Having a passion for dystopian authors like HP Lovecraft and Mervyn Peake, I’ve always been drawn to peculiar worlds and alternate realities, where the laws of physics seem nonexistent.
This week, it felt as though I had entered one of these worlds. The usual dynamics of power seemed to have been flipped upside down, creating a scenario where almost everything was bewildering.
How else would you describe a situation in which Donald Trump increasingly seems like the only grown-up in the room?
Trump’s brief visit this week to his golf courses in Turnberry and Balmedie sparked the expected protests and included a couple of unintentionally humorous scenes.
However, his meeting with Sir Keir Starmer showcased a remarkable display of diplomatic prowess that the American President is becoming known for. While he has shown moments of being petty and immature, as seen in his interactions with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, this time he displayed considerable restraint, especially regarding Gaza.
Trump acknowledged what many, including staunch supporters of Israel, must accept: there is ‘real starvation’ occurring in the region, pointing out that ‘those children look very hungry’ and ‘you can’t fake that’.
He emphasized that ensuring aid delivery should be the main focus and reaffirmed the US’s dedication to collaborating with the EU to set up food distribution centers across Gaza.
He topped that off with a reminder to Israel that it was their duty to allow ‘every ounce of food’ into the Strip.
Trump’s encounter with Sir Keir Starmer was a masterclass in the kind of statesmanlike power-play that the American President is increasingly demonstrating, writes Sarah Vine
In what mad parallel universe does Farage now sound sensible and sane? Asks Sarah Vine
On the question of recognising a Palestinian state – the current political hot potato – he was calm and measured, simply saying he was ‘not going to take a position on Palestinian statehood at the moment’.
Blimey. Can this really be the same President Trump who, back in February, was advocating taking over Gaza, relocating its citizens and turning it into a Levantine Las Vegas? Such compassionate, reasoned analysis of the situation is not what his detractors have come to rely on. They must be absolutely livid.
As if that weren’t enough, he then proceeded to offer a blisteringly accurate analysis of Starmer’s political woes, urging him to cut taxes, get tough on illegal immigration and ditch the obsession with wind energy in favour of North Sea oil and natural gas.
The cherry on the cake was his frank and accurate assessment of Sadiq Khan: ‘I’m not a fan… I think he’s done a terrible job.’ This is something every single person I know, even Labour-voting London friends of mine, would heartily agree with.
I must confess that in the past I really haven’t been keen on Trump. And there remain lots of unanswered questions around him, particularly when it comes to his relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein.
But in terms of the issues currently facing America, Britain and the wider world, you would be hard pushed to say that his judgment this week has been anything other than spot on.
His handling of the EU was masterful, too. He effectively negotiated them into a corner on a trade deal, as many of them have belatedly realised.
So after years of political paralysis and diplomatic stagnation, Trump finally seems to be getting somewhere.
Against a backdrop of ineffectual leadership, this feels encouraging – and perhaps even exciting. Again, an unfamiliar feeling of late. And the truth is when politicians show that they can get things done, the public are far more inclined to overlook their personal shortcomings.
While Trump’s own character failings are admittedly quite hard to ignore, his best defence against his enemies is his sheer effectiveness – and that’s what we’ve seen this week.
Whatever you think about him, no one can deny that he’s a man of action. He has that pragmatic, objective business brain that knows how to see a situation for what it is, not what one would wish it to be.
What I can’t quite tell, though, is whether this is simply a function of the ‘mainstream’ political class being so utterly useless – an ‘in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king’ situation – or whether Trump has actually sobered up a bit and started to take his political responsibilities seriously.
My feeling is that it’s the latter. This may partly explain his fall in popularity among his core MAGA base, who loved him when he pretended to be as swivel-eyed as they are but are unhappy with his failure to release the putative ‘Epstein files’ said to implicate high-ranking business tycoons and other politicians with the late paedophile, or with his willingness to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites.
But Trump may find that what he loses there he will gain elsewhere, among more moderate, middle-class Americans who, like moderate, middle-class Brits, just want some semblance of law, order and fairness restored.
His ‘good friend’ and British mini-me, Nigel Farage, is entering similar territory. Far from imploding under the pressure of public scrutiny, as his rivals had hoped and, to some extent, been counting on, the Reform leader also seems to be gaining in credibility.
Increasing numbers of my small-c conservative friends are now starting to tell me they could ‘see themselves’ voting for him: a year ago, that would have been unthinkable.
There is an army of ‘shy Faragistes’ out there – and it’s growing.
Again, in what mad parallel universe does Farage now sound sensible and sane?
The answer is, one where the prevailing political class has completely lost its credibility, its moral compass – and its cojones.
Could it be that after years of obfuscation and gaslighting, we are now entering a brave new world of politicians who tell it like it is and get the job done?
One hardly dares to hope. What a strange and alien place that would be.
But thrilling, nonetheless.
Corbynista crisis
YouGov polling shows Jeremy Corbyn has a positive approval rating of plus 18 among people aged 18 to 24. This doesn’t surprise me. The degree to which that age group has been brainwashed by anti-Semitic propaganda is chilling.
One recently tried to persuade me the October 7 attacks were orchestrated by Israel to justify military action; another seemed to think it acceptable that Sharia law be practised in the UK. Both were graduates – and both, astonishingly, women. Tragic.
My favourite story of the week: the furious Bishop of Fulham interrupting a choir declaring: ‘You are in my house and this is a terrible racket… Leave now!’ With both my adult children home for the summer, I know how he feels!
- On Keir Starmer’s assertion that if Israel doesn’t agree to a ceasefire in Gaza by the end of September, he’ll declare Palestine a sovereign state. Isn’t that a fundamentally pusillanimous position to take? You either believe in a Palestinian state or you don’t. It should have nothing to do with what Israel is doing.
- Some people dream of a break at a four-star hotel with an all-you-can-eat buffet and four-poster bed. Others, as footage released this week shows, are asylum seekers.
- RIP Tom Lehrer, mathematician and musical satirist, whose sharp, macabre ditties skewered everyone from Hitler to the Pope. They don’t make them like that any more – and even if they did, they would be cancelled at birth.
Bill will save young from online filth
Bonnie Blue has gained notoriety for her various sex stunts, often involving random members of the public
I find it striking that in a week where Channel 4 aired a documentary about Bonnie Blue – the OnlyFans ‘star’ famous for having sex with more than 1,000 men in 12 hours and the most visible example of how online porn has normalised dangerous sexual behaviour – proponents of free speech, including Nigel Farage, are bleating about flaws in the online harms bill.
Yes, it’s flawed. Yes, some things that should not be blocked will be blocked. But however imperfect, you need to start somewhere to protect future generations from this filth.
Otherwise, Bonnie Blue and her depraved sex circus will become the norm – not the exception.
