Introduction: what I am proposing here is radical and obviously impractical but it’s what I want to see. I want to see Britain stand up with a high level of self esteem. I want Britain to be courageous and to make bold statements. That’s what Trump is doing and it’s something for which you have to praise him. Below the article are some updates
Before Donald Trump imposed tariffs on the rest of the world, Sir Kier Starmer bent the knee towards his Highness, Donald Trump, in the Oval Office, and handed to him an invitation from the King to visit Britain on a royal visit. Everything has changed since those fawning moments when Britain’s Prime Minister demeaned himself in front of the world to try and convince Donald Trump to not impose tariffs on Britain.
It didn’t work and as mentioned everything has changed. Trump’s planned royal visit to Britain in September should be dropped by the King. Trump should be barred from the Houses of Parliament as demanded by MPs and peers – as reported in The Times today.
These campaigning British MPs and peers have accused don’t Trump of being a liar who has disrespected Britain. Trump has also harmed Britain economically. And many would suggest he has harmed America economically through his tariffs.
It was planned that Trump would give a speech in Westminster as Barack Obama did in 2011. This is now questionable. The MPs claim that Trump is not acting in good faith towards Britain due to the tariffs levelled on all British imports into America particularly aluminium, steel and cars with the threat of more to follow on pharmaceuticals.
For my part, I would like to ban Trump from visiting Britain in general because of the harm he has done. He has destroyed the relationship between Britain and America. You can’t have that friendly relationship when one partner is harming the other. It signals bad intention. It signals a lack of genuine desire to be in partnership and thereby support the so-called special relationship which does not seem special any more.
The UK is getting no preferences from America due to the so-called special relationship. It’s over in my view and we should treat America as America is treating us in a hard commercial way without favour or fear and without any niceties. Britain is too soft. We are two genteel. We need to address Donald Trump in the way he addresses us which is without respect. He does not deserve respect. Britain needs to change its attitude in a rapidly changing world.
Donald Trump professes to love the UK but I’m afraid that he is fooling himself.
When – as he has done – you levy tariffs across the world on imports to America you erode trust between trading partners at an international level. The UK can no longer rely upon America as we have done in, for example, the production of munitions. Or the partnership with respect to fighter jets.
And if UK can no longer trust America then the UK must become more resilient and self-reliant which is what is starting to happen. For example, it’s also reported that the UK will boost munitions and loosen its dependence on the US. This will harm the US in terms of trade.
When you reduce international trade to hard commercial terms as Donald Trump has done you erode trust and without trust there is less trade and with less trade there is less money coming into America. He didn’t factor this in. He is relying solely on tariffs to increase taxes on other countries and reduce income tax on Americans but this is grossly oversimplify economics.
Donald Trump does tend to play conkers internationally when international trade is 3D chess. I’m afraid that he is not intelligent enough to realise that when you impose severe tariffs (much higher than expected) as he has you break the nuances of international trade and there are consequences. In his case unforeseen and unmanaged consequences.
The result will probably be a shrinking of the American economy in time rather than the opposite as desired by Donald Trump which is to expand and make America great again. His behaviour will diminish America. Other countries will learn to distrust America which will break partnerships.
It’s reported that Britain will dramatically increase its ability to produce explosives. Britain is full of entrepreneurs and great scientists able to develop new ideas, new innovations. Often these scientists sell out their ideas to others in other countries to scale up these innovations and to make vast sums of money. This is very bad thinking.
It’s time that Britain developed its own ideas and then scale them up to create wealth in the country. We should not be selling out the cream of our scientific innovations to foreigners. This hollows out the British economy.
And here we have a different attitude along the lines of self-reliance. BAE Systems, UK defence company is looking to build three new sites to add UK resilience to the production of RDX explosives used in 155 mm rounds and British Army guns and other weapons. This is going to be a 16-fold expansion over two years to meet demand fuelled by the Ukraine war. And they plan to use a novel system to create the explosives and sell the tech internationally. Absolutely correct. Great.
We can thank Donald Trump for this change in attitude and of course Putin for invading Ukraine. It’s changed world dynamics and I think we can see a silver lining spin-off here which is that Britain now believes it must be more self-reliant; stand on its own 2 feet and start being tougher with itself and with America.
Britain can also trade with other international partners with beneficial trading agreements and shun America. To return to the title. We need to ban Trump from Britain both in terms of his proposed speech in Parliament and his Royal visit.
It’s impossible to justify a Royal visit and all that fawning and pomp and ceremony under the current circumstances. To do so would demean Britain. It would signal that we are weak and in this modern age we must announce to the world that we are strong.
More: Trump
Updates: it is now reported that members of Parliament and peers in the UK have launched a campaign to block President Trump from addressing Parliament. They accuse him of being a liar who has disrespected Britain. And if a so-called partner disrespects the other than it is time to abandon that partner. Break the link. This cannot be a beneficial partnership if there is a lack of respect on one side.
It is also reported that there have been numerous instances of harsh border controls concerning foreigners travelling to America. Totally unfair border controls in which numerous people have been turned away and sent back home; failing to enter America because of overzealous and frankly nasty border control officers.
The most notorious example concerns a man whose name is Fabian Schmidt, 34, an electrical engineer who had legally lived in the US for the past 18 years according to The Times report. He was allegedly “violently interrogated”, stripped naked and put in a cold shower at Boston airport after returning to the country from Luxembourg. It’s reported that he was pressured to surrender his green card and his treatment was so bad that the had to be admitted to hospital. The US Port authority dismissed the claims as “patently false”. There are other examples.
It’s got so bad that the German Foreign Ministry has tightened its travel advice warning that simply possessing the right documents will not guarantee entry into America and that even minor infractions such as overstaying a visa by a single day can lead to expulsion from the country.
In line with American’s attitude towards people entering their country, I would like to give Donald Trump the same medicine and turn him around and say no thank you, don’t enter this country. We don’t want you. He is an effing nuisance to the world, arrogant and disrespectful of Europe which he apparently hates and also disrespectful of Great Britain.
