Tag Archives: trump

Tanya Park

The UK must not be Trump’s unwitting accomplice in dangerous escalation

By Tanya Park | Wed 7th January 2026 - 10:25 am

Over the past week, something alarming has been unfolding at British airbases. At least ten US C-17 cargo aircraft, two AC-130 gunships, and specialised intelligence aircraft have arrived at RAF Fairford and RAF Mildenhall, with reports suggesting elite special operations helicopters may also be present. This isn’t routine. The timing, immediately following Trump’s Venezuela operation, raises urgent questions about what Britain is facilitating from our soil.

Ed Davey has rightly described Nicolás Maduro as “a brutal and illegitimate dictator” – but the Liberal Democrat leader also warned that “unlawful attacks jeopardise safety for all.” That second part is crucial. Trump’s pattern of unauthorised military strikes, over 626 in his first year back in office, now includes capturing a foreign head of state and bombing Iranian nuclear facilities. Now, US forces are staging from British soil for what appears to be their next operation: boarding a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic.

The Marinera is part of a shadow fleet transporting sanctioned oil. Intelligence suggests Venezuelan officials discussed placing armed personnel and air defence systems on tankers. This isn’t routine; it’s a potential armed confrontation with a Russian-flagged vessel that could spark US-Russia military conflict, staged from UK bases.

Trump’s dangerous pattern

This buildup follows an established pattern. Similar deployments from Fort Campbell preceded Venezuela. The Trump administration has conducted over 626 airstrikes in one year, with no Congressional notification, no alliance consultation, and no plan for consequences. The Venezuela operation exemplifies this: a regime change operation disguised as an arrest warrant, while his administration told Congress it wasn’t about regime change.

Starmer’s response has been inadequate. The UK offers only “cautious” reactions while providing infrastructure and diplomatic cover, with no real veto or meaningful consultation.

The risks are immediate. If this tanker boarding becomes violent, if Russian crew members are killed, we face a US-Russia confrontation. Russia will claim piracy and may retaliate with cyber attacks or naval harassment. Because operations launch from British bases, we become implicated in an escalation we neither chose nor control.

Trump’s contempt for the democratic process is clear. When he bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, only Republicans received advance notice. For Venezuela, no lawmakers were notified. Why would Britain expect better treatment than America’s own Congress?

Where Liberal Democrats stand

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 16 Comments
Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: Ukraine and Trump

By Tom Arms | Sat 19th July 2025 - 8:30 am

For East Europeans the overriding emotional issue is fear. Through the centuries Russia has proven itself to be a bad neighbour.

The Baltic States alone had more than 130,000 people arrested and sent to labour camps in Siberia. Their language and customs were suppressed and their countries were turned into KGB-controlled Big Brother informer societies. These events are well within living memory.

Unsurprisingly, they are taking the lead in calling for the toughest measures to support Ukraine and oppose Russia.

The further west one travels the more fear is replaced by the less tangible concerns such as freedom, democracy and the rule of law v autocracy and might is right. Big states like Russia must not be allowed to go about invading smaller states like Ukraine. If Putin is permitted to succeed then there will be dire consequences for the entire world.

This values-based assessment was the driving force behind President Joe Biden’s policy towards Ukraine and Russia. In addition, he was terrified that too much support for Ukraine could lead to a nuclear holocaust. Russia, does, after all, have the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. Vladimir Putin’s thinly veiled threats to use his deadly arsenal fuelled those fears.

Donald Trump shares Biden’s terrors of nuclear war. In March he said: “This (the Ukraine War) could lead to World War III, very easily… because of nuclear weapons.” When Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky visited Trump, the US president shouted at him: “You are playing with World War III. You are playing with nuclear weapons.”

What Trump does not share with Biden, nor any of his NATO allies, is a respect for democracy and the rule of law and the need to defend it against autocrats such as Vladimir Putin. No, in Trump’s words, Putin is “a smart guy. I mean he’s got great control over his country.”

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
Vince Cable

Bullied bullies and the New World Order

By Vince Cable | Sun 6th April 2025 - 2:03 pm

It is a common trait of bullies that they resort to self-pity; claiming to have been bullied themselves. Yet such psychopathology is found not only in the school playground but in the affairs of nations.

