GB News invite Trump to ‘invade Britain’

Ever the patriots, GBeebies are calling for Britain to cede its independence to Trump's America.

 

by TLE
2024-11-26 

Patriotic news channel GB News has encouraged president-elect Trump to invade Britain and make the country the 51st state of America as they continue to grapple with life under a progressive left government.

Darren Grimes, who campaigned for Britain to exit the European Union in 2016 in order to regain its independence, now believes life would be better if the country was gobbled up by Trump’s America which lies some 4,000 miles away.

Campaign group Stop Funding Hate posted a clip of the right-wing commentator suggesting that life in the UK has become so unpalatable since Labour was elected in July that he is now passionately anti-independence.

Another clip, posted on a nameless nationalist account on X, noted that the suggestion might sound funny, but it can’t be “any worse than being under Starlin Starmer”, in reference to the former Communist leader.

Patriotic to a fault, this lot, eh!

Britain Faces a Dilemma: Cozy Up to Trump or Reconnect With Europe?

Opinion
Mark Landler and Patricia Cohen
The New York Times
Tuesday - 26 November 2024

When Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain joined President Emmanuel Macron of France in Paris last week to celebrate Armistice Day — the first British leader to do so since Winston Churchill in 1944 — it was a striking illustration of his Labour government’s desire to reset relations with Europe.

But despite the rich symbolism and the palpable warmth between two centrist leaders, the visit was overshadowed by Donald J. Trump’s victory in the American presidential election a week earlier. With his history of antagonism toward the European Union, Mr. Trump’s return complicates Mr. Starmer’s intention to “turn a corner on Brexit” and pursue what he called a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to rebuild ties with the rest of Europe.

What could have been an economically profitable, if politically delicate, bridge-building exercise for Britain’s Labour government now threatens to become more of a binary choice between the E.U. and the United States.

Closer British trade ties with Europe, warn diplomats and people in Mr. Trump’s orbit, could come at the expense of relations with the incoming American president, who is a confirmed Brexiteer and cheered when his last British counterpart, Boris Johnson, picked fights with the EU.

“If the UK re-engages in these political and economic ties with the EU, it makes it less likely that Trump will go for a free-trade agreement with the UK,” said Stephen Moore, a senior economic adviser to the Trump campaign.

“You guys have to decide,” he said in an interview, addressing the British public. “Do you want to be more like Europe or the US?”

For now, British officials reject that as a false choice. Mr. Starmer has balanced his diplomatic outreach to Europe with an assiduous effort to cultivate Mr. Trump. The two met for dinner in Trump Tower in September, during which Mr. Trump told Mr. Starmer, “We are friends,” according to a person who was in the room.

Peter Mandelson, a Labour Party grandee under consideration to be Britain’s next ambassador to Washington, recently said on a Times of London podcast that in the three-way relationship between Britain, Europe and the United States, “We have got to find a way to have our cake and eat it.”

Such an outcome, economists said, could feature advances on two tracks: With Europe, Britain could take more aggressive steps to smooth trade friction, like more closely aligning rules on agriculture, linking carbon tax systems, and allowing greater mobility across borders for young people. With the United States, it could pursue, if not a full-scale free-trade agreement, a partial deal that would cover strategically important areas like the digital economy.

A closer economic relationship with the European Union need not come at the expense of good relations with the United States, said Marley Morris, an associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London.

“They’ll want to do everything they can to try to work collaboratively with Trump,” he said of the Labour government.

Yet even when Britain was more ideologically in sync with the United States during Mr. Johnson’s premiership and Mr. Trump’s first term, the two sides failed to negotiate a trade agreement. This time, Mr. Trump’s trade policy seems more focused on his plan to impose across-the-board tariffs of up to 20 percent on trading partners, including, potentially, the EU and Britain.

In that scenario, diplomats said, Mr. Starmer’s best hope may not be a trade deal but rather targeted exemptions from tariffs.

At one level, far-reaching tariffs by the United States on the European Union “could be an unintentional gift to the UK,” said Abraham L. Newman, a political scientist at Georgetown University. It would put a “lot of pressure on the EU to expand its market,” he said, “and the UK is an obvious opportunity for them.”

Tariffs push “them together in a way that they’ve been pushed apart in the last few years,” Professor Newman added.

But while Britain and the European Union could make common cause in responding to American tariffs, it is equally likely that a new wave of protectionism could divide them, diplomats said, particularly if Britain tried to cut its own deal with Mr. Trump that would exempt it from certain tariffs.

“If the UK did it alone, there would be a price to pay,” said Peter Ricketts, a former British national security adviser. “The US would demand concessions, like access for its genetically modified beef, which could create problems with UK consumers and would cause problems with Europe.”

Britain will not be able to lift regulations when it comes to trade with the United States while still complying with the European Union’s rules, said Mark Blyth, professor of international economics at Brown University.

“If you bandwagon with Trump,” Professor Blyth said, “you’re never going to get EU market access.”

That pressure could intensify further if Mr. Trump stokes new trade tensions with China. At a Group of 20 summit in Brazil this week, Mr. Starmer met with President Xi Jinping of China and declared afterward that he wanted “consistent, durable, respectful” relations between Britain and China.

