Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics.

The podcast with me, Steve Richards.

Thank you very much for tuning in.

And as ever, we have got a heck of a lot to cram in in our time together. I want to start with this tweet from

the summit in India. It was tweeted by Biden and others. And this is what it says. A new commitment

to develop a new India, Middleiddle East Europe economic corridor.

And it outlines some of the things that will arise from this commitment.

And the countries involved are the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union.

No mention of the United Kingdom, which is one of several issues that leads me to pose the question

about Britain's place in the world. Where is it post-Brexit? What is it?

And if it's all right with all of you, I'd like to do it in the context of the book I've got out

later this month, although I'm told that if you pre-order it, you'll get it.

In advance of the formal publication date. The book's called Turning Points, Crisis and Change in

in Modern Britain from 1945 to Truss, the Liz Truss era, remember that, about this time a year ago,

although I think should have been gone by the end of the podcast. But what I want to focus on today, I'm going to reflect on a couple of themes that I think

arise from the book in different podcasts, but absolutely root it in the present.

And I was struck by that announcement, and as I said, hailed by Biden and others involved in various kind of outlets over recent days.

No UK.

When Ben Wallace had high hopes of being NATO's next chief, we were told it was vetoed by Biden, who wanted a big

figure from the European Union. And Ben Wallace has now gone off. He's left his post, wondering,

he must be wondering about Britain's place in the world in that sort of self-centered context.

Boris Johnson, and to extend Rishi Sunak, kind of hail Britain's place in the world in the

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