To the rest of the world, Britain has vanished – or become completely irrelevant

The Conservative leadership contest may be attracting praise for its diversity, but it gives the impression of mayhem abroad, writes Mary Dejevsky

The best policy for our neighbours and allies is probably to write off the UK until September (EPA)

It seems an age ago now, but when Boris Johnson announced his departure just a week ago, surprise in the UK was distinctly muted. It seemed less a question of if, than how and when. Johnson may have survived a vote of confidence from Conservative MPs only a month before, but the scandals kept coming, and when ministers started defecting, it was over within hours. “When the herd moves,” as Johnson said in his statement, “it moves.”

That is not, for the most part, how it looked from abroad. From the European Union and Ukraine to southeast Asia and the United States, the response was sheer and undiluted bewilderment. It was a bewilderment akin to that which followed the UK’s vote to leave the EU. How on earth did that come about? What are these Brits doing to themselves – again?

It is true that attention abroad has been diverted by Ukraine, higher energy prices, the resurgence of Covid and inflation. It is also true that the UK’s vastly diminished attention to the EU since Brexit – as seen in politics and the media – is thoroughly reciprocated. The UK and its weird ways have fallen far down the pecking order of subjects commanding EU interest.