Today sees the President of the United States visit the UK, honoured by all the trappings of an official state visit. Never have I felt more ashamed and deeply injured in my life than by my country honouring the leader of an international criminal extortion gang. A pathological liar and propagandist wannabe hard man, who is an adjudicated rapist with 34 felony convictions. He will be afforded a military honour guard, and while staying in a royal residence, will be fawned upon by the great and the good over a state banquet held in his honour, after which he will no doubt lecture the audience on free speech. The same free speech is denying millions of Americans who dare to disagree with him.
I can’t help feeling that the banquet might have been better held at Hampton Court Palace, the home of King Henry VIII, who, it seems, Trump has ambitions to imitate as monarch of the United States. Like Trump, Henry was a man with little regard for women or the law, who left the people of England in no doubt who was king. A man who tolerated no dissent raised crushing taxes on his subjects and executed anyone who disagreed with him.
Trump is committing crimes against moral decency and the preservation of democracy, and the British government is, with this visit, complicit. It sends a message to the world that bullies win and that abhorrent behaviour should be rewarded. Never have the far right been so handsomely rewarded by a British Prime Minister’s genuflection to a destroyer of democracy who is extorting his country, because of an inability to call him out for the political thug that he is.
This is the metaphorical equivalent of King George VI inviting Adolf Hitler for a state visit as he was crushing Europe. The only difference is that Trump is using tariffs and not bombs. King Charles, as monarch, is meant to be a politically impartial Head of State, with powers limited by convention; his duties are exercised on the advice of his ministers, who are accountable to Parliament. In other words, he politely does as he is told.
Keir Starmer, as Prime Minister, made a calculated decision which he thought was in the economic interest of the UK to offer the bribe of a state visit in return for favourable tariff terms. He was the political child in the corner, whimpering, ‘Please don’t hurt us.’ The good old political quid pro quo, which is the currency in which Trump operates. Nothing is more important to Trump than the visual narrative. He knows that this is a top-tier made-for-TV moment, and frankly, nobody does pomp and ceremony better than the British. We have centuries of experience. For Trump, this is a golden ticket media moment, which he will use for decades to enrich himself. Keir Starmer, I am sure, has convinced himself that this means nothing, it’s just a means to an end, a purely transactional move.
To me, this is the day Britain sold her soul for 30 pieces of silver in service of a monster who would conspire against our economy in the blink of an eye if he would profit from it. If I were Keir Starmer, I would at the very least seat Prince Andrew next to him, along with Peter Mandelson, so that they could all reminisce about the good old days with Epstein and the children that were preyed upon.
In the cold light of day, this is about diplomacy and the protection of British interests. Hence, to some degree, this makes sense, not least because in a strange twist of irony, the UK economy is struggling as a direct result of Trump’s buddy Nigel Farage’s Brexit con in 2016, for which Trump heaped praise on him back then. Brexit has to date cost the UK economy at least £900 billion, that’s almost a trillion pounds in less than a decade, so please spare me the lecture that isolationism pays. It does not, and every British citizen is now paying the price, only to invite the poster boy for that decision for a free meal.
Right-wing economics simply do not work; that’s why 11 out of the last 12 recessions in the US have been under Republican presidents. Trickle-down economics is just a fallacy. Poorly performing economies and significant wealth disparities spark public discontent, providing fertile ground for the propagation of hard-right politics. This is precisely what we have seen here. The right in this country, in the form of Reform UK, has linked up with MAGA in the US to cause deep division in the UK. Social media and actors like Elon Musk and Steve Bannon are lighting the fire of racial hatred, and it is taking hold in the UK.
This is a fight we must fight together because if we don’t, we will all drown in a sea of fascist ideology, which will be the economic death knell for us all. After all, the likes of Trump and Farage could not give a damn about the well-being of our respective citizens; they simply want to sell anyone not in their elite club into economic slavery, and they are prepared to burn down the house to achieve it.
We are living in a moment where autocrats are on the march, and Britain is no exception. The rise of populism across Europe is becoming an increasing threat, being cheered on by Elon Musk in particular. The oligarchs believe that they are on the edge of creating a new world order, and we are all that stands between them and that aim. The genuine concern is that liberal values are being sacrificed by those we have long depended to defend us from tyranny in search of when they believe to be an electorate leaning ever more to the right. In my opinion, this is a colossal miscalculation that will consign representative democracy to the history books.
We must do better because our children and grandchildren deserve much better from us.
SHAME on Charles entertaining a fascist American Hitler/PEDO 😡😡😡😡
King Charles should be ashamed to have this Pedo , His own Brother Andrew was pulled from Royal duties by his own Mother the Late Queen Elizabeth for having been friends with Epstein and the UK for kissing his Ass. Lost all Respect for you Charles your Mother wouldn't be Proud of you.