The incoming administration?

I keep thinking of this clip from Remains of the Day:

The "gentleman diplomacy" conducted by British nobility in the 1930s exemplifies the maxim "any sufficiently-advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

I suppose I shall have to watch this movie to understand this clip and its significance. I love Christopher Reeve wholeheartedly but yeah, I have no idea what happened here.

The scene takes place at an English country mansion around 1936. Neville Chamberlain is at the table with Reeves' character, a US congressman. Reeves' character has spent much of the film trying to get the English and French gentlemen to understand the danger the Nazis represent, as the Nazis are going through the house picking out things they'll take home when they conquer England.