In his White House memoir, John Bolton, the belligerently moustachioed former national security adviser, calls the few rational personnel around the president the “axis of adults”. But why an axis? Bolton was no doubt recalling the halcyon days of 2002, when George W Bush denounced the “axis of evil” (Iran, Iraq and North Korea), and then Bolton, in a rant called “Beyond the Axis of Evil”, added Libya, Syria and Cuba.
None of that made sense since those countries were not working together, but the word “axis” (Latin for axle or pivot) implied an alliance. It had done so since 1936, when Benito Mussolini celebrated Italy’s treaty with Germany. “This Berlin-Rome protocol is not a barrier,” he said, “it is rather an axis around which all European states animated by a desire for peace may collaborate on troubles.”
The Tripartite Pact of 1940 added Japan to the axis powers, not much celebrated for their desire for peace. Nor, one must assume, is the “axis of adults” in the White House. Still, it could be interesting to have one in Britain too: who knows what they might accomplish?
• Steven Poole’s A Word for Every Day of the Year is published by Quercus.
