Marion McKeone: Off Message

It celebrated its 241st birthday last Tuesday, but the US is currently looking like a very unhappy ship – summed up by the boorish behaviour of New Jersey governor Chris Christie

Justin Trudeau: the Canadian prime minister has claimed that Canada is a ‘post-national state’ Pic: Getty

If ever there was a visual metaphor for all that is wrong with the United States as it celebrates its 241st birthday, it has to be the picture of Chris Christie, New Jersey’s hapless governor, as he sunned his considerable girth on a state beach last weekend surrounded by his extended family.

Leave aside the fact that Christie is the physical manifestation of the US’s obsession with supersized, over-processed convenience food; a walking ...