Jack Straw’s off to China this week. No doubt trade will be on the agenda. Particularly as some countries want to lift the EU arms embargo with China which was put in place after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Can you guess at any country that is particularly gung-ho about lifting the embargo? Go on take a guess. Nice country, the people like drinking tea, sells lots of weapons.

Still, what’s a trip abroad if you can use it as an opportunity to shill arms to a country at loggerheads with its neighbours.?

And while Straw’s pressing the flesh with those lovely chaps in Beijing, you might recall the Dalai Lama’s visit to the UK last year. Tony Blair didn’t meet him. “Diary pressures” apparently. Plus, why waste your time with a man of peace when there’s no money in it?

The US are against the lifting of the embargo apparently. Jack Straw said this would create a “presentational problem“.

He really is an irritating little tick, isn’t he?