No one knows where US politics is heading, or what a Trump-Vance presidency would actually do. But Europe is in a far better place to confront any challenges than seemed possible early this year
Britain has now decisively repudiated populism. Really? Not so sure, tbh. The FPTP parliamentary electoral system means we are protected from it but the Brexit vote in 2016 and 14% of voters voted reform (more than the Lib Dems) this time indicate it is still with us and will be marking Labour's homework for the next 5 years.
Refreshingly positive piece thank you. Just a couple of points - you will know better than me but I worry that Trump just doesn’t care about “losing Eastern Europe”. It’s not American. He’s more likely to try and chisel favours out of Putin in return for giving him free rein.
Second, though it’s great that Labour is back in power the breakdown of votes actually showed a rightward shift since the last election. Conservatives voters largely moved right to Reform or stayed home. Labours votes actually dropped slightly since the last election (and of course Labour itself has moved right). Libdem votes stayed about the same. Left leaning SNP dropped. Only the Greens increased vote numbers (on a small scale) due to disaffected Labour voters switching to them. Overall though we moved right, but Labour and Libdems voted tactically to get the Tories out.
You say that Britain "has now decisively repudiated right-wing populism". Could you explain what you mean? For instance the Conservative government was centro-leftist on most axes, including social policy. And considerable swathes of the population voted for Reform and the FPTP system failed to reward them. Closer targeting of the seats where they came second to Labour this time could easily give them a majority next time.
I do hope you are right about the USA Simon. I also fervent hope Starmer can get us back in the EEA single market (perhaps by ‘levelling up’ the rest of the UK to the Northern Ireland trade deal- melting away the ‘border’ in the Irish Sea).
From your lips to God's ears, as the Spanish like to say. Agree that the U.S. election is still a toss-up, but that is too close for comfort. If the Democrats come through with a new, younger face, I think he/she would prevail. Worked for Clinton and Obama.
In the UK, now that the passion has started to abate, I think successive governments will rebuild the relationship bit by bit, adding pieces as they go, getting us to "Norway-plus" in 10 years or so.
Britain has now decisively repudiated populism. Really? Not so sure, tbh. The FPTP parliamentary electoral system means we are protected from it but the Brexit vote in 2016 and 14% of voters voted reform (more than the Lib Dems) this time indicate it is still with us and will be marking Labour's homework for the next 5 years.
Refreshingly positive piece thank you. Just a couple of points - you will know better than me but I worry that Trump just doesn’t care about “losing Eastern Europe”. It’s not American. He’s more likely to try and chisel favours out of Putin in return for giving him free rein.
Second, though it’s great that Labour is back in power the breakdown of votes actually showed a rightward shift since the last election. Conservatives voters largely moved right to Reform or stayed home. Labours votes actually dropped slightly since the last election (and of course Labour itself has moved right). Libdem votes stayed about the same. Left leaning SNP dropped. Only the Greens increased vote numbers (on a small scale) due to disaffected Labour voters switching to them. Overall though we moved right, but Labour and Libdems voted tactically to get the Tories out.
You say that Britain "has now decisively repudiated right-wing populism". Could you explain what you mean? For instance the Conservative government was centro-leftist on most axes, including social policy. And considerable swathes of the population voted for Reform and the FPTP system failed to reward them. Closer targeting of the seats where they came second to Labour this time could easily give them a majority next time.
I do hope you are right about the USA Simon. I also fervent hope Starmer can get us back in the EEA single market (perhaps by ‘levelling up’ the rest of the UK to the Northern Ireland trade deal- melting away the ‘border’ in the Irish Sea).
From your lips to God's ears, as the Spanish like to say. Agree that the U.S. election is still a toss-up, but that is too close for comfort. If the Democrats come through with a new, younger face, I think he/she would prevail. Worked for Clinton and Obama.
In the UK, now that the passion has started to abate, I think successive governments will rebuild the relationship bit by bit, adding pieces as they go, getting us to "Norway-plus" in 10 years or so.