Putin’s narrative justifying the invasion of a peaceful neighbour and attendant war crimes draws heavily on a history of post-Soviet Russia being taken advantage of by the West. When China behaves badly it is apt to invoke its own ‘century of humiliation’. The rulers of a newly confident India hark back to past conquests by Muslim invaders to justify persecuting religious minorities. The Balkans and the Middle East continue to suffer the trauma of bullied bullies who excuse themselves in appeals to their own past suffering.

But the USA? Taken advantage of by the world? Exploited and abused by cheaters; scavengers; plunderers; pillagers; rapists. Really? Trump is a smart politician and seems to have found in the MAGA crowd a deep vein of self-pity for all the unfairness heaped on America: ungrateful. free-riding Europeans; devious Asians who have stolen America’s industry; invading Latinos; even, the dastardly Canadians. 

Many countries nurse a mixture of pride and guilt about their history, and their identity. The former colonial powers, like the UK, have had to accept being thrown out of their colonies. Germany and Japan had to come to terms with comprehensive defeat. For sure, the USA has had to come to terms with the genocide of its native inhabitants and slavery. But it can also boast vast achievements: winner of the Cold War; a widely admired ‘shining city on the hill’; creator of the institutions and rules which led to 70 odd years of remarkable global progress; and, still, the undisputed economic and technological leader of the Western world. So why is the Trump bully boy so sorry for himself? 

One grievance is partly justified but has nothing to do with the trade war which Trump has unleashed:  the long-standing failure of America’s European and Asian allies to pay their share of common defence.  After all, the USA has taken on the risk of nuclear incineration which could conceivably be triggered by some miscalculation or mischief made by Europeans in the Baltic or the Balkans.  Trump is right to insist that if Europeans won’t pay up, they can’t expect continued protection.  But, typically ungracious, he fails to acknowledge that British, Danish, Dutch and other Europeans have given their lives supporting the Americans in their questionable wars of choice in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 5 Comments
Geoff Reid

What would being on a war footing look like?

By Geoff Reid | Tue 4th March 2025 - 11:00 am

How would Britons react if the country was placed on a war footing? My question is provoked by a letter from a certain Freya Hartley in this Sunday’s Observer. Her two short paragraphs are worth quoting in full:

“I feel strongly that our government should be bold and forward thinking and put itself and the country on the equivalent of a war footing. It needs to push through fast a raft of measures to improve our self-sufficiency, especially in food, energy, and defence. As we did in the Second World War.

They need to hold cross-party brainstormings, initiate a blitz of public information to get the whole country engaged and involved. Act fast. This could bring the country together. We left Europe and the US has left us, we are alone and we need to come together, work together. Good could come out of all this horror”.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 13 Comments
Andrew Chandler

Trump, Zelensky and the White Paper of our time

By Andrew Chandler | Tue 4th March 2025 - 9:00 am

Embed from Getty Images

The images from the Oval Office were grotesque. Donald Trump, a man who prides himself on his ability to “make deals,” sat across from a beleaguered Volodymyr Zelensky and did what can only be described as political hazing. Instead of offering assurances of support, Trump harangued and hounded the Ukrainian president, all while dangling an exploitative mineral deal before him — one that offers no security guarantees, only the faint scent of transactionalism masquerading as diplomacy.

It was a moment that should chill anyone with a passing knowledge of history. Because what we witnessed wasn’t just another Trumpian tantrum; it was the re-run of an old, dark playbook. The optics of Trump cosying up to Putin’s interests at Ukraine’s expense are hauntingly reminiscent of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Stalin, with all his paranoid cunning, believed that Hitler’s outstretched hand was one of good faith — or at least mutual self-interest. He was wrong. Hitler, never one to honour a deal longer than it served him, turned on the Soviet Union with all the fury of a betrayed beast. The lesson? Dictators do not negotiate in good faith, and deals with devils have expiry dates written in invisible ink.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 19 Comments
Lord William Wallace

Tax increases needed to counter Trump’s full-frontal assault on liberal democracy

By Lord William Wallace | Tue 18th February 2025 - 1:00 pm

So now we have no alternative.  We have to raise taxes.

