US vice president JD Vance arrives in Scotland for 'holiday'
Images showed him disembarking the aircraft with his wife, Usha, where he was then expected to make his way to the nearby luxury Carnell Estates.
(Image: PA) (Image: PA) (Image: PA) The motorcade cars carrying the vice president could be seen fitted with Saltire flags.
Airspace restrictions are in place around the Carnell Estates the estate until Sunday.
Police Scotland previously said they were preparing for a visit from Vance, who is holidaying in the UK with his family.
The US vice president was recently pictured carp fishing with Foreign Secretary David Lammy in the Cotswolds, who he described as a "good friend".
On Wednesday, news broke that Lammy had broken the law when doing so, as he was fishing without a rod licence.
The Foreign Secretary has referred himself to the environment watchdog and faces a fine of up to £2500.
Vance's visit comes just weeks after US president Donald Trump's five-day trip to Scotland, where he stayed at his golf resorts in Turnberry in South Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire.
The US vice president is expected to stay in the Ayrshire estate for five days.
The estate features a private manor house, a 14th-century tower and gardens, set within more than 2000 acres of parkland.
It is located just 15 minutes from Prestwick Airport.
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New Statesman
5 hours ago
- New Statesman
What JD Vance was really doing in Britain this week
Photo byJD Vance is the most underestimated man in Washington. Memes of him with a cartoonishly fat face populate the internet. A recent South Park episode had Donald Trump shouting at a tiny Vance 'Will you get out of here?!' and kicking him off screen. The news that he was turned away from The Bull pub in Oxfordshire this week following a staff mutiny was gleefully reported by American media. Democrats sneer that he is nothing more than a drooling dauphin, simpering and slavish. Vance is certainly going along with Trump's conceits in order to inherit the throne. But this narrative misses that JD Vance is already the prince of the Western right. His trip to England was the surest proof yet that Vance's constituency isn't just to be found in Washington or Ohio – but across the influencers and intellectuals of a tightly bound and unusually loyal transnational reactionary movement. This summer Vance held court in an English 18th-century manor, a forward operating base in his campaign to Maga-ify the British right. Part of his itinerary was set up by the slick Cambridge theologian James Orr and the podcasting former chancellor George Osborne. The less well-known Orr used to do Jordan Peterson's scheduling during his tours of British university campuses. Orr also serves as a Vance interpreter, having been quoted in the Times that Vance has a 'special concern' for the UK. Vance's criticism of the British government, particularly over its backsliding on free speech, seems grounded in a paternal feeling for America's errant ward. For these precious weeks Vance has come in-person, here to help guide the country onto stronger ground. The line between what counts as an official trip and a family holiday has blurred under Trump's administration. One of Vance's first 'official' trips was to the Vatican – where Vance, a Catholic convert, met Pope Francis – and to India with his family, the birthplace of his wife's parents. Meanwhile, the president invites world leaders to attend to him at his Scottish golf course. Informality takes precedence over diplomatic protocol. But while Trump invited Keir Starmer and Ursula Von der Leyen to Turnberry, Vance can look to the future. His guestlist showed he is interested in a new generation, one which will be ushered in under his tutelage. On 11 August, Vance hosted a small reception, organised by Osborne. Four Conservative MPs were there, all relatively young, and none the party leader: Robert Jenrick, Laura Trott, Chris Philp and Katie Lam, who recently clocked nearly one million views on X with a video illustrating mass migration with a jar overflowing with beads. Kemi Badenoch and Vance insisted diary clashes explain her absence. Under normal circumstances, you'd think someone who wants to be prime minister would make a trip to see the person most likely to be the next president of the United States. On 13 August, the vice-president instead met the person most likely to be the next prime minister. He hosted Nigel Farage for a one-on-one breakfast which Farage described to the Telegraph as 'two old friends meeting with many, many common interests. After all, I've been the longest public supporter of Maga in Britain.' Despite this 'old' friendship, Farage is not a recipient of the ultimate honour: the only one of these political guests Vance follows on his X account is Robert Jenrick. And Vance's online habits have taken to even more unexpected corners of British internet culture. He also follows Thomas Skinner, the former Apprentice candidate and self-made English influencer known for his catchphrase 'bosh'. Skinner was a guest at the manor for a barbecue on the evening of 10 August, alongside Orr and the Tory MP Danny Kruger. This is unusual. Imagine Dick Cheney eating ribs with David Davis, Ann Widdecombe, Robert Kilroy-Silk, and a young Michael Gove at a rented cottage in Salcombe. