> And it's a rather interesting time to be stirring up this particular pot in the UK...

Can you elaborate? I can't think of any reason why this would be more or less interesting than any time since the Swedes dropped the rape case. But i can't say I've been following that closely recently.

The UK is in the middle of a constitutional and social crisis that goes by the name of Brexit.

I'm aware. What's that got to do with Assange?

Assange is a polarizing figure. He's a reminder of how irritating it is to comply with international law (it wasn't an uncommon sentiment in the UK that they should just barge in to the embassy and get him anyway). He's a reminder of "overly liberal" European laws (there was a lot of talk about the supposedly unreasonable nature of Sweden's rape laws).

In other words, nothing directly, but just seeing his name again is, politically, so much fuel for the fire. In fact I see that this entire news story has been engineered by the Wikileaks Twitter account, both the actual story and the supposed reason for it.

He's a polarising figure amongst the very small number of people in the UK who a) have heard of him or Wikileaks, b) are more concerned with "overly liberal" European laws than someone who flees the country and enters an embassy to evade the laws of the country he was visiting at the time, and c} still cares about the opinion of someone who has managed to be rabidly partisan, anti-semetic, and is possibly a Russian asset.

I'm sure we're both biased by our respective echo chambers and peer groups, but the idea that Assange has or will have any impact on the current situation is just fantastical.