As the British Press conceded, albeit grudgingly, that UK PM Theresa May had little option other than to offer a verbal slap-on-the-wrist to US President Donald Trump for his "ban on Muslim terrorists", it still didn't sit well.
How Donald Trump chickened out on his ban on Muslims, and chose to only target the weak
To the current generation, the name Neville Chamberlain, may mean little to nothing at all, but that may not have been the case had his policy of appeasement towards one man gone unchallenged.
British PM from 1937 to 1940, Chamberlain became famously known for his policy of appeasing Adolf Hitler and looking for peace, as the drums of war were already playing Deutschlandlied on the borders of Poland.
"This is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace in our time," Chamberlain famously said at Heston aerodrome, in September 1938.
Chamberlain would be made to look achingly naïve, when he was forced to say, on September 3, 1939: "This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note, stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and that consequently this country is at war with Germany. ... It is evil things that we will be fighting against—brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution—and against them I am certain that the right will prevail."
By May 10, 1940, Chamberlain had resigned, with German panzer divisions charging their way through Europe and Hans von Seeckt's vision of mobile warfare ripping Allied forces apart.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Watching May stand alongside Donald Trump, one could not help but imagine the shade of Neville Chamberlain laying an icy hand on her shoulder and warning that history should never repeat. Trump is no Hitler, if nothing else, a country like America would never allow a genocidal maniac to survive long enough to torment the world. Trump is ignorant, megalomaniacal yes, but ignorant none the same.
May's critics claim that her statement of "disagreeing" with Trump's controversial ban, was nothing short of appeasement. That she should have followed the European line and used far more strident terms to denounce the American president's prejudicial plan.
May understands all too well, that post-Brexit, Britain will soon find itself alone in a world that's becoming increasingly insular. As Trump shuts the gates and swallows the keys to his kingdom, so will a spurned Europe turn its back on an erstwhile lover, who chose her independence over its stable authority.
So May needs to keep Trump, if not happy, then at least smug. She also courted Turkey's Erdogan, peddling £100 million-worth of warplanes. But May should watch her step carefully, failing which it's the British press that should do it for her. May seems to be reading How To Win The Wrong Friends and Influence No One, but she should not imbibe it.
It's far better to forge your own path than follow on one that's paved with "good intentions", because we all know where that leads.
The likes of Nigel Farage and Katie Hopkins can spout whatever inane drivel they like, but May must remember that they are in the minority. No Briton with a fair shout at an intellect, would feel that mollycoddling Trump is better than sitting down at the table with France and Germany and hammering out a mutually-beneficial Brexit deal.
And if May has a sense of history, then she must remember the words of Czechoslovakian foreign minister Jan Masaryk, to Lord Halifax in 1938, after the British refused to declare war on Hitler after Germany occupied the Sudetenland: "If you have sacrificed my nation to preserve the peace of the world, I will be the first to applaud you. But if not, gentlemen, God help your souls."
There are innocent people from seven nations currently being sacrificed; Theresa May had better hope her soul sits comfortably.