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Vance once said that Kruger's 2023 book on Britain, Covenant, has 'lessons for all of us who love the civilization built by our ancestors'. In a fragment, here is Vance's conflicted affection for England. The view that the ancestral home has been wrecked by liberal progressivism and mass immigration is a common thread in Maga. Steve Bannon once remarked to me: 'It's so pathetic, England. God, I love England – it's so fucked up'. In a column for the Wall Street Journal to mark Vance's visit, Orr claimed that the 'historical heuristic for our [Britain's] national unwinding is Beirut 1975'. That's a soft, almost cryptic way of saying that Britain is heading for a civil war fought along ethno-religious lines. This sense that Britain needs radical reform is what explains Vance's guestlist. Jenrick not only shares a physiognomy – a stout moon-shaped face, topped with closely cropped dark hair – with Vance (at least before Jenrick's Ozempic glow-up); both men have moved gradually but decidedly from liberal conservatism to the radical right, fuelled by civilisational angst at the extraordinary number of migrants who have arrived in Europe and America in recent decades. Another term for their beliefs is national conservatism. And it's not just a belief system: 'national conservatism' might be seen as a byword for this network of individuals, one which can unite theological grandees, international statesmen – and ambitious politicians. The same network of ideas and influence will be on display in Washington DC in September when the National Conservative Conference will take place. This is the sixth annual gathering, the brainchild of the American-Israeli political thinker Yoram Hazony. Vance, the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump adviser Stephen Miller have all attended in the past. The conferences are organised by Hazony's Edmund Burke Foundation, who have a UK branch, chaired by none other than Orr. Hazony recently told the New York Times that National Conservatism distinguishes itself in two directions: from the libertarians in the Republican Party to their left and the racist and anti-democratic figures to their right. Farage, who is listed as a conference speaker, has long said something similar about creating a wall between himself and people such as Tommy Robinson. Yet there are other speakers far to the right of most on Vance's guestlist: Jeremy Carl, the man trying to revive white identity politics; Jack Posobiec, a Bannon ally who once called for the overthrow of democracy; Jonathan Keeperman, an influential figure on the online right who runs Passage Press, a publishing company that prints forgotten books by reactionary authors (Ernst Jünger, HP Lovecraft) alongside contemporary writers popular with Maga intellectuals (Curtis Yarvin, Steve Sailer). One forthcoming NatCon panel will discuss how to overturn the Supreme Court ruling which legalised gay marriage in America. Does the British right have anything useful to learn from this crew? Apart from one Farage foray into abortion rights, the social issues that rivet America have little grasp in the UK. And while Skinner might like to tweet occasionally about going to church, the Catholicism of Vance and his political allies is dedicated and doctrinaire. As Ross Douthat, the Catholic New York Times columnist who interviewed Vance at the Vatican in May, told me, 'If you're going to be a Christian in the intelligentsia, it feels like Catholicism or nothing.' A paradox of American secularism is that religion is also a font of political philosophy. That is not the case in Westminster. Kruger's evangelical Christianity is unusual in parliament. But outside the Commons, perhaps the most influential evangelical is Paul Marshall, the owner of the Spectator and co-owner of GB News. Marshall met Vance on 12 August. Yet few in England would cite the Archbishop of Canterbury as a political inspiration. Roger Scruton plays the role of in-house philosopher for British conservatives much more than Pope Benedict XVI. But religiosity is not a precondition for national conservatism. English national conservatism will always be couched in English culture. Progressives' adoption of woke politics, exemplified by the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, was the last significant American political import into Britain. Is Vance leading what could be the next? There is no JD Vance analogue in the country. But this son of Scots-Irish America is assembling the English shards of himself, from the religious intellectual pondering integralism, to the Essex hillbilly with the common touch. National conservatism has the inventory to hand a wily politician both a populist playbook and at the same time an elite intellectual hinterland to serve as a guiding philosophy. One suspects Vance dished out some advice to his guests while in the Cotswolds on how to use this very modern synthesis to fuel Britain with the same forces he and Trump are using to reshape America. [See also: The Cotswolds plot against JD Vance] Related
