You have to let politicians go on holiday, I guess. You have to accept the existence of world leaders with whose views you disagree, especially now that it’s almost all of them. So why does it feel like a particular provocation for JD Vance to be planning a trip to the Cotswolds? His itinerary isn’t yet known, but its bare bones are that, sometime in August, the Vances will visit London, Oxfordshire and Scotland.

For a recap on what, exactly, is wrong with the US vice-president, there is nothing more evocative than February’s press conference with Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Of course, many of Vance’s more extreme views – calling Democratic politicians a “bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives”, claiming that staying in an abusive relationship was preferable to getting divorced, and saying that abortion should be banned – were........

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