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The Independent
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Calling David Cameron a ‘man baby' for resigning over Brexit is childish
We hardly need reminding that Brexit is barely living up to the ideal of the buccaneering, 'Global Britain' we were promised. RIght now, it's more like a clown show. Leaving the European Union is the malign gift that keeps on giving. It has caused the social and economic damage we see around us, cramping living standards, public services and even the defence of the realm for want of the prosperity we once took for granted. It has had a baleful effect on investment and growth, and left Britain a meaner, poorer, grubbier place. Indeed, it may well be said that Brexit broke Britain, and created a new wave of grievances for Nigel Farage to exploit. It's his Ponzi scheme. So won't someone spare a thought for those who got us into this mess? Those like Michael Gove and his now-former wife Sarah Vine, who has written a memoir of her life as a Westminster wag. Always a fluent writer, trenchant and not especially likeable, it's clear from the extracts published thus far that not only did Brexit break Britain, it also broke hers and Gove's somewhat one-sided and demi-mercenary 'friendship' with David and Samantha Cameron. It doesn't seem to have done much good to the Goves' relationship either (albeit only one of the many strains of being a political couple). At any rate, Vine still despises Cameron. This is personal. Her illusions about the true nature of their friendship were shattered when she felt the 'abyss of class' between them. Gove was havering about which side to back in the EU referendum, torn by a genuine Euroscepticism (unlike Boris Johnson's), and the loyalty he felt to his party leader. Cameron, pink-faced and charming but always with the whiff of Flashman about him, barked at her to 'get her husband under control. For f***'s sake, Sarah, I'm fighting for my political life here.' But it's also a political contempt that Vine feels, so she also charges Cameron with cowardice – being a 'man baby' when he lost the Brexit referendum and immediately resigned as prime minister. As she puts it: 'What an impossible, irresponsible child, throwing his toys out of the pram because he hadn't got his own way. It felt a bit like he would sooner bring the country down than let Leave have its victory. Et tu, Pontius Pilate.' Fair? Certainly, it's childish. But, in many ways, it feels like it no longer matters. Aside from a brief and, in the end, futile return as foreign secretary under Rishi Sunak, Cameron's political career was over the moment that David Dimbleby declared 'We're out' on the television. Same for all of them. Gove is now an elder statesman, a peer and editor of The Spectator and a one-time Svengali to Kemi Badenoch – but his party is in the toilet. A return to power for any of the personnel concerned looks about as likely as Elvis Presley being found alive on the moon. The chumocracy was as broken by Brexit as Britain. Boris Johnson, never that close to Gove, fell out with him shortly after the referendum vote when Gove stabbed him in the front during the post-Cameron leadership election. Only George Osborne seems to have emerged from it all without serious PTSD. For what it's worth, it seems to me that Cameron did certainly break his promise to the British people, that whatever the result of the referendum, he would carry on as premier. But on that grim morning when everything changed, that felt like a ridiculous idea. It was his referendum. It was his idea. Osborne had cautioned against it, and Gove might have preferred that it hadn't happened, because, in the end, it finished off his chances of ever getting the top job, and for his missus to be Britain's 'First Lady', as opposed to just First Lady of Fleet Street. It would have been impossible for Cameron to carry on and negotiate Brexit. Farage would have claimed he wasn't a 'true believer' (correct, obviously), and Cameron would never have been safe from Johnson's unquenchable ambition. Vine's weakest argument is that Gove and Johnson has solemnly sworn, in writing, to serve Cameron even if Leave won. From Johnson's point of view, the whole point of the EU referendum was that it would be lost but still weaken Cameron, strengthening his claim to a senior cabinet job and installing him as the heir apparent, elbowing Osborne and Gove out of the way. With the Leave win, Johnson over-achieved. At that point, he wanted the premiership more than Cameron did; but it was Theresa May, not Johnson, Gove or Cameron, who became the first post-Brexit premier (of five, amazingly). After it was her turn to foul up, she was followed by the successive failures of Johnson, Liz Truss (last seen promoting Irish whiskey with a cage fighter) and Sunak, who may yet prove to have been the last Conservative prime minister in every sense. What these flawed personalities all have in common is an iron will to avoid the blame for what they and their political movement visited upon the country. Badenoch is their legacy. Soon, the 10th anniversary commemorations of Brexit will begin, and the old wounds will be opened up once again, just as they were, briefly, with the recent modest 'reset'. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems very obvious now that, apart from the economy and those who rely on what's left of the welfare state, the biggest loser of all from Brexit has been the Conservative Party. Fractious and fractured as ever, it is now electorally smashed, rudderless, assailed by Reform UK, with its last generation of leaders not on speaking terms, cry babies all. In her own bitter way, Vine is the ideal chronicler of their pathetic, self-pitying decline.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Starmer has just handed China a massive victory
