SIR KEIR Starmer is realigning the global axis of power with potentially disastrous consequences right in front of our eyes.
We have all heard of the ‘special relationship’ between the United Kingdom and the United States, and with an epoch-defining return to the White House of Donald Trump accompanied by the geopolitical crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, Starmer looks set to put the UK and the US on a collision course of benefit to no-one.
Donald Trump has been strident in his belief that ending war in Ukraine and the Middle East is of the utmost importance to not just global peace but also global economic security. Despite this, Starmer in recent weeks appears to be doing all in his insignificant power to align himself with those seeking to extend war and those actively seeking to bring down western democracy.
Armistice Day saw Starmer join the French President, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris, becoming the first PM since the Second World War to attend the French armistice ceremony. The move demonstrated Starmer’s commitment to the European Union, an institution he may have forgotten we are no longer a part of, and a political institution that by increased funding has shown a desire to prolong the war in Ukraine.
Britain became for the first time directly involved in the Ukraine war after the go-ahead for the firing of UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Russia, a move that does nothing to support any kind of peace process in the region.
It is not, however, just alignment with the European Union over Ukraine that is of grave concern. Starmer decided to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping during the recent G20 summit in Rio. Under the pretext of strengthening Anglo-Chinese relations, which had become frosty to say the least, Starmer’s decision to engage with the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and close economic, military and political ally of Vladimir Putin sends a clear message to the world.
In an almost laughable turn of events, the communist leader even praised the economic policy of Starmer and his party – perhaps not the fiscal endorsement the Prime Minister had hoped for barely six months into his time in Number 10.
It is not an original analysis to highlight that global geopolitical tensions are reaching a dangerous and potentially catastrophic juncture. Despite not even being in office, Donald Trump is doing more to end wars and build bridges than the Prime Minister of the UK. In fact the latter appears to be doing much to escalate tensions at a time when de-escalation is the only sane option.
Well, despite the right-royal mistakes he is making with foreign affairs, wouldn’t it be safe to assume that at least Starmer has been making progress on the domestic front? Sadly, no.
Only this week, the Prime Minister set out his ‘plan for change’, something you’d have perhaps expected to be well under way by this point in his premiership. Not surprisingly, his speech was less of a ‘plan for change’ than an ‘emergency broadcast to the nation’ to distract the public from what a useless job he and his cabinet have been doing.
Be it in the matter of education, house building or the police, anything announced by Starmer now falls mostly on deaf ears. He will be judged by his record, and his record is already one of failure and disappointment.
Whether in his handling of foreign or domestic affairs, the Prime Minister seems to be neither up to the job nor acting in the public interest. The three-million signatures to a certain recent petition might tell you this is a widely held opinion among voters too.
