Britain’s main export to China is cars, not Scotch whisky. A 5% reduction in China’s tariff on whisky isn’t going to add much to Scotland’s balance of trade with the People’s Republic. Maybe it’ll hit £180M a year? Compare that with more than £5Bn a year in British cars exported to China (and China’s 15% tariff on importing big diesel vehicles like Range Rovers).

Starmer was promised visa-free travel in China for UK nationals with no timetable for implementation. Not earth-shaking, because lots of other countries do too. We act as though there has been some sort of chill in UK-China relations because it’s been years since a British Prime Minister has visited. There was something that came up in the intervening period, though, wasn’t there? Something that made travel to China difficult?

Completely trivial: China’s tariff on imported British warships is, like China’s tariff on imported Scotch whisky, 5%.

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