The visit to these shores, the furthest-flung and smallest outpost of the transatlantic Spectator empire, by our chairman Andrew Neil, is a reminder that in so many ways we are still a ‘colonial’ nation, deriving much of our culture, trade, politics and inspiration from Britain and America. Indeed, his visit these past two weeks has coincided with two powerful news stories, one that defines our future relationship with the two great powers of the Anglosphere and the other which shows how the past, or a fictional version of it, still dominates our political discourse.