NPR’s Scott Simon talks to Tim Stanley a columnist on the “The Telegraph” about President Trump’s go to to the U.Okay. – and the rise of the populist proper within the nation.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The U.Okay. placed on a present for President Trump this week – a lavish state banquet with the king and queen, army flyover and a horse-drawn carriage trip. President Trump appeared delighted.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I hope that collectively our nations can lead a motion to defend the fantastic traditions of freedom on either side of the Atlantic. There might be no better tribute to the immortal bonds of affection and loyalty that unite the British and the American folks for all of time.
SIMON: However his journey got here at a time of deepening political tensions in each international locations. Tim Stanley joins us now, a columnist and podcaster at The Telegraph. Thanks a lot for being with us.
TIM STANLEY: It is a pleasure.
SIMON: What is the vary of views that Britons appear to carry about President Trump and his model of politics?
STANLEY: They vary from full contempt and refusing to satisfy him, so the chief of the Liberal Democrat social gathering, a small however substantial social gathering, determined to boycott the dinner, in the direction of, on the different finish, right-wing MPs admire him and wish to emulate his politics. Maybe essentially the most well-known instance of that’s Nigel Farage, chief of the Reform social gathering. The Reform social gathering has only a few MPs proper now, nevertheless it’s at the moment main the polls, and there is a excellent probability it will win the following election.
The present sitting authorities, headed by Keir Starmer, which is a center-left Labour authorities, is form of caught within the center. It instinctively does not like President Trump and does not like his insurance policies on issues like immigration, and particularly on power, as a result of the federal government could be very environmentally pleasant. However equally, it is aware of it wants America on facet, and it’s totally eager to maintain Trump concerned within the Ukraine struggle. So for that purpose, the Labour authorities has actually rolled out the pink carpet, so to talk, and completed its finest to make Trump really feel at residence.
SIMON: Only a week in the past, there was an enormous protest in London the place demonstrators referred to as for freedom of speech and a crackdown on immigration, points which are very acquainted right here in the US. Are we seeing a merging of a sort of these politics?
STANLEY: I assume it is a case of America sneezing and us catching a chilly, or it might simply be that we face the identical form of points. As you already know, there’s a nice migration happening globally. Extra persons are attempting to enter Europe. A few of them are making their option to Britain throughout the channel, partly due to the best way wherein these migrants have been housed in resorts in notably working-class communities. There’s been an actual backlash towards that. We have not had this type of polarized cultural politics for a really very long time. It is all the time been there, however not for some time have we seen these debates over issues like nationwide id and even the position of Christianity in public life. And I suppose that should you’re on the lookout for world management, who can you are taking inspiration from? It is Trump and the Trump administration. So there is a unusual and surprising synergy between the American and British proper.
SIMON: Prime Minister Starmer’s not highly regarded in the mean time, is he?
STANLEY: No. He’s very, very unpopular, sure.
SIMON: He was completely a gentleman about President Trump’s go to. I’m wondering if that helps him out politically.
STANLEY: Donald Trump appears to essentially like him. And I feel that is as a result of, though the Brits aren’t very eager, one has to provide Starmer credit score for his temperament. He does not panic, he is unflappable and he is famously a lawyer. He was head of prosecutions on this nation, and there is a sense that he understands the best process. It is a man you may depend upon in a disaster. And so I feel Trump has appreciated these qualities when it is come to worldwide relations. Plus, Keir Starmer very cleverly labored out early on that the best way to Trump’s coronary heart was simply to flatter him.
SIMON: What do you make of the particular relationship, as lots of people nonetheless name it, between the U.S. and U.Okay.?
STANLEY: I believe the particular relationship is extra essential to Britain than it’s to America. It is one thing which is strongest when you’ve gotten leaders who’re philosophically in simpatico. Probably the most well-known instance – Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, but in addition Churchill and Roosevelt. And in recent times, partly due to the polarization of politics, you have not seen that a lot. However we’re eager to push it as a result of Britain has divested itself of its energy. It isn’t as wealthy because it was. Is army is not as highly effective. And so it fantasizes that it will possibly play this position of Greece to America’s Rome – that we may be the concepts within the relationship and the philosophy and the braveness and the argument, and we are able to persuade our pal, our massive muscly pal, to do all of the combating globally. Properly, Donald Trump has pushed again on that considerably, and I do not solely blame him. However by way of, as I say, a combination of Starmer’s character and flattery, he appears to have stored the particular relationship on life help.
SIMON: Tim Stanley of The Telegraph. Thanks a lot for being with us.
STANLEY: It was a delight.
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