The madness of King Donald

According to the old proverb, when you sup with the devil you should use a long spoon.

This needn't, however, deter Keir Starmer from visiting Xi Jinping in China later this month, perhaps just make him a tad more cautious when he does so. Because the fact is, unpalatable as it may be, that we now need to bolster our ties with China if we are to have a hope in hell of countering the much greater danger presented by a madman in the White House. The fortuitous, if controversial, decision to green-light the new Chinese mega-embassy at Royal Mint Court near the Tower of London can only help to ensure Starmer receives a warmer reception in Beijing than might otherwise have been the case when he makes the first visit of a British Prime Minister since 2018.

This is timely indeed as, having just listened to the entire rambling address of Donald Trump to the assembled delegates of the World Economic Forum in Davos, I have grave concerns for the future of the world while Trump remains in power. I have always maintained that the UK's cold-shouldering of China has been a huge political and diplomatic error and a terrible own goal, leaving the door wide open for precisely the sort of arrogant, deluded posturing we have seen from Trump. Sure, China reneged on all its promises to us in relation to Hong Kong democracy, sure their human rights record stinks to high heaven, but are they going to change that simply because we snub them? Of course not! We need to be in the room talking to them at every given opportunity and the opportunity now presented by Trump's psychotic state (it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good I suppose) is one we need to seize as a godsend.

Mark Carney, Canada's estimable Prime Minister, has realised this and been warmly welcomed in Beijing, much to the chagrin of the righwing press and media who are issuing dire warnings that he and his country will live to regret it. Regret it as much as living next door to an unfettered maniac like Donald Trump, a man who has threatened to annex Canada and now its neighbour, Greenland? I somehow doubt it.

There was a suggestion that Starmer might dodge PMQs today (something he is usually quite keen to do) to fly to Davos but he decided, or was persuaded, that risking being snubbed by Trump the day after he had called out Starmer's position on the Chagos Islands, which he had previously supported, as "an act of great stupidity", would be unwise. After listening to Trump's jaw-droppingly dreadful speech, bad even by his usual standards, he must be quite relieved to leave the response to his European colleagues at the drinks reception.

Trump, being Trump, delighted in mentioning the elephant in the room, Greenland. Unfortunately for him, on several occasions, he referred to it as Iceland, going on to lambast "sleepy Joe" Biden, apparently unaware that he had just experienced the very same sort of cognitive episode, or 'brain fog', he had so cruelly accused Biden of being prone to during the election campaign. I think after this astonishing performance JD Vance and the Cabinet, or Congress, should seriously consider invoking Section 4 of the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to remove Trump from office due to mental incapacity.

Ironically in its Semiquincentennial year, the USA apparently finds itself in urgent need of its own Regency.



  

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