Whoever advises Ed Davey gets full marks for suggesting the boycott of next week’s Trump banquet at the Palace. And congratulations to Ed for taking up the right issue in the right way at the right time.
A boycott signals clearly that Lib Dems reject the Labour government’s obsequious, subservient cultivation of Trump. And to focus on Trump’s active complicity in the horrors of Gaza touches the moral core of British public opinion.
I set something of a precedent by boycotting the state dinner for the King of Saudi Arabia when I was Acting Leader. There was some tut-tutting from party grandees as well as the anti-Lib Dem press (ie. most of it). I was accused of disrespecting the Royal Family.
But we should argue that the use of royalty to massage the vanity of appalling guests – from Mobutu and Ceausescu to Trump – is, itself, disrespectful to the head of state. I never experienced any subsequent rebuke from the Palace for my boycott and I very much doubt if Ed’s dealings with the King will be affected.
The focus on Gaza is timely and correct. But there is a wider issue: the way in which the government has turned the UK into a supplicant, vassal state of Trump’s America. The implications go beyond the indignity of bowing and scraping to Trump. Of course, the USA has been our close ally since wartime and is the centrepiece of NATO. Continued US support is currently needed to help support Ukraine in its existential struggle. But clinging to hope and sentiment isn’t a strategy.
The Trump presidency should surely be wake-up call to Britain and other European countries. If the ‘Special Relationship’ amounts to no more than the American President’s susceptibility to flattery, a love of royal photo-opportunities and a liking for Scottish links golf courses, it is worthless. It could evaporate as quickly as Peter Mandelson’s role as Trump ‘whisperer’ and courtier-in-chief. Any defence guarantee to Ukraine or the rest of Europe is unreliable and is discounted in the Kremlin accordingly. Trade agreements are even more precarious.
The choice facing the UK and other Western allies is stark. One is to ‘hang in there’ in the hope that Trump will continue to smile in our direction, will mellow and be succeeded by someone less capricious, avaricious and opportunist. That appears to be UK government policy. Sadly, there is little sign of mellowing or of a more tractable successor. The recent humiliation meted out to the Japanese in their negotiation over trade is a warning that even the most craven of supplicants will be trodden underfoot if it suits Trump’s mood.
There are several specific warnings for the UK. First, ‘strategic autonomy’ is no longer just a fancy slogan but an imperative. And, specifically, relying on the US to continue to support Ukraine is simply wishful thinking. And that means moving quickly with European allies, notably Germany and France, to establish a viable and state-of-the-art defence capability. And this raises uncomfortable questions about the sharing of the UK-French nuclear deterrent (ie with Germany). And additional defence commitments cannot be met when the UK’s lazy political consensus is that the country is ‘overtaxed’; nor when the French are paralysed by blockers with their ludicrous claim that France is suffering unbearable public sector ‘austerity’.
Second, there is a false sense of achievement over trade negotiations with the USA. Higher tariffs on UK exports are treated as a ‘win’ because they are only 10%. The (provisional) agreement incorporates some sinister subclauses which appear to give Washington veto rights over any third-party UK agreements or investments: a blatant infringement on our sovereignty. There is a rather unsubtle warning that Britain must not tax or regulate unfavourably the Tech Bros who dominate the US stock markets. Their market dominance and the algorithms they control are the foundations of the new digital economy and we are at risk of losing even a scintilla of technological independence.
There is little evidence that buckling under Trump’s pressure gets meaningful and sustainable better outcomes. Standing up to Trump, by contrast, has forced him to back down (China) or secures independence albeit at some short-term cost (India, Brazil, Canada). Of course, the economic relationship with the US remains important. But for the UK the imperative is to hedge and diversify trade and investment relationships: rebuilding our partnership with European neighbours more urgently than at present; recognising that the centre of gravity of the world economy has moved to Asia (which will accelerate with Trump’s self-destructive attacks on America’s science and education system); and accepting the need to do more serious business with regimes we may not like (Saudi Arabia; China).
A bigger point is that the USA is walking away from the role it held post-war as the hegemon which established strong international institutions and order. We have seen the abandonment of the COP process on climate, the sabotaging of the WTO, the belittling of the UN and disregard for humanitarian norms. Nor is the other superpower- China – really credible in this role despite the rhetoric. It falls to the so-called ‘middle powers’, including Britain, which depend on an open economy and international rules, to pick up the pieces.
We also have to challenge the assumption that the US is at the heart of an alliance of shared values in which we loosely call ‘the West’. Trump has trashed independent universities, lawyers and media outlets; rejected democratic election results; stirred up political violence; trodden on basic individual rights; and normalised egregious corruption. Democracy is more secure in Brazil., India and Nigeria than in the USA. Although Europe has its delinquents -Hungary and Slovakia- and governance challenges -France- the EU represents our values in a way the USA no longer does. The implications are obvious.
I was brought up on the story of the vain, narcissistic king who walked around naked believing he was dressed in a suit of gold. It required an honest youth to take him down. Ed?
* Sir Vince Cable is the former MP for Twickenham and was leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 until 2019. He also served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2015.
