They would say it's a tra
vesty for a country that generates some 40% of its wealth in international trade, emerged from the Second World War with the fourth largest armed services in
the world, and has left its dead in the soil of Ypres and Verdun and Vimy, Italy, Normandy, and the Netherlands; a country
that used to boast one of the finest diplomatic services in the world, became synonymous with peacekeeping, and had aspired at one stage to lead the worl
d in addre ...[+++]ssing the needs of its poorest citizens.