British people woke on the morning of September 17, 2021, to the surprise discovery that they had joined a tripartite defence partnership they had never heard of. The Australia–United Kingdom–United States (AUKUS) agreement was one of the best-kept secrets in the leaky ship of Whitehall, with only ten people in the whole of the British government being aware of the deal in which the experienced nuclear submarine operators the US and the UK would pool their resources to help Australia develop a nuclear undersea fleet of its own. Unveiling the agreement with the flourish of a live press conference in…