Britain needs to channel Trump's fighting spirit

Yahoo

06-02-2025

If there's one thing everyone can agree on, it's that Trump gets stuff done. Compared to the UK where the business of government moves at glacial speed, the pace at which he has executed his agenda is remarkable.
In just 24 hours this week he threatened tariffs on Mexico, had a diplomatic barney, extracted big concessions and left the threat of future retaliation in case Mexico backslide on their word. The sight of a Western leader ruthlessly pursuing the interest of his citizens, not some abstract conception of the global good or what is 'respectable', has left Left-wing commentators discombobulated. But the logic of Trump's action towards Mexico is undeniable.Fentanyl is the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 45. China produces the opioid; it's manufactured into fentanyl in Mexico and their gangs smuggle it into the US. Previous presidents have asked nicely for more action, but when the fields of carrots have been chewed through, you have no choice but to use the stick. And nobody has a bigger stick than the US President. If this is as it appears – a targeted war on drugs – then the extra 10,000 Mexican border officers Trump has leveraged through tariffs can be chalked up as a decisive victory.However, a wider, indiscriminate trade war being mooted would bring far less success. The grounds for tariffs against an ally like Canada who has spilt blood in conflict alongside the US are weak at best. Fentanyl seized on the Canadian border last year only represents 0.2 per cent of that found on the southern border. And a worldwide economic slowdown caused by permanent tariffs would hurt the US economy – not to mention the UK economy – stalling investment and keeping inflation high.
As Adam Smith remarked in The Wealth of Nations, weakening the economies of other countries with tariffs also weakens your own export market. 'Just as a rich man is likely to be a better customer to the industrious people in his neighbourhood than a poor man, so is likewise a rich nation.' As a country which has a deficit of £186 billion on trade in goods, we have a lot to lose from a period of international trade war.Trump's willingness to flex the state's muscles to protect his citizens from unfair practices is a lesson to leaders across the West. We could learn a lot from his muscular approach. The UK's pathetically weak elite have made a habit of sacrificing the UK's material interests, lulled by fairytale stories about international law and the UK's historical obligations to other countries.The traitorous capitulation to Mauritius is the latest sorry example. If Starmer had a spine he would reject the ICJ's non-binding judgment, state unequivocally that the Chagos Islands are British, and come down like a ton of bricks on any attempt to bully us around.But this defeatist mindset goes far beyond Starmer and his old pals from Matrix Chambers who are colluding to surrender British territory. We see it in the waste of our foreign aid budget on hostile states, to the destruction of jobs in the North Sea oil and gas sector (only for them to be created abroad) or the absurdly generous visa routes we offer to countries that refuse to take back their citizens here illegally. While Trump is putting Americans first, our establishment seems to always put British people last.
And this extends to our own trade policy. Unlike virtually every other country in the developed world, Britain has not imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs. We've taken Beijing at their word while British companies are cheated by Chinese manufacturers operating with poverty wages, currency manipulation – and not to mention stolen IP.We've blindly cheered these imports, not stopping to interrogate the ethics or emissions of these new vehicles, nor the consequences on our struggling car manufacturers and our industrial base.If Trump imposes 25 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports, expect Chinese EV manufacturers to flood the UK market with cars they can no longer competitively sell in the US. These products aren't the fruits of free trade from the textbook account of Adam Smith, but the rigging of the UK market by predatory state-sponsored enterprises. Pursuing a naively liberal trade policy towards our adversaries while also crippling the ability of our manufacturer to produce competitively priced goods because of eye-watering energy costs and planning restrictions is a recipe for economic suicide.
Don't wait with bated breath for Labour to stand up for Britain's industry. Once they had a proud tradition of industrialists – now they are run by people like Peter Mandelson, who until recently counted the Chinese EV firm, BYD, as a client.24 hours after Trump forced Mexico into a screeching U-turn, he posted an image of himself with the letters 'FAFO' (I'll leave you to google it) on his shoulder. Britain could do with some of that FAFO spirit: not some naive cockiness, but a steeliness and loyalty to our fellow citizens. We can't allow other countries to walk over us. You have to stand up to bullies.
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