Trump’s appeasement of Russia threatens European security.  But it also poses the full extent to which the Conservative government ran down Britain’s public capabilities – and, let’s be honest, the Coalition also underfunded our public services and infrastructure, and so did the Labour government (and the Thatcher government) before that.  Since the election we have been learning about the appalling state of our hospital and prison estates.  We already knew about the desperate shortage of social housing, the poor condition of many of our roads and the backlog of investment in public transport.  Inadequate pay for teachers in state schools means that we’re losing them faster than replacements are being trained.  Local authorities are struggling to avoid bankruptcy.  And alongside all that, our armed forces are smaller and weaker than they have been in our lifetimes, and the US Administration has just given us notice that it won’t defend Europe if Russia extends its aggression against Ukraine into hybrid or conventional attacks on the rest of Europe.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
Nick Baird

The challenge for liberals everywhere – what if Trump’s policies actually work?

By Nick Baird | Sun 26th January 2025 - 1:00 pm

A provocative title? Of course there is much to offend us in President Trump’s pronouncements, along with the character and antics of his various nominations to Government posts. But if we previously assumed that much of what he said was bluster, we now have to face the reality that he means what he says, and consider what the outcomes might be. In particular, what if he succeeds?

This is not a simple question. To start with – what does “success” look like? We often condense that into simple numbers – GDP growth, inflation, stock market indices and unemployment figures. It is certainly possible that by these simplistic measures, and in the short term, Trump might succeed and grow the US economy without runaway inflation. With the world’s reserve currency and largest economy under his control, he has options not available to the UK and most other countries, and if he can bully OPEC into increasing oil & gas production alongside increases in US domestic production, falling energy costs might offset the inflationary effects of import tariffs, along with his programme of deregulation and gutting of Government Agencies tasked with policing and enforcing what regulations remain.

I know what you’re thinking (because you’re reading LDV) – what about the cost? What about climate change and damage to the environment? What about all the lives destroyed when settled yet illegal migrants get rounded up and deported? What about inequality and minorities? What about healthcare and reproductive rights?

And you are absolutely correct, but what will the headlines be? Particularly when the full impact of some of his policies may not be felt until after he leaves office.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 9 Comments
Mo Waqas

Trump’s Election: A wake up call for Europe and Britain

By Mo Waqas | Fri 8th November 2024 - 9:48 am

The recent election of Donald Trump as President of the United States marks a pivotal shift in the transatlantic alliance, forcing Europe to reassess its position on defence, economic policy, and international relations. For Great Britain, the European Union, and NATO allies, Trump’s presidency presents both immediate and long-term challenges. His ambivalence toward NATO’s traditional role, compounded by isolationist and protectionist policies, signals a tectonic change in the foundation of post-World War II alliances. With Trump back in office, Europe must adopt a more strategic, coordinated, and self-reliant approach to ensure regional stability and security.

Trump’s stance on NATO introduces real uncertainty into Europe’s defence calculus. Historically, NATO has underpinned European security, offering a powerful deterrent against aggressors like Russia. However, Trump’s prior remarks about “free-riding” by European nations and his willingness to reconsider U.S. commitments cast doubt on the assumption that the U.S. will always be the principal guarantor of European security. This is particularly concerning as Russia’s actions in Ukraine demonstrate the enduring risk of territorial aggression on the continent. Europe, therefore, faces a strategic imperative to assume a larger share of its defence burden, fortify its military capabilities, and reinforce collective defence mechanisms.

The European Union and NATO must now confront their limitations in readiness, force projection, and rapid response capability. While NATO’s Article 5 provides a mutual defence framework, its effectiveness is compromised if member states lack interoperability and standardized response capabilities. Thus, Europe’s emphasis must shift toward enhancing interoperability among its forces, modernizing its military infrastructure, and bolstering cybersecurity defences. Major urban centres like Milan, Geneva, Krakow, Berlin, and London must be prepared to withstand a range of threats, from cyber incursions to hybrid warfare and missile strikes. Europe’s major powers, particularly Germany and France, need to accelerate their defence spending and expand joint military exercises to build a resilient and autonomous defence posture.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
Paul Walter

Trump Georgia indictment – this is different

By Paul Walter | Tue 15th August 2023 - 10:45 am

Embed from Getty Images

It’s easy to think that the latest Trump indictment in Georgia is more of the same – 33 more charges to add to his existing 78 – and that people have grown numb to all of this.

