Between a rock and a hard place

DURING World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a long-time anti-Communist politician, ended up allying his country with the Soviet Union, led then by the dictator and mass murderer Joseph Stalin, as part of a strategy to defeat Nazi Germany.

So after Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, and Churchill raised many eyebrows when he expressed strong support for the Soviets and praised Stalin in an address in parliament, the British PM declared that “if (Nazi German leader Adolph) Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons”.

No one, of course, would compare the threat of surging inflation in the United States to that posed by Nazi Germany in the 1940s, and probably even their most ardent critics would not liken Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS) and Chinese President Xi Jinping to the devil.