But Kim Darroch, who served as the British ambassador to Washington during the first Trump term, said: “If the US gets into a trade war with China, they may well come to Europe and the UK and say, ‘You need to join us in tariffs.’ There are some really hard choices coming down the road.”

If Britain is forced to make that choice, some argue that it should throw its lot in with Europe. Trade across the English Channel is more than two and a half times greater than that between Britain and the United States. British exports to the EU totaled 342 billion pounds, or $433 billion last year, 42 percent of its total exports. Imports from the EU reached 466 pounds, or $590 billion, 52 percent of its total.

Rebuilding those ties would help recapture some of the growth lost because of Britain’s departure from the EU. A thicket of red tape, border delays and extra costs now ensnarl cross-channel trade. British exporters complain that they must monitor gas usage to comply with the EU’s carbon border tax. Shellfish exporters note that veterinarians must certify shipments of crabs and lobsters headed to France and Spain.

While the trade negotiations have so far been limited to relatively minor issues like accepting European veterinary safety standards, the British Chamber of Commerce has set out a long list of reforms that could go much further in smoothing trade.

Mr. Trump’s skepticism of NATO, and the growing belief that Europe needs to rely less on the United States for its security, is a further incentive to cooperate. Together, Britain and France account for half of Europe’s military capabilities, at a time when security and economic policies are more closely intertwined.

François Hollande, the former French president, said recently that Mr. Starmer “needs to position himself as a European leader.”

Drawing closer to Europe would not be easy for the prime minister, even without Mr. Trump. Britain’s Tory-leaning press remains openly hostile to the EU and will be quick to condemn his rapprochement. Labour politicians worry that a pro-Europe strategy could hurt the party with voters in the so-called “red wall” districts, many of whom backed Brexit but came back to Labour in the last election.

Britain is also instinctively reluctant to do anything that could jeopardize its “special relationship” with the United States, even if successive American presidents have seemed less nostalgic about it.

“I’m sure that for the next while, Starmer & Co. will do all they can to get a good deal from Europe, as well as the US,” said Peter Kellner, former head of the polling firm, YouGov. “But I think there may come a point where they can’t ride both horses, and they will have to choose.”

The New York Times

UK looking to hire EU negotiator to ‘reset’ relationship

Iran Opts for Dialogue with Europe ahead of Trump's Return to Office

President Donald Trump shows a signed Presidential Memorandum after delivering a statement on the Iran nuclear deal from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Tuesday, May 8, 2018, in Washington. (AP)

Paris: Michel Abou Najm
26 November 2024 

AD ـ 25 Jumada Al-Ula 1446 AH

It is difficult to predict what the outcomes will be of the discussions between Iran, France, Britain and Germany about Tehran’s nuclear program in Geneva on Friday.

Last week, the UN atomic watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution again ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the agency and requesting a "comprehensive" report aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks.

Britain, France, Germany and the United States, which proposed the resolution, dismissed as insufficient and insincere a last-minute Iranian move to cap its stock of uranium that is close to weapons-grade. Diplomats said Iran's move was conditional on scrapping the resolution.


Iran has been weighing its response to the censure, debating whether to increase uranium enrichment or by being open to the proposals expected at the Geneva talks.

The discussions may seek a new nuclear deal instead of the 2015 one with Tehran that is in tatters.

As it stands, Iran is likely to opt for negotiations instead of escalation due to a number of internal, regional and international reasons.

Diplomatic sources in Paris noted US President-elect Donald Trump’s appointments of officials handling Middle East affairs, underscoring their unreserved support to Israel and clear hostility to Iran.

These appointments may lead Iran to think twice before resorting to any escalation.

Even before Trump has taken office, his circles have said that the new president will take “several executive decisions related to Iran and that will be declared on his first day in office.” The decisions will be binding and do not need Congress’ approval.

However, Trump is unpredictable and the sources did not rule out the surprise possibility of him striking a deal with Iran related to its nuclear program and behavior in the Middle East. This means that Tehran will have to make major concessions, including abandoning its policy of “exporting the revolution”.

This remains a far-fatched possibility, however. In all likelihood, Washington under Trump will return to his “maximum pressure” policy against Iran on political, diplomatic and economic levels to make it return to the negotiations table and agree on a deal that completely ends its nuclear ambitions.

So, at the Geneva meeting on Friday, Tehran will seek to achieve two main goals: a nuclear breakthrough during what remains of US President Joe Biden’s time in office, and attempt to lure the European powers away from Trump.

The truth is that Tehran is wading in the unknown. One only has to go back to Trump’s past statements about how Israel should have struck Iran’s nuclear facilities during its October 26 attack on the country.

Trump has already shown Iran his hardline stance when he ordered the assassination of Quds Forces leader Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad airport in January 2020.

Based on this, Tehran is scrambling to avert a joint American-Israeli strike that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been dreaming of.

Iran is vulnerable now due to two main reasons: the Israeli strike in October weakened Iran’s air defenses and Netanyahu has said that Israeli jets can now run rampant over Iran without any worries.

And Tehran can no longer rely on its allied militias to threaten Israel with all-out war. Hamas in Gaza is no longer in a position to threaten Israel and neither is Hezbollah in Lebanon.

So, Iran now finds itself exposed and would rather turn to negotiations with Europe than risk escalation that would cost it dearly with Israel now that it can no longer rely on Hamas and Hezbollah.