Evening Standard comment: UK sidelined by Macron bromance with Trump; Harry and Meghan honour the ANZACs; Fitting accolade for Clare Smyth

What is it about world leaders and their obsession with male grooming products?

Tony Blair’s friendship with new President George W Bush was sealed at Camp David with a conversation about their choice of toothpaste.

Yesterday Donald Trump, an expert on hair applications, flicked the dandruff off the shoulders of Emmanuel Macron during his visit to the White House.

It was just one of many physical signs of the bromance between the two Presidents as they held hands, pecked each other’s cheeks, slapped each other’s backs and kissed the proffered hands of their glamorous wives.

Britain looked on like the cheated partner as Mr Trump described his French counterpart as his “special friend” and described the two countries as each other’s “oldest allies”.

This wasn’t in the Brexiteer script.

Trump’s America and Brexit Britain were supposed to be inseparable partners in touch with popular anger about remote global elites and partners in the crusade against globalisation.

That’s what Theresa May intended when she rushed to meet Mr Trump in his first week in office with the promise of a full state visit; that’s what Boris Johnson was thinking as he headed off to Trump Tower to cosy up to fellow Right-wing populist Steve Bannon.

Now it’s the Marseillaise being played on the White House lawn, and it’s the self-appointed French leader of the liberal internationalist world order who has the ear of the President.

He used it to good effect, using his visit to try to corral the US President into a new international nuclear deal with Iran.

Mr Trump is attracted to power, and Monsieur Macron exudes it.

No wonder the American President is in no rush to visit the British government.

For back home, it looks like our economic policy is being written by Jacob Rees-Mogg, who killed off months of Downing Street work on a customs partnership with the EU by calling it “cretinous”; while our foreign policy with our neighbours like Ireland is being dictated by a tiny number of DUP MPs, who today threatened “to bring down the Government” unless they got their way on the Irish border issue.

Everything about Monsieur Macron says, “L’état, c’est moi”. Who is in charge of the British state is less clear.

Honouring the Anzacs

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle led the tributes on Anzac Day today, an event to mark the start of the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign in which Australians and New Zealanders played an heroic part.

It was, militarily, a catastrophic failure, but the campaign was formative in creating a sense of national identity for both nations.

This dawn ceremony , in which the Speaker of the New Zealand parliament paid tribute to the dead, was Miss Markle’s first Anzac Day, and she seemed visibly moved by it.

This is the way the Royal Family is evolving, with younger members, including Prince Harry and Meghan, playing greater roles in public life, including ceremonial events to honour the military — especially apt for Prince Harry — and the Commonwealth.

The Queen remains well loved but the popularity of the younger royals can help to bring events such as these to a new generation.

Clare’s Core values

Clare Smyth, who has been given the World’s Best Female Chef Award 2018 for her extraordinary achievements, including her Notting Hill restaurant, Core, says she is accepting it on behalf of all women in the hospitality industry.

The accolade, which was previously given to Hélène Darroze at the Connaught, is part of a series of annual awards by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy.

Smyth brings local and seasonal produce centre stage, which is exactly where restaurants should be going, and Core is, moreover, unusually informal for a haute cuisine restaurant. She is, then, very much her own woman, and a brilliant role model for others.

We savour her success.