Wednesday 11 July 2018

May, Trump, Merkel

What a weird week this is!


Let's face, since the Brexit referendum thing shave been a bit weird, going back in my lifetime, things have never really calmed down since the financial crisis. The Financial Crisis seems to have pushed much of humanity into a permanent state of anxiety from which there are no signs of recovery.


This week, we have our new weakened emboldened Prime Minister meeting with her German boss, Frau Merkel, who is over in the UK to remind herself that for all her domestic troubles in Germany it could be a lot worse.


May, in her anxious state, even stopped journalists for asking Merkel about 'the deal' which May thinks she has signed off and everyone else know we don't.


After Merkel leaves we have a visit from The Donald, also here to laugh at the UK and generally troll NATO, EU and China for his kicks. Even by Trump standards, he is off the deep end currently, berating allies, starting a trade war with China and pushing that so far that it will actually dent the US economy and then going off for a love-in with Vladimir in Russia (and so ignoring all the legal investigations in the US). Wow, just wow.


There may even be an interesting sports match-up in the middle of all this over the next week.


It is certainly interesting to watch, none of it does much for my own anxiety though!

20 comments:

Nick Drew said...

Funnily enough, I don't think any of this helps Corbyn directly - yetawhile, at least.

May has swallowed the Civil Service line and is fronting for it doggedly. Tory Brexiteers (in Westmister, at any rate) are split on how to proceed which, while this remains the case, doesn't speak to critical mass for a putsch

The Civil Service will prefer their hog-tied May over an out-of-control McDonnell any day of the week. So they won't be doing anything to *facilitate* a change to the status quo. Which means actually being helpful to May's new Cabinet of the Compliant. These things matter

So for the time being Jez is left where he's mostly been all along: if I can stay alive for 5, make that 4, more years, it falls into my lap. Not a great strategy - but quite congenial for a lazy bastard like him

Matt said...

Trump's strategy with the Chinese will work (at least to a point). They'll cave on the Intellectual Property issues and the trade war will be over. Chinese just have to wait a few more years for the next Democratic president and go back to their old ways. They can play the long game.

Anonymous said...

If you read the Chequers final statement, you will see it starts at point 2.

Point 1 - "Merkel made me do this" was removed as politically unacceptable. In an earlier draft, point 1 was "We've done this on the back of Nigel's fag packet" was similarly removed for the same reason.

Does anyone know of the other drafts?

hovis said...

Have you followed the 'legal investigations in the US' around Russian interference in the US elections?
Looking beyond the headlines allegations are extremely tenuous at best - certainly no worse than Project Fear using Obama here, or even our PM revealing proposed UK Govt. negotiating policy position to a Foreign head of state before it is seen by her Cabinet, Parliament or the rest of the country.

John Dub said...

There is a simple explanation for the Russia Hysteria.

Lefties project. They accuse others of what they themselves are guilty of.

Hence Hillary, after the $$145Mn bribe for facilitating the Uranium one sale, has to muddy the waters, as she is absolutely guilty of conspiring with the Russians. Then add in the sourcing of the bollocks Steele dossier.


And so on.

dearieme said...

Trump worries me much less than the American Establishment worries me. You can call the latter the Deep State if you like - whatever it should be called it is a rogue state par excellence, and a menace to us all.

Anonymous said...

For anyone interested in following the detail of The Uniparty (USA branch) v Pres. Trump I can recommend:

theconservativetreehouse.com

It's American so it naturally has a particular flavour to the comments. However, the majority of the reportage/articles appear to be very detailed and non-hysterical.

I find the site to be very educational.

(apologies in advance if braking any house rules).

E-K said...

Go Trump. What of the 'clever people's' prediction that we'd all be dead by the first Christmas ?

Where's our Trump ?

Thud said...

EK, we can but dream.

dustybloke said...

I think a crucial point has been proved. Whenever I say that the power behind the EU is Germany, many people say I’m fighting a WW2 renacrment.

But the ninth selection for prefect knows who the headmistress is.

dearieme said...

I had a look at theconservativetreehouse.com. A recent post purported to be a simple recital of the Lord's Prayer. They got it wrong. For Christ's sake!

Though I was amused by "deliver US from evil".

Anonymous said...

I believe Chamberlain showed a draft of one of his speeches to Mussolini for approval before delivering it. Italian FM Ciano was impressed, not favourably.

Anonymous said...

The Trump Curse strikes England, not that Sadiq Khan will care. After meeting the Croat President, he accepted her gift of a Croatian footy shirt with "Trump 9" on the back.

https://twitter.com/LokiJulianus/status/1017155669395410944

Anonymous said...

Trump Curse is powerful, whether in Moscow or Paris.

https://twitter.com/Fight_CIub/status/1016697811902058497

Raedwald said...

I'm quite sure Lord Halifax always believed Herr Von Ribbentrop to be a sincere and principled diplomat who could be trusted to be decent and honest with the UK. He may also have believed sincerely that giving most of Britain's gold reserves to the Germans would have been the best way of buying future goodwill - we'll never know.

Anonymous said...

How do you know Trump has arrived in Airforce 1?

When it lands, and they switch off the engines, the whining continues.

He is a world class complainer.

Thud said...

anon....surely the 'winning' continues.

Bill Quango MP said...

Thud - Lol!

andrew said...


He is part of the evolution of politics.

Until trump/putin most major leaders were increasingly dry little men who were bound by rules and logic.

Now, what do 'normal' people do when people like that completely make things up, and do not think that that is wrong.

The answer to putin is sanctions, we will see how that goes.

There is no answer to Trump as yet.

Perhaps may will challenge him to a game of russian roulette. Hope for a draw.

Anonymous said...

What Trump has been saying is perfectly true.

Most NATO countries do not contribute enough to their own defence. Allowing mass Third World immigration has "changed the fabric of Euroe" and will eventually destroy it. May's deal (or rather Ollie Rasputin's deal) is "a much different deal than the one the people voted on." And Sadiq Khan has indeed "done a terrible job in London."

An illustration of the latter is the picture in today's paper of the bloodied face of the former ambassador to the U.S., Sir Christopher Meyer, who was beaten to a pulp in Victoria Station by two teenage thugs. His wife is quoted: "We have to say enough is enough."

So it was all right for ordinary people to be beaten, stabbed, mugged and murdered ("Part and parcel of living in a big city", according to Mayor Khan) but when a member of the Establishment is attacked, that really is going too far...