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12 Comments
The govnt is boasting about USA finance coming, re over a billion investment. Vince talks about Tax or regulations on the Tech Bros. who dominate the USA stock markets. The risk is that this USA investment WILL strengthen USA Tech Bros in the UK tech industry and destroy it leaving USA Tech a monopoly. Palintir (Peter Theil another USA citizen of South African birth as Musk) has already got its hands on UK data information and the govnt are considering giving it more. Slow creep take over by USA tech. NO THANKS
Brilliant; thank you Vince for reminding us of what Trump is really like and where our value and therefore allegiances should really lie. Although we can still hope that the USA will eventually turn back to its previous approaches within and without, there is little sign of that at the moment and the more we cosy up to Trump the less likely it will be to happen. We need to encourage those in the USA who want a big change away from Trumpianism.
We need a new economic and military alliance with the European States as soon as possible.
Farage is implicated wit both the US and Russia. This is an opportunity to reframe UK politics as open internationalist and anti-authoritarian vrs inward looking and narrow minded.
The British people aren’t stupid. Someone has to tell it as it is.
News report (Guardian):
Musk told the crowd that “violence is coming” and that “you either fight back or you die”.
Musk said: “I really think that there’s got to be a change of government in Britain. You can’t – we don’t have another four years, or whenever the next election is, it’s too long. Something’s got to be done. There’s got to be a dissolution of parliament and a new vote held.”
At what point should the British government make it clear that fomenting violent revolution is totally unacceptable, and that should Musk set foot on British soil, he will be arrested, questioned and if appropriate, charged?
@ Tristan,
“We need a new economic and military alliance with the European States.”
Yes we could be doing just as well as France if that were to happen!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/27/france-on-the-brink-political-crisis-economic-francois-bayrou
We should seek to build up a consensus of strengthening sovereignty in the face of the Trump regime and what it tell us about the US.
We cannot be economically and militarily dependent on a country swiftly becoming fascist and effectively on a few million swing state voters.
On the internet I watched a packed rally in Chicago addressed by Bernie Sanders (independent Senator) headed “Fight Oligarchy”. It was a complete takedown of Trump’s actions, and his speech attracted a lot of applause and a couple of standing ovations. But where are the Democrats in all this? They should be trying to find a viable candidate for the next presidential election, so that we don’t get JD Vance as the Trump follow-up in the USA. They should be out there campaigning for the mid-term elections, but it seems that they are afraid of retribution by Trump and his supporters. Only the governor of California seems to be offering any resistance, and he has been referred to as ‘Newscum’ by Trump. Maybe we should offer Bernie Sanders a state visit to the UK to demonstrate where our support ought to be!
@ David Allen. Totally agree with you; who is Elon Musk and what gives him the right to advocate violence in another country?
The political direction of the USA presents a trickly problem for any British political party (with the exception of reform). The UK is inter-wined with the USA, politically, economically, militarily and culturally and regardless of the current grip of the Maga movement will need to maintain close relations within the G7, Nato and UN in particular.
I am still hopeful that the voting American public will reject the authoritarianism of the Trump regime at the next electoral opportunity i.e. the 2026 mid-terms and we will begin to see a restoration in congress of a mission to advance human rights, justice and democratic principles at home and around the world.
The idea of offering Bernie Sanders a state visit to the UK might not be realistic, but support for democratic socialism appears to be on the rise in the US Poll: Capitalism is out … and socialism is in
Four people have been arrested on suspicion of ‘malicious communications’…after images of Donald Trump alongside deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were projected on to Windsor Castle….
Yet the ‘malicious communications’ of Musk calling for the violent overthrow of the democratically elected UK government was allowed…
And the Right think THEY are the victims of two tier policing…
There will be a price to pay if this country stands up to Trump. There will be a price to pay if it doesn’t. Lots of financial and diplomatic assumptions will be up for grabs anyway. One of the few benefits the ghastly regime in the White House could offer us is a chance to look afresh as to how the UK might relate to the USA in the future. While the US may be one of the most violent nations on the face of the earth, there are positive elements in its culture, which are to be cherished – literature, film, music, innovation and research for starters. The less starry eyed we are about America, the more we can focus on a healthier, productive relationship, seeing beyond the destructive turbo-capitalism and the cringeworthy religiosity to a potential for good in the wider world. I always feel that the old quip about “two nations divided by a common language” whether coined by Wilde, Shaw or whoever is not a bad basis for wanting the USA. to succeed and for other countries to wish it well.
Thanks, Vince,
Starmer has really not done particularly well.
Trump’s niece, Mary, wrote a book, based on first-hand experience, “Too Much and Never Enough”. The first part is called “The Cruelty is the Point”.
Her thesis is that Trump despises everybody seeks to dominate the zero-sum world he imagines. But once having “won”, he continues to despise the person whose agreement he has just extorted. He enjoys renewing (now quite gratuitously) the bullying or the humiliation of that person – now in Trump’s eyes a weak “loser”.
Thus he has no compunction in reneging and re-opening “negotiations”.
In Mary Trump’s analysis you rarely win and the process can continue until he loses interest and moves on.
Trump cannot bear being beaten. If this might happen, he’ll try to ignore the issue, sow confusion or distract attention away from an outcome that might damage his ego.
Now though, Europe and UK, are at the stage of post-agreement mockery, bullying and humiliation. Starmer, in 24 hours, went from an ally in a “special relationship”, to a stupid weakling who allowed a renegade Mayor to put London and “under shariah law”.
This is no buyer’s regret however. It is deliberate behaviour. He’s got his way and shown who’s boss so he can enjoy hurting and humiliating the now doubly despised person who agreed to the deal.
As Mary immediately grasped, “the cruelty is the point”.
Does Starmer understand the situation – and is he strong enough to control it to UK’s advantage?