America back in the family

No one at the G7 and Nato summits has had to mention Donald Trump but he has been the large but now irrelevant elephant in the room throughout all the discussions. You can tell by all the back-slapping and arm-in-arm strolls and smiles that everyone is so relieved and happy that it's Joe Biden in their midst. When they all say America is back they mean America (Trump) is no longer behind their back complaining and whingeing and disrespecting and bellowing. It makes life in the summit corridors so much easier. The leaders gathering on the beach for a barbecu in Cornwall was so relaxed they actually got criticised for not obeying social distancing rules. But for heaven's sake, give it a rest, leave them alone. Apart from Macron putting his arm through Biden's and striding along like a couple of best mates (who incidentally had never met in person before), there weren't any naughty hugs or embracings that breached the rules. Just lots of elbow-to-elbow contact and as the British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, helpfully put it, there's a lot of fresh air down on the beach and that helped a lot. You can always rely on Foreign Secretary Raab to put the right verbal spin on anything. So all in all the Cornish G7 seemed pretty successful and the Nato summit will be all friendly and lovey-dovey, provided the Turkish leader Erdogan doesn't spoil the party spirit by playing hard to get and insisting he wants to hang on to his new Russian friends who sold him their sophisticated S-400 air defence system which clashes horribly with every other Nato air defence system and threatens America's most advanced fighter jet the F-35. Erdogan must try and smile a lot when he meets Biden to show that really he is a loyal ally and trusted member of Nato and then everyone can go home later this week feeling all warm - and united.