The historic defeat of Orban in Hungary can be the catalyst to unravel the corruption, nepotism and subservience to Putin’s Russia that characterises hard Right political populism in Western democracies. Trump, the AfD, French RN and Reform UK must be exposed likewise and defeated at the ballot box.
It’s great to witness the resounding defeat of Orban’s corrupt and pro-Kremlin/anti-Ukraine authoritarian regime in Hungary. We must all work hard now to see this result repeated here and in other Western democracies under threat from Reform UK, the AfD, French RN and the horrible US Republicans.
The silence of our govt and other mainstream British politicians in response to Trump’s insane and genocidal threats to Iran is deafening. How can we normalise it? Political cowardice is the hallmark of this age. Our ancestors who fought and died to defeat fascism must be turning in their graves.
Support for the re-election of Orban’s corrupt, racist and pro-Russian govt in Hungary reveals the true fault lines of our new geopolitics. Putin, Trump and Netanyahu on one side- anti-liberal democracy- and UK, EU and Canada on the other, supporting it. Most likely to be the shape of our next era.
Watching members of the Trump administration try to ignore or absolve the Kremlin’s malign involvement in the Iran war is quite something. Russian military advisors are on the ground there providing targeting data against US forces and Russian components feature in both Iran’s missiles and drones.
It’s worrying to see how quick many people are, including in politics and media who should know better, to dismiss the lessons from Iraq when advocating deeper UK involvement in the US/Israel-Iran war. Whilst they score cheap political points, history threatens to repeat itself as tragedy or farce.
The levels of sheer ignorance, blundering and schoolboy immaturity displayed by Trump, Hegseth et al in relation to their perverse war of choice against Iran have no parallel in modern history. They were clearly manipulated and pushed into this conflict by Netanyahu who will be its only beneficiary.
The lack of senior USG representation at yesterday’s Ukraine war 4th anniversary commemoration event in Kyiv is both disgraceful and telling. Trump and his acolytes regard themselves as at best neutral in the struggle between a fledging democracy defending its sovereignty and an autocratic invader.
In agreeing plans for a new Chinese mega-embassy, our govt has prioritised economic expediency over national security, its primary duty. Whilst some sinologists doubt this was the right hill to fight on, the decision displays weakness and will lead to increased Chinese espionage in UK and Europe.
By overriding clear evidence of recently-increased Chinese espionage and transnational repression in the UK in its intended decision to approve the new Chinese ‘mega embassy’ in London, our government is shirking its first and foremost responsibility, to defend and protect the country. Just say no.
It’s imperative the BBC fights Trump’s libel lawsuit in Florida and does not succumb to his bullying and settle out of court. Trump’s aim is to cow the media by abusing the US legal and regulatory systems to strangulate justified negative coverage of his unhinged presidency. This has to be stopped.
Trump’s new National Security Strategy lays bare the US we must now engage with- a nationalist state, uninterested in promoting democracy, human rights or the RoL. Quite the breach with the country we’ve known/worked with for decades. But do the American people really support this? We must hope not.
The Western world’s geosecurity system, founded on NATO, Five Eyes and other institutions proven effective over decades, is likely now doomed under Trump. The conduct of an amoral and mercantilist US foreign/security policy by his unelected cronies Witkoff and Kushner is incompatible with democracy.
It’s disgraceful but also revealing to see how the hard Right in Britain, especially conservative newspapers and TV stations, are using the BBC Panorama debacle to normalise Trump. Trump is a convicted criminal and if not president, would now be facing gaol time for his role in the January 6th riot.
The idea that China is only a ‘challenge’ rather than an adversary of the UK is ridiculous. Not only has the MI5 DG said there is evidence of increasing Chinese espionage ops in Britain, but Beijing has bounties in place for the capture of various Hong Kong dissidents granted political asylum here.
We are living through truly strange times. Whilst our government fawns around an ignorant and narcissistic US president, normalising his misconduct and pretending he’s a reliable ally, Trump is trying to sell out Ukraine to Putin and limit the rule of law and suppress freedom of speech in America.
Putin was clearly better prepared than Trump and so could deploy his case against an immediate ceasefire and on the allegedly malign (pro-war) intent of Zelensky and the Europeans without much pushback. Whether (dubious) new US business opportunities in Russia or kompromat also featured is unclear.
Whilst we wish European leaders well in travelling to DC today to support Ukraine, we mustn’t allow what happened in Alaska to be normalised. Trump deferred to Putin there, an indicted war criminal directly responsible for several hundred thousand deaths in Ukraine. As a result we are all less safe.
The Russians are apparently untroubled by Trump’s newfound willingness to say rude things about them and are confident he shares their objectives of freezing the Ukraine conflict and resetting bilateral relations. They also think that he too sees the Europeans as the main obstacle to this agenda.
Concerning any possible Trump-Putin ‘deal’ in Alaska to end the Ukraine war, it is vital to remember Putin has abrogated every agreement Moscow signed with Kyiv since independence in 1992-the Budapest Memo(1994) and the Friendship(1997) and Border(2003) Treaties. Leopards don’t change their spots.
Ukrainians should be worried about the latest Trump-Russia shenanigans. Most likely for multiple reasons, all bad, a battlefield- and economically-weakened Putin is being allowed to negotiate as if from a position of strength. This US diplomatic aberration needs to be countered by European leaders.
Trump’s fear of the Epstein files and the utter nonsense he is talking about the Russia investigation to divert attention from them, are quite something. Wray and Comey as ‘Democrat conspirators’, our 2016 Russia ‘Dossier’ as fake, despite his repeated failure in court to sue us over it. What next?!
Gabbard, Patel and Hegseth - “the unholy trinity of utterly unqualified nominees, people put up for their jobs primarily because Trump and his advisers knew that they would be completely pliant and obsequious…and that Senate Republicans would have to bend their collective knee by confirming them.”
Team Trump’s undermining of the integrity of the US intelligence community continues apace. Their attempt to cast doubt on the ICA’s 2016 judgement, that Russia interfered in the election to support Trump, is both wrong and dangerous. And it will cause lasting damage to the reputation of the USG.
Trump’s public prevarication over the US’s commitment to mutual defence of NATO allies under Article V is very troubling, and doubtless has been noted by Putin and Xi. It seriously weakens Western deterrence and however unpalatable, HMG must now build it into our forward planning with other allies.
Trump’s latest pronouncements on military action against Iran are as reckless as they are incoherent. The musings of a 10 year old in the school playground who doesn’t want to be shown up by the smaller kid who’s much tougher than him. It’s incredible just how low the governance of the US has sunk.
It’s instructive to see just how much of a fish out of water Trump was at the G7 with Western allies. In a minority of one on key issues like Ukraine and the ME, Trump refused to sign joint statements and left early. He’s clearly far more comfortable in the company of corrupt despots and autocrats.
Trump’s subservience to Putin and role as apologist-in-chief for Russian atrocities in Ukraine seem to have no limits. This isn’t normal behaviour and can’t be explained by any rational reading of US national interests. It’s high time the western media and other world leaders started calling it out.
It’s frankly incredible anyone believes Putin is interested in ‘peace’ in Ukraine at this point. Actually the only people who do, or pretend to, are Trump and his acolytes. The fact that the government of the world’s sole democratic superpower is living in this fantasy land is deeply disturbing.
Presumably Reform UK’s declared intention to ban non-Union Flags on public buildings they control is at least partly aimed at suppressing overt British support for Ukraine. Farage and his party’s declared admiration for Putin probably underlies this. You have to wonder who’s calling the shots here?