Last week at this time, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was preparing for the G7 summit at Carbis Bay in Cornwall.

Prior to that, meetings between G7 foreign ministers and finance ministers took place earlier in London.

This is the family photo of the foreign ministers from their meeting in May. The eighth man is an EU representative:

One of the outcomes of the finance ministers’ meetings in early June was a tax on profits from the largest multinational tech giants, to be continued when the G20 meet in July:

Joe Biden

It was amazing to see Joe Biden last the full course of the G7, especially without Kamala Harris hovering over him:

I am still puzzling over this photo of Dr Jill prepping for the G7 and the text ‘United States government official’. She is the First Lady, not a government official:

Joe Biden successfully triggered a post-Brexit storm around the EU trading arrangements with Northern Ireland, which are crucial to maintaining the peace agreement between that part of the UK and the Republic of Ireland:

Biden’s opinion is important, because the UK wants to make a trade deal with the US, which would have been much easier were President Trump still in the White House:

Nigel Farage rightly tweeted:

The sad truth is that no one in government cares about Trump. Boris has made it pretty clear in Parliament that he prefers dealing with Biden.

On Thursday, June 10, the US and the UK signed The New Atlantic Charter to promote common interests between the two nations, including technology, health pandemics and climate change.

The original Atlantic Charter was signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt in 1941.

This new charter is hardly as ground breaking as the original.

The Daily Mail reported:

The major focus of Mr Johnson and Mr Biden’s new charter is defeating the coronavirus crisis and preventing further global health crises.

To achieve these goals, the two men agreed to ‘scale up joint work on genomic sequencing and variant assessments’ and to work together on a new global surveillance system. 

This will see the UK Health Security Agency’s new Centre for Pandemic Preparedness establishing a working relationship with its US counterpart, the proposed National Center for Epidemic Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics.

The new charter states: ‘We recognise the catastrophic impact of health crises, and the global good in strengthening our collective defences against health threats. 

‘We commit to continuing to collaborate to strengthen health systems and advance our health protections, and to assist others to do the same. 

Mr Johnson said: ‘While Churchill and Roosevelt faced the question of how to help the world recover following a devastating war, today we have to reckon with a very different but no less intimidating challenge – how to build back better from the coronavirus pandemic.’

While the men met, Carrie Johnson, young Wilfred Johnson and Jill Biden took a walk along the beach. That evening, the Bidens enjoyed a drink at the Tregenna Castle Hotel in St. Ives.

On Sunday, June 13, the Bidens left Cornwall and were guests of the Queen at Windsor Castle where they enjoyed tea together. The Express has more.

On Monday and Tuesday, Biden met with NATO leaders and held a private meeting with the president of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan.

The Bidens flew to Geneva on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Biden met with Vladimir Putin in Geneva.

Sausage war

On the topic of Biden’s beef over Northern Ireland, he wants the UK to move closer to the EU and had the diplomat at the American Embassy in London issue Boris with a démarche, a reprimand normally reserved for enemy nations.

On Wednesday, June 9, the Telegraph reported:

Joe Biden ordered US officials to rebuke Boris Johnson for jeopardising the peace process in Northern Ireland due to its stand-off with the European Union, it emerged on Wednesday night. 

In a significant diplomatic intervention which now threatens to overshadow the G7 summit in Cornwall, America’s most senior diplomat in Britain told the Brexit minister Lord Frost that the UK’s stance on the Northern Ireland Protocol was “inflaming” tensions in Ireland and Europe. 

Yael Lempert is said to have issued Lord Frost with a demarche – a formal diplomatic reprimand – at a meeting on June 3 in London, during which she relayed to him the US President’s “great concern” over the UK’s approach to the protocol, which was established to prevent a hard Irish border.

The protocol is causing difficulty in shipping sausages, hence ‘sausage war’. You could not make this up.

Lord David Frost is attempting to negotiate with the EU:

During “frank” discussions in London, the Brexit minister Lord Frost said he would not rule out acting unilaterally to prevent a ban on the sale of British sausages in the province from coming into force at the end of the month.

It came despite Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice-president, warning that the EU could ultimately suspend parts of the Brexit trade deal and hit British products with tariffs should the UK choose to extend the grace period on chilled meats.

In a clear show of defiance, one insider involved in the joint committee that oversees the Northern Ireland Protocol told The Telegraph: “David very clearly said he wasn’t taking that off the table.”

Lord Frost also rebuffed EU calls for the UK to solve the row by signing up to a Swiss-style veterinary agreement which would require it to follow the bloc’s food safety rules as they change over time in a process known as “dynamic alignment”.

Over the years, British food and veterinary standards have become more strict than those of the EU, so it is no surprise that Lord Frost is sticking to his guns.

The démarche from the United States upset the DUP leader in Northern Ireland — Edwin Poots — and some Conservative MPs in Westminster.

On Thursday, June 10, the Daily Mail reported:

New DUP leader Edwin Poots laid into Joe Biden today after the US president intervened in Northern Ireland politics with a rebuke for Boris Johnson over the EU ‘sausage war’.

Hardliner Mr Poots accused the Democrat of  trying to drive ‘a coach and horses through the Good Friday Agreement’ that guarantees sectarian peace in Northern Ireland.

The US President instead used his diplomats to express ‘great concern’ over the conflict centred on post-Brexit trade rules agreed last year by both sides, which the UK is now seeking to change, the Times reported today.  

