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La La Land Looms?

La La Land Looms?

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At the Inauguration in around a week a convicted criminal will start making America great again. That’s what Donald Trump tells us, though what he’ll do for the rest of the world remains to be seen. Certainly, as our Political Correspondent Peter Spencer reports, here in Britain it’s unlikely he’ll be spreading a lot of new year cheer.

Our government’s suddenly having to shell out even more to borrow the money it needs than when Liz Truss – Britain’s shortest serving Prime Minister ever – did her bit to crash the economy.

Upshot being our mortgages and other loans could well be costing more, sooner rather than later. Happy days, not.

Of course this is in part thanks to the not particularly adept behaviour of the new, Labour, team. Too much doom and gloom in its messaging, and discouraging businesses by taxing them more.

But, and this is the huge but, most credible analysts point to the looming new presidency in the US of A, specifically The Donald’s threat to charge exporters more to sell them stuff.

America is our biggest trading partner, and if British companies are squeezed they might be tempted to try and make up the shortfall by pushing up prices here at at home.

Perhaps more to the point, these extra costs will make imported goods more expensive in high streets across The Pond, thus fuelling inflation there.

And if the US economy wobbles it takes other western nations, including us, with it.

Then there’s the small matter of defence spending. The Donald’s threatening to pull the plug on NATO if European nations don’t up their budgets to five per cent.

That’s double what we’re aiming for here. And would cost us an extra fifty billion or so a year. Not exactly small change.

Of course, he could cut us some slack, as we Limeys have always enjoyed a special relationship with the Yanks. If for no other reason in recent decades because we were a handy in on the European Union.

Now that we’re out, however, we’re not as useful as we were. Also, for all his Scottish roots on his mother’s side, Trump is first and foremost Mr Transactional.

Then there’s the intriguing, in many ways disturbing and unquestionably baffling forays into British politics by his billionaire bestie Elon Musk.

The Tesla and X boss is reported by the Financial Times, which is not noted for kite-flying, to have been trying to figure out ways of getting our Prime Minister ousted.

Plus there’s his out-of-nowhere resurrection of the hideous scandal of fifteen years or so ago concerning gangs of predominantly Pakistani heritage men systematically violating white women and girls.

What they did was grotesque. Most of their victims will never recover from the trauma. But Musk’s demand for a national probe at this stage seems odd.

Not least because since this savagery came to light there’s been, among other investigations, a hundred-million-pound inquiry into it all led by the eminent child welfare expert Professor Alexis Jay.

Keir Starmer, who was at the time Director of Public Prosecutions, made good and sure many of the evil perpetrators faced the justice they deserved.

The then Tory government, by contrast, did precious little to implement Prof Jay’s recommendations. Leaving it to the current crop of ministers to play catch-up.

Not that that’s in any way discouraged the new Conservative leader from grabbing at Musk’s coat-tails, same as the insurgent Reform Party.

Its leader, Nigel Farage, had been particularly happy to oblige as he’d been licking his lips at the thought of a huge donation from the world’s richest man.

Turns out Musk is also one of the world’s most unpredictable men. As he abruptly turned on his close buddy Nige, and announced he was totally rubbish really.

It’s also worth quoting some of Musk’s other musings of the last week or so.

Starmer, he suggests, is ‘complicit in the rape of Britain’. And the Safeguarding Minister Jess Philips is ‘a witch’ who should be locked up, because she’s a ‘rape genocide apologist’.

In point of fact she’s a domestic violence campaigner, who devoted her pre-politics career to fighting for victims. Little wonder that she’s feeling like one herself now, given the barrage of abuse she’s faced.

Of course if Musk didn’t have the heft that he has he’d just be the sort of grubby, grumbling, muttering sort of bloke you cross the street to avoid.

But there it is, he has. Best hope is that come the January 20th Inauguration when he takes up his efficiency czar’s job in the new administration he might be too busy to worry about us.

Moderate minded folk in Germany might also be crossing their fingers, given the man’s full-throated endorsement of the extreme right wing anti-immigrant party AfD.

Musk maintains they’re the only sensible show in town, even though some of their leaders have been up before the courts for repeating Nazi slogans.

Loose talk everywhere then, though we’ll have to wait until the new man steps into The White House to find out which is the monkey and which is the organ grinder.

On some fronts, certainly, they’re both as innovative/novel/inspired/totally crazy (delete where applicable) as one another.

On the back of multiple lives lost in the unprecedented devastation afflicting swathes of California, The Donald’s blamed political rivals, suggesting they haven’t provided enough water to put the fires out.

The fact that last year was the hottest on record, and targets aimed at curbing the climate crisis have been missed, aren’t it, as far as he’s concerned. Drill, baby, drill, remains his mantra.

He’s also minded to get his hands on Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada, by dint of bullying, economic coercion or even violence if needs be.

Where next? Judging by Musk’s inflamed interest in UK politics you can’t help but wonder.

After all, he recently tweeted a poll asking whether people agreed with him that: ‘America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.’

Half makes you wonder whether the authoress Daphne Du Maurier’s final novel Rule Britannia, published half a century ago, might have been onto something.

Set in an imagined near future, the book depicts a Britain, on its financial uppers following its departure from the then precursor to the European Union, teaming up with the USA.

The new government of the new nation, to be called USUK, then declares a state of emergency, sets up roadblocks and cuts communications.

Which makes the American soldiers knocking around the place look to the locals more like enemy invaders than invited friends.

Yes, yes, it’s all made up. And as Miss Prism so wisely announced in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of being Earnest: ‘The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.’

Of course it was a joke. Anyone worth their salt playing the part smirks, winks or does the nose-tapping routine on the word ‘fiction’.

Then again, you can’t help but wonder how the Trump fantasies will fare in the real world.

On the potential plus side he’s already working on a peace-making summit with Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

But as the days melt away before his rhetorical bark comes up against geopolitical bite, schedule slippage is creeping in.

Remember how he was going to sort it in twenty-four hours? Somehow or other that’s stretched to, well, within six months.

We await developments …

Watch Peter’s report at peterspencer.org


Peter Spencer has 40 years experience as a Political Correspondent in Westminster, working with London Broadcasting and Sky News. For more of his fascinating musings on the turbulent political landscape, follow him on Facebook & Twitter.

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