Best Of

Good morning

I do not envy Starmer and did not like his fawning over Trump but he has little choice and I agree with his approach

Anyone thinking Ed Davey 's antagonism to Trump would be helpful is just wanting to kick Trump [ as we all do] but would only have one result in making Trump more extreme

I fear that Trump is not going to back down and his letter to Norway is alarming

He can take devastating action against NATO, Europe and others including hugh tariffs, end US NATO membership, and withdraw support for Ukraine and withdraw his military from Europe

Furthermore, has anyone considered that even if Trump goes others in the US will continue their demand to control Greenland

The fact is Trump has all the cards and Europe is left powerless in a frightening change in security

I wish Starmer well, but I really doubt that he, or indeed anyone, will change Trumps ambition to own Greenland

That's pretty pitiful stuff, Big_G.

And all the existing evidence is that pandering to Trump is completely futile, while standing up to him works... sometimes.

Just listening to the news......

Well this is embarrassing! We need to think about a new Labour leader and Prime Minister. He's a decent man but we need an altogether different approach. We need someone who is saying the things Ed Davey is saying. We're being blown around like a kite in a hurricane. The only Labour figure who has the bottle and the brain is Emily Thornberry. Starmer can be reassigned the job of sorting out the detail of the UK rejoining the EU which must happen as soon as possible and without caveats

(Chris Packham. Very good on Radio 4. Definitely one of the good guys)

Starmer isn't the problem. Streeting or Our Ange would behave no differently. The entire British establishment, with few laudable exceptions like Corbyn and Galloway, can conceive of no other mode of operation than supplicant grovelling before the US.

You watch, King Prince Charles will to go the US for the 250th anniversary, say nothing about Greenland or Canada (of which state he is putatively head) and tongue DJT's hole like the craven weakling he is.

King Charles will do what the Government tells him to do. As the UK constitution requires. The suggestion that grabbing power that isn't his, is an appropriate response to Trump's behaviour, is certainly curious.

“250 years is long enough to run an experiment and I think we can all agree it has failed. Now, about those back taxes….”

Its time that the USA became the 93rd county.

The 15th overseas territory. Limited self government only, in order to avoid the systematic corruption that has become prevalent in recent years.

Good morning

I do not envy Starmer and did not like his fawning over Trump but he has little choice and I agree with his approach

Anyone thinking Ed Davey 's antagonism to Trump would be helpful is just wanting to kick Trump [ as we all do] but would only have one result in making Trump more extreme

I fear that Trump is not going to back down and his letter to Norway is alarming

He can take devastating action against NATO, Europe and others including hugh tariffs, end US NATO membership, and withdraw support for Ukraine and withdraw his military from Europe

Furthermore, has anyone considered that even if Trump goes others in the US will continue their demand to control Greenland

The fact is Trump has all the cards and Europe is left powerless in a frightening change in security

I wish Starmer well, but I really doubt that he, or indeed anyone, will change Trumps ambition to own Greenland

Depends, if the Democrats get in next time they would leave Greenland to Denmark and the people of Greenland.

Even most Republicans only want to buy Greenland, they oppose invading it

You dont know that

Look at the history of US and Greenland, and there is no doubt due to climate change the Artic region is at the front of US, Russia and China interests

The world is changing and US does not need military action to acquire Greenland as we are seeing now

I do know that.

Not a single Democratic Congressman or Senator has said the US needs to take Greenland and 79% of Democrat voters oppose even trying to buy Greenland.

Neither China nor Russia have said they want to acquire Greenland either
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/just-one-five-americans-support-trumps-efforts-acquire-greenland-reutersipsos-2026-01-14/

Just listening to the news......

Well this is embarrassing! We need to think about a new Labour leader and Prime Minister. He's a decent man but we need an altogether different approach. We need someone who is saying the things Ed Davey is saying. We're being blown around like a kite in a hurricane. The only Labour figure who has the bottle and the brain is Emily Thornberry. Starmer can be reassigned the job of sorting out the detail of the UK rejoining the EU which must happen as soon as possible and without caveats

(Chris Packham. Very good on Radio 4. Definitely one of the good guys)

Starmer isn't the problem. Streeting or Our Ange would behave no differently. The entire British establishment, with few laudable exceptions like Corbyn and Galloway, can conceive of no other mode of operation than supplicant grovelling before the US.

You watch, King Prince Charles will to go the US for the 250th anniversary, say nothing about Greenland or Canada (of which state he is putatively head) and tongue DJT's hole like the craven weakling he is.

King Charles will do what the Government tells him to do. As the UK constitution requires. The suggestion that grabbing power that isn't his, is an appropriate response to Trump's behaviour, is certainly curious.

Indeed, though if I were King Charles I don't think I could resist adding a quip to his speech at the 250th anniversary of US Independence 'glad to see that becoming a Republic and removing my 4 times great grandfather as your King has worked out so well for you!'

Shouldn't that be 5 times great? Four times great grandad was this obscure chap:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Edward,_Duke_of_Kent_and_Strathearn

(Unless you don't count Victoria in the order of greatness.)

It's interesting that the Mad King intended his latest batshittery to be private, and somebody at the State department effectively leaked it.

Maybe the Americans will deal with their problem now

‪@alastairmeeks.bsky.social‬

The escape for Republicans, if they choose to take it, is to expressly acknowledge he's ill. They can "celebrate his achievements" if they want to make it more politically acceptable. And they probably need to unite around JD Vance.

It'd be of considerable benefit to them if Melania is on board.

https://bsky.app/profile/alastairmeeks.bsky.social/post/3mcrau22wvk25

He is possibly worse than Trump and doesn’t have the excuse of being mentally ill.

What's everyone else's take on Vance? Mine is that he's a careerist. He might believe things but he doesn't believe them very hard. In the debates he made the best effort he could of not appearing nuts, within the admittedly very restrictive bounds set for him by Trump and the Maga movement, and he clearly knows what "not nuts" looks like. He'd optimize for winning the election, which would mean not invading countries that look larger than they are on the Mercator projection, and only doing tariffs to the extent necessary to intimidate businesspeople.

The British response has to be in the British national interest.

Shouting at Trump would make us feel good, but it wouldn’t make any difference.

Levying our own tariffs or restricting market access would only damage ourselves.

The right answer is to state calmly and clearly our lines on Denmark, refuse to damage ourselves via tariffs (and say so, to make a point); but have a genuine medium term strategy to diverge militarily from the USA, partnering more closely with are reliable allies.

Within all that, leverage this moment to strike a fair and equitable deal with the EU where we coexist and help each other militarily and economically. E.g. Yes we might as well follow most of their manufacturing rules, as the companies will anyway, but we want different animal welfare standards and more GM. Yes we can align our data standards but we take a more liberal view on AI. The common sense stuff close friends ought to be able to agree quickly to give some mutual economic support to each other while Donald has a tantrum.

I've some sympathy with this, but do we keep saying this when Trump says he needs Iceland and Scotland for global security? At some point we have to say no...

He’s welcome to Scotland if he agrees to take Northern Ireland off our hands at the same time….

More seriously we should, of course, keeping saying no on Greenland and leave a “trip wire” deployment in place, but we can do that quietly and avoid the temptation to shout.