The UK is now at loggerheads with the EU over rules governing the import of chilled goods like sausages into Ulster under the Northern Ireland Protocol agreed six months ago. 

The US is said to have issued a ‘demarche’ to Britain, an official diplomatic censure not normally used against allies, especially those as close as the two nations. 

The United States was said to have ‘strongly urged’ Britain to ‘stay cool’ and reach an agreement, even if that meant making ‘unpopular compromises’. 

The White House tried to row back from the row today, insisting the bust-up had been overplayed, but not before the president was branded ‘senile’ by a Tory Brexiteer …

… an anonymous Tory MP told Politico:  ‘America should remember who their allies are… unfortunately he’s (Biden) so senile that he probably won’t remember what we tell him anyway. 

‘Unless an aide is listening I’m not sure he’s going to remember for very long.’

The Express had more from anonymous Conservative MPs:

One told Express.co.uk: “The cognitive decline of the American President appears to mirror the decline of the special relationship.

“I don’t actually believe this is Biden doing this.

“He’s lost the plot again. Somebody is pulling his strings because he’s senile and just hasn’t got it – if he ever had it.”

Another angry Conservative told this website the US was picking fights with the wrong people.

They said the Biden administration had issued a rebuke to the UK, one of America’s oldest allies, quicker than it had taken action against Iran or China.

“He’s talking to the wrong people on this one I’m afraid,” the MP said.

The Gateway Pundit picked up on the story:

Joe Biden’s first trip abroad is turning into an utter disaster as the senile sock puppet offends our closest allies and endangers the peace process in Northern Ireland with his incompetent dementia …

On June 10, the Prime Minister and Biden met privately at St Michael’s Mount, a 17th-century castle on an island just off the coast of Cornwall.

The Daily Mail reported that Boris downplayed the disagreement:

Boris Johnson tonight insisted Joe Biden did not rebuke him over the Northern Ireland situation during their first face-to-face talks – as the White House tried to cool a furious row.

The PM revealed that the US president avoided reading the riot act over the Brexit standoff when they met in Cornwall this afternoon.

But he said there is ‘common ground’ between the UK, America and the EU that solutions must be found to the Northern Ireland protocol issues.

The Express quoted him as saying:

So it’s a relationship, you can call it the ‘deep and meaningful relationship’, whatever you want, the ‘indestructible relationship’.

It’s a relationship that has endured for a very long time, and has been an important part of peace and prosperity in Europe and around the world.

Emmanuel Macron’s gaffe

Emmanuel Macron ruffled British feathers when he said that Northern Ireland was not part of the United Kingdom.

The Express reported on Macron’s reaction to the sausage war:

Britain has been left frustrated by the EU’s implementation of the mechanism, warning excessive customs checks are having a detrimental impact on trade between Britain and Northern Ireland.

During talks with Mr Macron at the G7 summit, Boris Johnson tried to explain the problems with the Protocol, comparing it to the hypothetical introduction of checks on goods between Toulouse and Paris.

Mr Macron responded by saying there was a difference because Northern Ireland is a separate country to the rest of the UK.

The comments enraged Boris Johnson and led to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab blasting the EU for a lack of “respect”.

According to the newspaper, Macron also threatened a reset of British and French relations:

Emmanuel Macron was among the leaders who visited Cornwall this week for the G7 summit. Mr Macron told Prime Minister Boris Johnson the two countries had common interests, but ties could only improve if he kept his word on Brexit. One source told the Guardian: “The president told Boris Johnson there needed to be a reset of the Franco-British relationship. This can happen provided that he keeps his word with the Europeans.”

Meanwhile, Carrie Johnson took Brigitte Macron and Jill Biden to a performance at the Minack Theatre. Mrs Macron wore espadrilles.

The Queen’s reception

On Friday, June 11, the Queen held a reception at the futuristic green Eden Project for G7 leaders and their spouses. Prince Charles (pictured) and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also attended:

A family photo was taken, where the Queen cracked a joke:

She also hosted G7 leaders in 1977. Among them was Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre, on the far left in the photo below. Valery Giscard d’Estaing and the Queen engaged in conversation. It is unclear why the Queen Mother and Jimmy Carter were holding hands:

Other members of the Royal Family also attended this year’s reception.

The Queen has met nearly every US president since Dwight D Eisenhower. The only one she never met was Lyndon B Johnson.

The Duchess of Cambridge took Jill Biden for a visit to Connor Downs Academy, a primary school in Hayle:

Jill Biden revealed that she knows Prince Harry well, thanks to the Invictus Games.

In a separate event, the Duchesses of Cambridge and Cornwall accompanied the Queen to an event in St Austell, where the monarch cut a cake with a ceremonial sword. This video is a must:

Lighter moments

The G7 security costs were eye-watering:

In addition, the Daily Mail reported that the Royal Navy’s giant new aircraft carrier sailed past the summit venue where the G7 leaders are staying to prove Britain’s power.

A beach party was held on Saturday, June 12. The weather was good:

The G7 family photo this year was socially distanced because of coronavirus:

Elbow bumps replaced handshakes:

However, social distancing disappeared for the flypast by the Red Arrows:

Conclusion

The G7 summit ended on Sunday, June 13.

The French tried to clarify Macron’s remark about Northern Ireland:

Boris announced that the UK would build back better in a ‘gender neutral’, possibly even ‘more feminine’, way.

The nations’ leaders also agreed to counter China’s belt and road policy:

Meanwhile, the sausage war rages on.

The next big British event will be COP26, to be held in Glasgow in November 2021.