WikiLeaks shows how UK courts contempt

The latest WikiLeaks exposures (3 December) demonstrate how, with an embarrassing 19th-century mindset, our politicians continue to strut on the world stage as bold leaders of "a world power" – to disastrous effect. We read how the Americans treated Gordon Brown's international initiatives "with indifference bordering on contempt"; how secret diplomatic cables "expose a devastating contempt for the British failure" in Afghanistan. We learn how the British were criticised by Dan McNeill, commander of Nato forces in 2007-08, "for a failure to deal firmly with the drug trade" and because "they had made a mess of things in Helmand". Surely it's time to give up our aircraft carriers, our wanton and reckless wars, our nuclear arsenals, and earn real respect by becoming, at last, responsible members of the world community.