The National
6 hours ago
- The National
SNP leadership has built an indy strategy that cannot deliver
Put together, they paint the same picture – the SNP leadership has built an independence strategy that can't deliver and isn't even trying to inspire people to believe it can. Swinney's 'route' is nothing more than this – win an SNP majority at Holyrood in 2026 and ask Westminster for a referendum. That's it. No civic leadership to carry the case beyond party lines. No plan for public mobilisation. No day-one actions that show Scotland taking responsibility for itself. Just another request to London, built on the hope that what happened in 2011-14 will happen again. But 2014 wasn't some rule we can repeat. It happened because Westminster thought it would win. It only said yes when it believed the risk was zero. That precedent doesn't work the moment it thinks it could lose. Swinney's entire plan rests on the false belief that the UK will eventually give in if we keep playing by its rules. It also rests on votes he's never going to get. I'm not talking about people like me who used to vote SNP but won't any more. I mean those who support independence but will never vote SNP for reasons that have nothing to do with the Union. Swinney's strategy needs them to ignore all that and back the SNP any way. They won't, and that means the plan is dead before it starts. You can't weld a national movement to a single party when a chunk of that movement will never wear the party badge. Robin McAlpine's piece made it clear – party leaders are the least-trusted messengers. Civic, cultural and professional figures are far more effective at shifting opinion, but the SNP have stopped working alongside them in any real way. They've centralised the movement into a party machine and mistaken that for a national campaign. That's not strategy, that's self-interest wearing a Saltire. Now look at Seamus Logan's Westminster diary. It's meant as a personal insight but it shows how normal Westminster life has become for SNP MPs – speeches, receptions, endless meetings, office routines. I don't question the workload, but I do question the mindset. If the 'primary task' is independence, Westminster should feel like a temporary assignment with a hard end date — not a career track you settle into. The longer you adapt to its rhythms, the more you forget why you're supposed to be there in the first place. The reality is that Swinney's plan isn't designed to win independence. It's designed to preserve control of the issue inside the SNP. It shuts out those who won't vote for the party, and it leaves the wider Yes movement sitting idle while the clock runs down. It's the politics of waiting, not the politics of doing. History will remember them as futilitarians – leaders who turned Scotland's bid for freedom into a case study in how to waste a nation's hope. James Murphy via email I HAVE read with great interest within this newspaper columns and letters on the strategies which could lead us to independence – demanding a second referendum; using the election as a de facto referendum; giving the people of Scotland authority by enacting a UN declaration and appealing to the UN for decolonisation. While I would be delighted if any of these strategies did lead to our independence, I think they are all jumping the gun. I want independence yesterday but the sad fact is that at the moment we don't have a mandate! Polling shows support for independence at around 50%. If approximately half our population favour independence, this means half are happy with the status quo. How can we expect Westminster or the UN. To act in our favour with the country split down the middle? It won't, so we are wasting our time and efforts. Until we grow a settled, significant majority, all of the above strategies will get nowhere. We must focus on growing our mandate first and then all of the strategies will become much more possible. The prime question is how to do this! Local and national politicians did not choose to abolish the Skye bridge tolls. It took brave action from protesters to force this change. Thatcher's poll tax was not defeated by the Labour Party opposition. It was defeated by protesters who refused to pay and who organised a mass movement through direct street action. Similarly, as Robin McAlpine has explained in his columns this and last week, it can't be the SNP. They are constrained to act within the devolution settlement so will never achieve the level of support we