But the Georgia charges are significantly different in several ways.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
Rob Parsons

Forty years in the making

By Rob Parsons | Sun 22nd November 2020 - 8:55 am

Liberal democracy is in crisis, particularly in the UK and the USA. In the UK we are perhaps bemused at how we could have come to elect such a corrupt, cronyistic and incompetent government, and in the USA there is much debate over how the Trump lump has not gone away despite four years of Trump’s Twitter tantrums.

There is a tendency to view this as a short term phenomenon – what went wrong four years ago, six years ago, even ten years ago. In my view this has been coming for forty years. It has not been inevitable but, during the neoliberal period (roughly from the 80s till today), social forces and personal decision making have moved us steadily towards the situation we now find ourselves in.

In a nutshell, the elevation to power of Thatcher and Reagan marked the start of what was seen to be a move towards freedom, opening up societies all over the world to the liberating forces of the market. This had two sides, globalisation, an ineluctable social force beyond the power of individuals to affect, and the strategy of global elites both old and new, to use globalisation to create new wealth and power for themselves. They have been very successful. So it turned out to be a move towards freedom for some, but by no means all. The elites used liberalism as their watchword, while ignoring the principle of liberalism that their freedom is only valid in so far as it does not compromise other people’s freedom.

At the same time there has been a steady corrosion of community and democratic values, partly because the new markets require it (they don’t work without precarious labour) and partly because of media elites who found that telling lies worked, and political elites who did not care to confront them. People sold on consumer capitalism found easy answers to all the ills in their lives in the lies told them by the media. Rupert Murdoch and Hugh Dacre, among others, spent decades preparing the British public for the Brexit lie. They have succeeded in making many people’s lives precarious and hoodwinking them into blaming others for that.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 29 Comments
Lord William Wallace

A critique on the events of today

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 28th October 2020 - 1:00 pm

British politics will hit several crunch points in the next two weeks. If Trump loses the US presidential election, the hopes of the hard-line Brexiters of a fast US-UK trade agreement will be shattered. Moreover, we must reach a minimal trade agreement with the EU, which the government will have to defend against hostile attacks from the right, or we will be faced with a No-Deal departure, with the prospect of chaos and confusion at Channel Ports in the New Year.

It’s taken me a long time to appreciate how deeply the hard-line Brexiters believe in the reality of ‘the Anglosphere’. Liberal Democrats don’t read the Telegraph or the Spectator or attend European Research Group (ERG) meetings, where enthusiasts speak and write about the EU as an ‘Empire’ which has reduced Britain to a ‘colony’ from which we are escaping – to the warm embrace of our cousins in the United States. Australia and New Zealand are also seen as key partners for future Global Britain – with Australians already deeply embedded in Whitehall. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants were still a leading force in Washington politics 50 years ago, but not now. UK ministers and right-wing MPs cling to the image of America they had gained through meetings with white Republicans, and seem not to have noticed that Joe Biden is an Irish Catholic, with a mixed-race vice-presidential candidate, neither of whom have an emotional attachment to Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism.

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 32 Comments
Tom Arms

Observations of an expat: Start talks Start

By Tom Arms | Fri 26th June 2020 - 12:30 pm

Embed from Getty Images

US-Russian talks started this week in Vienna between US and Russia to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which expires in February.

Negotiators face massive obstacles – for lots of reasons.

For a start, Presidents Trump and Putin are fond of their nuclear toys. They have both effectively scrapped the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force Treaty and announced significant investment in new nuclear weapons.

Both men are keen on the more “bang for the buck” theory of nuclear war.

The other big reason the talks are headed for failure is the Trump Administration’s insistence that China is included in the negotiations. China’s nuclear arsenal is miniscule (300 warheads compared to an estimated 6,185 American and 6,800 Russian). But the Americans view the Chinese as the greater medium to long-term threat to American interests.

