Best Of

An unremarked point in all this is that the UK has got this premier role in global politics at the moment because of Brexit. The UK sitting outside the EU is allowing for the EU to be sidelined in all of this. Were we still EU members and all other things being equal, there would be absolutely huge pressure on the PM and Macron to coordinate everything through some EU based response which would make it all watered down and worthless. By virtue of not being in the EU the UK has allowed France to also sidestep needing to corral 27 countries into a unified response. As it stands the UK is working directly with France as the other recognised European nuclear abs military power and there's no pressure on either party to consult with Von der Layen and all of the other useless EU commissioners.

Not only is this a tangible Brexit benefit, it's actually a very substantial one. The landscape would be totally different inside the EU and I think significantly more difficult to Trump back in the room.

More importantly, who was the great hairy twat of a journalist that queried Zelensky's attire?

"Why aren't you wearing a suit"?

I mean, really? Really? Zelensky is a war leader, they often wear combats and the like to express that status, and fair play, it's not like Zelensky is lying. He was in Kyiv as the bombs fell and as the Russians tried to hunt him down and kill him

It's that ignorant and insulting question that introduces the first discordant note and changes the mood, and you can see how it riles Zelensky (and I don't blame him) - he mentions it several times later (before the Goodfellas out-take)

Suits are stupid anyway. Expensive, high maintenance, usually uncomfortable and not even particularly pleasing aethestically. I've never understood the rule that says the more impractical your clothes, the better the work you do or the more respect you show people you meet.

And as for ties, if they didn't exist, what madman would think of inventing them?

On this, as on much else, I stand with Zelensky and Ukraine.

Starmer is all in.

No way to back out of this now.

He'll have to resign if he ends up somehow having to dump Zelensky for Trump's Putinist USA.

These are the highest of stakes a PM gets to play.



UK Prime Minister
@10DowningStreet

The UK will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

https://x.com/10DowningStreet/status/1895950498576154630

I am going to stick my neck out and say that he will honour his pledge. I don't like Starmer or his politics but I think he has a brain and he also has a moral code. I am going to do something very rare and trust him to be doing the right thing for the right reasons.

Of course on all other matters my normal cynicism is maintained but in this instance I think he is genuine.

An unremarked point in all this is that the UK has got this premier role in global politics at the moment because of Brexit. The UK sitting outside the EU is allowing for the EU to be sidelined in all of this. Were we still EU members and all other things being equal, there would be absolutely huge pressure on the PM and Macron to coordinate everything through some EU based response which would make it all watered down and worthless. By virtue of not being in the EU the UK has allowed France to also sidestep needing to corral 27 countries into a unified response. As it stands the UK is working directly with France as the other recognised European nuclear abs military power and there's no pressure on either party to consult with Von der Layen and all of the other useless EU commissioners.

Not only is this a tangible Brexit benefit, it's actually a very substantial one. The landscape would be totally different inside the EU and I think significantly more difficult to Trump back in the room.

I've agreed with most of your comments over the last few days. But I don't believe for a moment that Macron (or Starmer, for that matter) would have behaved any differently if the UK were still in the EU. Since 1973, there have been a multitude of instances where Britain and France have taken foreign policy stances independently of any collective view of the EU.