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David Carr in a post below seeks to reassure us Brits that the US steel tariffs do not matter because they will help rather than harm our economy. That's like being reassured that it is the house next door burning down, not one's own, and with a kindly additional word pointing out that all this nice warm air wafting over from the conflagration will reduce one's heating bills.

The tarriffs will (a) directly harm the economies of many other countries, to whom I am not indifferent; (b) allow the European Union the excuse they've been praying for to put tarriffs on the South Korean and Chinese steel you mention - so no, the British consumer will not benefit; (c) give strength to the yelps of half a hundred other US lobbies; (d) start another round of retaliation with all the effects above applied to some other randomly chosen commodity, thus screwing up another bunch of people's prosperity.

And they make Bush look weak and hypocritical, which the world could do without right now.