need. The only people who can convince enough of our population is ourselves through united and visible action. Support for independence grew in 2014 during the referendum campaign from 28% to 45% and possibly it was only lost by false promises and a lack of policy within the SNP. The currency stance is a prime example. Remember how the whole of our population was energised, with debate everywhere. This paper is a great help in relaying the message but it only reaches a minority. We need to recreate this debate by acting together to determine the people's constitution and prospectus for independence. We could surprise ourselves by just how quickly we could achieve this boost. However, If we leave it to the SNP and other parties, it's not going to happen. Campbell Anderson Edinburgh DOES onywan really believe that gin ilka person in Scotland o voting age voted fur an independence pairty, Westminster wuid tak ony heed? Keir Starmer is sic ae carin cheil he wuid niver ignore the wushes o the people. Aa he wants is fur peace an understanding, the richt o sel-determination an respect fur national an international law. Humanity personified. Aye right. George T Watt via email
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- The Guardian
Secret Service and US military engineers face scrutiny over raising river water level for Vance's birthday
The US Secret Service and US military engineers are facing scrutiny after Adam Schiff, the California senator, demanded they answer questions about the Trump administration's recent decision to change the water level of a lake in Ohio to facilitate a family boating trip for JD Vance on his birthday. The Secret Service has said that it requested the outflow of the Caesar Creek Lake in Ohio be changed shortly before the vice-president's 2 August trip so that his security detail could safely navigate the Little Miami River, which the lake feeds into. The story was first reported by the Guardian last week. The Secret Service also said that neither Vance nor his staff knew that it had made the request. In a letter to Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and army corps of engineers leadership, Schiff suggested the use of funds to alter the outflow of the lake for personal use may have been inappropriate, and said he wanted information on the process and documentation of the decision. 'The misuse of public water resources for the vice-president's family is particularly offensive considering this administration's cuts to federal agencies, cuts which are already harming outdoor recreation opportunities for American families,' Schiff wrote. The Guardian reported last week that was not unprecedented for military engineers in Louisville, Kentucky, who have jurisdiction over the area, to modify water outflows to accommodate public use – for example, for use in community river events and training for emergency responders. Regulations regarding requests for so-called 'deviations' – or any changes to normal practices – require approval and documentation that demonstrates why the deviation is justified. This process also ensures that risks associated with any deviation – including a flood risk or other environmental impact – is detailed. The USACE said in a statement last week that the Secret Service request 'met the operational criteria outlined in the Water Control Manual for Caesar Creek Lake and did not require a deviation from normal procedures'. But in his letter, Schiff accused the army corps leadership of improperly leveraging access to public services for personal use and waiving standard documentation that is required to identify and justify risks associated with the deviation. 'Accordingly, I request an explanation of this USACE action and a commitment to no longer using federal resources for such unjustified and frivolous purposes,' Schiff wrote. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion The California Democrat also pointed to the Trump administration's 'frivolous release' of billions of gallons of water from California reservoirs as another instance in which the army corps executed 'questionable abuses'. The water was released following an executive order from the White House for the alleged purpose of helping to fight the Los Angeles fires, though the army corps allegedly and reportedly knew the release would not be delivered to southern California directly. Vance's communications director, Will Martin, has defended the canoe trip in an article on Breitbart, saying Democrats were trying to 'turn it into a story about elitism'. He accused Democrats who were critical of Vance for benefiting from public infrastructure for his birthday trip of having 'no clue how normal families operate' and that the idea of a family canoeing together is 'completely foreign to them'. 'The far-left media is desperate to smear Vice-President Vance and they've hit a new low by attacking him for enjoying his birthday with his wife and kids,' Martin said, referring to the Guardian.
