Starmer's Juggling Act

by Rab Bruce’s Spider

 

Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot

BlueSky: @RabBrucesSpider.Bsky.Social

 

Readers of this site will know that I am no fan of Keir Starmer. He is, in my opinion, a very right wing ultra-Unionist who despises Scotland except for what he can wring out of our country for the benefit of England. When it comes to democracy, he will always have a complete blind spot regarding Scotland’s right to self-determination because, like every other UK Prime Minister, he knows how much England relies on Scotland’s resources which they can currently take without payment. When you add to that the long list of broken promises and the number of U-turns he has done, it is very easy to regard him as little more than a puppet for moneyed interests.

 

Having said all that, I must give credit where it is due and say that, at time of writing, he is doing an excellent job on the world stage. Of course, international politics being the way they are, this situation may well have changed by the time I actually publish this piece, but Starmer does seem to be doing a good job of keeping his options open and acting as a real leader should in terms of trying to build an alliance which will support Ukraine while still keeping the USA relatively friendly.

 

Whether his attempts will be successful is another matter entirely. Even his proposed coalition and peace plan seem to rely on US support, and he has publicly claimed that the US is still a reliable ally. I am hoping that was a comment for the media and for Donald Trump, because the rest of the world seems to regard the US as anything but a reliable ally. In fact, the country the USA seems to regard as an ally is Russia, as evidenced by their recent vote in the United Nations and the truly appalling treatment Donald Trump meted out to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Sooner or later, I think Keir Starmer is going to have to face the fact that the USA is not an ally at all. At the moment, he is treading a very fine line as he tries to keep Trump onside while supporting Ukraine against Russia’s aggression. The one thing going for him is that Trump has the psychology of a child and is impressed by shiny things, so offering him an unprecedented second state visit to the UK was probably a smart move. Of course, many in the UK think this offer should now be withdrawn, but I suspect it will stay on the table for a while yet, and will be used as part of negotiations with the orange dictator. Much as I detest the man, withdrawing the invitation now will only make matters worse because Trump will see it as a personal insult. It would be exactly that, but we all know that Trump can harbour a grudge for a long time.

 

So I wish Keir Starmer well in his juggling act. He actually seems to be a lot better at international diplomacy than he is at domestic politics where his ineptitude has seen Labour slump in the polls. And when you consider that his main rival is the Putin-supporting Farage, that tells you just how bad his performance has been.

 

As for Scotland, we are once again relegated to the position of helpless bystanders who will be dragged into whatever outcome Starmer’s diplomacy produces. So let us hope, for the sake of Europe, that he gets it right. 

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