By Isle of Wight Observer
The Orange One loves winding up Europeans – and the Canadian PM, obviously. His threats against Canada and Greenland are pure pantomime, but EU leaders, Starmer and Mark Carney fall for them hook, line and sinker. Last week’s claim that British troops were never on the front line in Afghanistan was offensive, and I’m glad he admitted he got it wrong. Trump does this sort of thing almost daily. I’m sure this time he had EU soldiers in mind. Trump doesn’t see us Brits as Europeans, just slightly eccentric cousins.
Trump fancies himself as the world’s toughest negotiator. Whether Americans made a good choice is their business, not ours. They voted for him to deport law‑breaking illegals, and he’s doing it – much to the horror of the liberal left. At the very least, Trump is weird: a dodgy geezer who only respects strength. Which is why Keir Starmer’s decision to suck up to him is a spectacular misjudgement. Trump smells weakness like a shark smells blood.
Few world leaders are likeable. Most European countries have had their share of duds – crooks, bores, or people who simply hated us. The difference with Trump is power. We can ignore European leaders or laugh at them; the American President is another matter entirely.
Trump shoots from the hip, and world leaders can’t cope. He’s become their bogeyman, terrifying them with his big tariffs. And let’s be honest: he’s box‑office gold for the media. The left seem to take every word literally, they’re glued to his Truth Social feed like teenagers are to TikTok.
Many of Trump’s statements are embarrassing, although he often rows back after a few days, but he’s right about the Chagos Islands.
Starmer’s plan to hand them over is madness, and paying Mauritius £30 billion for the privilege is even worse – the worst foreign policy deal in living memory. Worse, it looks as though what he originally said about his proposed deal having no operational impact wasn’t even true. Thankfully, Mr President no longer supports the plan, and Nigel Farage has claimed credit for bringing it to his attention. Well done, Nige — someone had to!
Starmer can’t get anything right. He’s under pressure on every front – except football, where his beloved Arsenal are annoyingly top of the table. But like them, he lost last weekend – the Andy Burnham decision was a spectacular own goal that won’t save him from a leadership challenge. The latest jobs figures are catastrophic: 184,000 people thrown out of work thanks to Labour’s tax rises. They are no longer contributing a penny to the Treasury. Next up: Labour’s ruinous High Street business rate hikes. Meanwhile, those of us still working are paying for four million people sitting at home on benefits with no requirement to work at all.
On my recent travels to Cambodia and Vietnam, people kept asking about Britain’s welfare system. They couldn’t believe the stupidity of our generous government, nor could they understand why we all put up with it. So much is wrong with our country – and it started long before Starmer and Co took over.
Farage once told the EU president he had the charisma of a damp rag, and the appearance of a low‑grade bank clerk. His observations cost him a €3,000 fine, but he wasn’t wrong.
Senior political leaders from Britain’s major parties have been hopeless for years. Anyone who talked tough was sidelined, by liberal colleagues or Whitehall mandarins. The Lib-Dems and Greens would drag us even further left, so ordinary people are flocking to Reform.
They may be our only hope of meaningful change – because at this rate, Reform won’t just be a protest vote; they’ll be the emergency services at the scene of the crash.