{"id":121901,"date":"2023-12-09T10:50:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T10:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leviolonrouge.com\/?p=121901"},"modified":"2023-12-09T10:50:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T10:50:09","slug":"i-served-in-the-government-for-38-years-this-is-why-the-uk-is-no-longer-a-sup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leviolonrouge.com\/politics\/i-served-in-the-government-for-38-years-this-is-why-the-uk-is-no-longer-a-sup\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I served in the government for 38 years – this is why the UK is no longer a sup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon McDonald reveals he told colleagues he voted against Brexit<\/h3>\n

The UK has fallen off the precipice as a global power despite its attempt to continue acting as it did in the last century, Express.co.uk has been told.<\/p>\n

It comes as Britain settles into its new role on the international stage after Brexit and pursues a new kind of multilateral diplomacy.<\/p>\n

The UK’s departure from the EU has confronted it with the momentous task of redrafting its international identity while simultaneously pursuing its former role as a hard power broker around the world.<\/p>\n

For Downing Street, the opportunity to carve out a new path has enabled it to strengthen long-standing roles in key multilateral organisations.<\/p>\n

But for Lord Simon McDonald, the UK’s most senior civil servant up until recently, things couldn’t be further from the truth, and the country, in terms of hard power, is a shadow of its former self.<\/p>\n

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“I worked for the Foreign Office for 38 years, and I agree that the UK is still a big country on the international stage: there are 193 in the United Nations and the UK is one of the top half dozen powers,” he told Express.co.uk.<\/p>\n

“But what has changed since the UK was the biggest or preponderant power is other countries catching up and overtaking.<\/p>\n

“In 2023, the US and then China are so far ahead of everybody else, that I think only those two countries can be categorised as superpowers.<\/p>\n

“Everybody else in comparison is medium-sized. So even though we are a big country, and we have a lot to offer in many spheres, in the terms that we’re used to thinking of ourselves, in hard power terms, we are not at the top anymore.”<\/p>\n

The process of Britain’s decline as a hard power has been happening for decades, according to Lord McDonald, who is the former Head of the Diplomatic service and Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.<\/p>\n

In this sense, the UK has in a way become ignorant to its demise while continuing to operate in a way that was more common 100 years ago.<\/p>\n

“I think the UK has found it quite difficult to come to terms with a different standing in the world,” he said. “[The problem is that Britain] is still trying to play a hard power game, but we don\u2019t have the resources to back that up any more.”<\/p>\n

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