists.

Will the crowd pleasing Barclay brothers execute a u-turn on America? Certainly not immediately, however with the Daily Mail eating at the Telegraph readership and proposing a conservative foreign policy how long will the Telegraph take before trimming it's sails? Of course the Anglospherists needn't worry, the second Gulf War was widely popular in middle England, George Bush is a greatly respected figure and subservience to America is a strong current in British conservative thought.

When the Telegraph goes tabloid then the Anglospherists should start worrying. At least there's always the Murdoch press, and they never change their spots.