The problem the British political elite still hasn't processed emotionally or intellectually is that this time it is the US government that is urging the UK to choose between the US and Europe - ThreadSky

aphclarkson.bsky.social • 89 days ago

The problem the British political elite still hasn't processed emotionally or intellectually is that this time it is the US government that is urging the UK to choose between the US and Europe

Reposted from Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦

🤔 Starmer: Many people urge us to choose between US and Europe, but Churchill didn't

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aphclarkson.bsky.social•89 days ago

A government that relies too much on institutes and predecessors anchored in a pre-2008 world will keep coming up with 1990s solutions for 2030s problems

dburx.bsky.social•89 days ago

The new strategic (there was a 19th C version) issue is crushing the Europeans between the English-speaking peoples and the Russians. The issue at stake is the independence EU regulatory power. Ukraine is a manifestation; not the issue itself. UK is right to avoid a choice but may have to.

katiecannon.bsky.social•89 days ago

Post WWII: FDRism in America & social democracy in Europe

Where the state creates the currency to pay for public goods & services, thus keeping poverty & household debt low

1980’s Neoliberalism became the Washington Consensus where the state subsidizes corporations & banks

katiecannon.bsky.social•89 days ago

2/

While defunding democratic institutions

And imposing austerity on the broad economy.

Thus increasing poverty & household debt

welshrarebit.bsky.social•89 days ago

Britain’s partnership with the US really goes back to the 19th century, and has long been axiomatic for the nation’s self-understanding. Learning to live in this new world will surely require a long and painful reorientation.

debarch.bsky.social•89 days ago

They’re coming up with early 1930s solutions to late 1920s problems and might find it surprising that the consequences might be similar to the late 1930s.

theangelofhistory.bsky.social•89 days ago

Is this instance not best just explained by sheer vanity ?

brennick.bsky.social•89 days ago

If they confronted the reality of what’s actually happening in the US, their whole geopolitical world view collapses. We’re really in ‘ostrich with head in sand’ territory now.

imaginaryzen.bsky.social•89 days ago

Almost 11 years of these unforced errors, it’s hard to be optimistic … the costs could come all of a sudden in a bad week - and the country is not hedged.

writeon1.bsky.social•89 days ago

"We must build a kind of United States of Europe". Churchill said that in 1946. Eventually, we in the US will recover from the Trump disease. But that doesn't guarantee that we'll be immune. Britain needs to rejoin Europe because the "special relationship" is as certain as British weather.

renebarchmann.bsky.social•89 days ago

tbf a lot of this might be performative. Europe needs time before the final, definitive break with the US and every month with negotiations going nowhere (and no one does these better than the brits) is a month for preparations won.

nickrochford.bsky.social•89 days ago

Hmmm think that Britain, more than Canada even, will find it hard if not impossible to accept a break with US. Intelligence wise and militarily we are so far embedded with them, practically and psychologically
Think we are in deep trouble.

kevinhx3.bsky.social•89 days ago

I really hoped he was going to be a good, strong Prime Minister but he and his cabinet have been a complete let down.

awb58.bsky.social•89 days ago

Current geo-politics mean he has found some confidence. Are the new circumstances sufficient for further change?

winter02.bsky.social•89 days ago

If I was running the EU I’d look at the support for Reform and Conservatives in the UK and say ‘no thanks’. Why would they want us back?

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