THE White House has been eager to emphasise the rapidity with which Donald Trump has hit the ground running. Four days into the 47th US Presidency, the White House evaluated its first 100 hours as ‘wasting no time delivering on the promises he made to the American people. The President signed more executive orders on his first day in office than any other president in history’. The orders, including those Trump has signed since, reverse many key policies of the former Biden administration and meet various pledges made by Trump over the past four years. The novelty of witnessing such a political contrast in the US has left many in shock, particularly here in Britain.
A recent poll found that the United Kingdom had the highest proportion of ‘never Trumpers’ out of 24 countries, while the governing Labour Party – after 14 years in opposition – have been unable to clarify their position on the current state of our ‘special relationship’. Foreign Secretary David Lammy had a touching change of heart, with a newfound forgiveness for the ‘woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath’, while New Labour’s Prince of Darkness, Lord Mandelson, found a ‘fresh respect’ for Trump after being appointed our chief diplomat to the US.
This confusion – a British brand of Trump Derangement Syndrome – is because here in Britain we have become accustomed to a sense of political stagnation. Since at least 1997, we have ceased to believe the manifesto claims made by our politicians, coming to expect that governments will continue the work of the previous administration. For decades no government has met its immigration targets or housing targets, and this has become the norm. So when confronted by the immediate and unambiguous contrast in ‘vibe’ between the Biden administration and the fortnight-old Trump regime, many in Britain are shocked by the spectacle.
The return of life peer and former TV producer Peter Mandelson to the Foreign Office is a worrying sign that Starmer is following in a tradition set by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who dramatically returned Lord Cameron to the Conservative cabinet. The return of political heavyweights of a bygone era may be an act of nostalgic spectacle rather than of merit, and a nod to the enduring but stagnating political strains in British party politics.
Though Starmer claims to have ‘changed’ the Labour Party, he has essentially reverted to the last politically successful manifestation of the it. Alongside Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s Director of Communications (an unelected post created by the Blair government), Mandelson was an architect of New Labour’s public image and an orchestrator of its public message. These Blairite figures remain haunted by the lasting impression that their forked tongues will illusively obscure their true intentions; a perception that Starmer has been unable to shake. His Majesty’s current Opposition, the Conservative Party, do not provide an ‘authentic’ alternative as would be appropriate to combat the deceptive tactics of Starmer’s Labour. David Cameron notoriously referred to himself as the ‘heir to Blair’ before carrying the Conservatives to successive victories in the 2010 and 2015 General Elections. But, after four successive election victories and five different Prime Ministers, the Conservatives were indistinguishable from New Labour as they stumbled down the path set by Blair.
Brits must see their way out of this suffocating biparty system. Calls for electoral reform were strengthened after the 2024 General Election results when small parties saw huge gains in the popular vote, but did not gain a directly proportionate amount of seats in the Commons. However, the significant vote shift away from the ‘biparty’ in 2024, an increasingly disliked Starmer, the narrow marginality of his party’s victory in 2024, and polls showing Reform’s ascending popularity, may indicate a potentially – dare I say – shocking result in the subsequent General Election.
Brits, like the Americans, must dare to invite change and embrace all the shocks and opportunities of this island’s uncertain future if we hope to move beyond the stasis of recent decades.