The French and British nuclear deterrents have been accounted for in the complex alphabet soup of Soviet-American nuclear weapons accords. But France and Britain are American allies. China and Russia are – at the moment – close – but not allied. The Chinese argue that if they are included then why not also India, Pakistan, Israel and possibly even Iran. This would, of course, turn negotiations into an incomprehensible farce as each country has a different strategic reason for its nuclear deterrent.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | Leave a comment
The Voice

Ed Davey: We must not allow President Trump to drag the UK into yet another war, like Iraq

By The Voice | Wed 8th January 2020 - 5:05 pm


Embed from Getty Images

Ed Davey, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, has just written to Liberal Democrat members summarising the party’s position on the Iran crisis:

We are living in dangerous times.

The assassination of a key Iranian leader, General Suleinami, ordered by President Trump, has raised tensions across the Middle East.

It’s too early to know if today’s inevitable if unacceptable Iranian response will lead to further US retaliation but huge diplomatic efforts must be made now to de-escalate.

Britain must continue to work with European allies to lead that diplomacy.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Martin Horwood

Martin Horwood MEP writes… Gibraltar, Trump and Iran: the Brexit connection

By Martin Horwood | Tue 20th August 2019 - 8:30 am


Embed from Getty Images

Gibraltar has just controversially released the Iranian oil tanker formerly known as the Grace 1 with a new name and a written assurance from Tehran that its shipment won’t be used to break EU sanctions on Syria.

As a member of the European Parliament’s Iran delegation and one of the LibDem MEPs for Gibraltar, as well as the South West of England, I have warmly welcomed this move. And I’m pleased to be in a position to strengthen our co-operation and influence with Europe on this critical issue. Its no exaggeration to say that peace in the Persian Gulf hangs in the balance. While the Conservative government flirts with Donald Trump, we’re working with our European allies to de-escalate crises like this.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Bernard Aris

Trump’s equivocating over Charlottesville Nazis embarrasses May and hurts new US Dutch Ambassador

By Bernard Aris | Fri 18th August 2017 - 9:43 am

It was interesting to read the free daily “Worldview” newsletter put out by the Washington Post yesterday.

Talking about the unprecedented spectacle of an American President equivocating about how evil heavily armed, swastikas and KKK regalia-wearing racists and neo-Nazis are, the WP draws our attention to how these scary shenanigans embarrass the foreign allies and friends of the USA, especially those who (out of national interests, seldom out of personal sympathy) so far tried to get into Trump’s “good allies” book. The WP takes Theresa May as its case in point in this aspect.

They remind us of the spectacle of May visiting Trump’s White House in January, holding his hand and trumpeting that the “Special Relationship” was well and continuing.

The WP thinks this show of support was a contributing factor when May, a wooden campaigner anyway, held her snap election in June, losing her majority and seeing her ministers returned with lesser majorities. Trump surely didn’t help, attacking London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

The WP only quotes May seeing “no equivalence between those who propound fascist views and those who oppose them”, saying she didn’t mention Trump by name, and her then going on about Big Ben being silenced. WP concludes she is still too cautious to explicitly condemn Trump, contrasting her overall treatment of Trump with the more distance-keeping approach of Merkel and Macron. The WP mentions Tory criticism of Trump from for example minister Sajid Javid MP.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 13 Comments
Caron Lindsay

A missed opportunity for the Party

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 20th January 2017 - 9:28 pm

As President Trump sits down in the Oval Office for his first day in power, hundreds of thousands of people will march in Washington DC to show solidarity with those who have good reason to be fearful of the next four years. Women, Muslims disabled people, Mexicans are just some of Trump’s targets who have faced mockery, inappropriate comment or language bordering on hate speech from him. Every time he talks about building walls, or banning people, or openly admits sexual assault like it’s all a game or mocks disabled people, he encourages another round of abuse and prejudice.

Marches in …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 21 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Dennis
    Completely agreed! This party needs to tap into empowering left-behind communities....
  • David Raw
    I didn't expect to feel sorry for Sir Keir Starmer this morning but I'm afraid I do. I put his downfall down more to the impact and ripples of the Mandelson app...
  • Ynys Mon Man
    Nigel Jones, I am puzzled by the view put forward by many (not just you) that a visit from an MP, no matter how high-profile, will do anything to turn around th...
  • David Garlick
    Vincent spot on as usual....
  • Dennis
    I think the public have become growingly impatient and want something more radical - what that is depends on who who ask. I do believe that was a level of both ...