‘Not using pigeons this time’ - How the UK is preparing to negotiate the Trump presidency
US foreign policy and how it aligned with the UK domestic policy was always going to be a major point of contention for the Labour government if Donald Trump were to be elected.
Elements of some of the many concerns that may arise during this uncertain period of transition were spoken about in my previous piece:
‘When America sneezes…’ - What Trump’s victory could mean for the UK and how UK's Labour government can learn much from it
It's ironic that when the UK woke up to the news that Donald Trump had won the US presidency election, it coincided with National Stress Awareness Day.
Much of the uncertainty can be gauged through posturing and manoeuvres.
For the last several months, this page has been wondering if to criticise Starmer or not on the number of overseas trips he has made.
It used to be the case that when the Conservatives were in power, any trip made by any post-2019 Prime Minister (Sunak or Johnson) was immediately met with criticism usually as a result of absenteeism in the face of national emergency.
I don’t mention Truss because fortunately she didn’t spend long enough as Prime Minister to enjoy too many overseas trips during her limited and specific time in office, bar for two to the UN in September 2022 and another to Prague less than a month later.
Truss never went to Benidorm as the country became a Mad Max scene of fights developing over the last drop of petrol at your nearest little Tesco petrol forecourt, however. She also never went to California as the country fell deeper and deeper into a cost-of-living crisis.
It’s one of the few positive things about Truss, in fact, that at least she had the bravery (or stupidity) to stand firm, shoulder to shoulder, with fellow Britons in her the face of her own incompetence.
Starmer, on the other hand, has been extremely busy on overseas trips - he appears to have prioritised them, in fact. And the question is: why?