Britain is going ahead with the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Despite intense legal challenges, Starmer has agreed to pay Mauritius 3.4 billion pounds for the privilege of surrendering a critical group of Indian Ocean atolls. While supporters of the Chagos Islands handover hail it as the endpoint of British colonialism in Africa, its critics rail against the agreement's devastating impact on Britain's status as a world power. As the UK wants to be a powerful bridge state between the US and Europe and views the East of Suez strategy as a critical component of Global Britain, this loss of prestige is detrimental for Britain's post-Brexit foreign policy vision. Outrage over Britain's Chagos Islands handover is about more than imperial nostalgia or concerns about geopolitical decline. It also stems from a righteous indignation about Britain's empowerment of its primary great power adversaries. Mauritius's foreign policy orientation makes Starmer's Chagos Islands handover a dangerous proposition. In 1972, Mauritius became the first African country to establish an embassy in Beijing. It has since become a valuable beachhead for Chinese economic influence in Africa's Indian Ocean littoral region. In October 2019, China and Mauritius signed a free trade agreement which ensconced a trade imbalance that is highly beneficial for Chinese exporters. Even though Mauritius's entire GDP is just over $14 billion, China exports $1 billion to the country each year. Mauritius is also strengthening its partnership with Russia. In April 2023, Mauritius's Ambassador in Moscow Heswar Janke declared that Russia had grown in prominence as a 'player' for the island nation. Mauritius is deepening cooperation with Russia in the fisheries sector and has mulled granting access to Russian Mir credit cards. Mauritius's tightening partnerships with China and Russia amplify its role as a force multiplier for the Indian Ocean strategies of both countries. Since its first anti-piracy deployment to the region in 2008, China has markedly increased its hard power footprint in the Indian Ocean. From 2022-25, China carried out four trilateral maritime exercises with Russia and Iran, which signifies the region's rising strategic importance for Britain's most dangerous adversaries. Mauritius's Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam has countered these critiques by insisting that he will not enable China's purported military ambitions in the Chagos Islands. This narrative has been implicitly amplified by Starmer's government which insists that the Chagos Islands handover would guarantee the long-term sustainability of the UK-US Diego Garcia base. These claims are less reassuring than they seem. Mauritius's negotiations with Britain over the Chagos Islands were fraught with heated disagreements. Mauritius expressed concerns about Britain's unilateral ability to extend the original ninety-nine-year lease for Diego Garcia without its input. It argued that the lease did not adequately account for inflation or currency exchange rates. While Britain's final offer to Mauritius made compromises on key areas of objection, frustrations with the past negotiations still linger. These grievances raise questions about the sincerity of Mauritius's willingness to abide by Starmer's Chagos Islands deal. Minister of State for Europe, North America and the Overseas Territories Stephen Doughty justified the negotiations with Mauritius by warning that international legal courts could deny Britain sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. With China and Russia's tacit backing, Mauritius could be tempted to renege on what it sees as an undesirable agreement and disrupt the Diego Garcia base's operations. As China sees its military presence in the Indian Ocean as a potential enabler of its aggressive designs in the Indo-Pacific region, this scenario could unfold during a conflict over Taiwan or the South China Sea. This would neuter Diego Garcia's effectiveness and Western power projection to counter China when it is needed most. To forestall this outcome, India is strengthening its ties with Mauritius and leveraging this relationship to counter Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean. In March, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ramgoolam announced that the India-Mauritius relationship had been upgraded to the status of an 'enhanced strategic partnership.' India's praise of Britain's Chagos Islands handover deal reflects its glee at its elevated geopolitical role. Starmer's handover of Chagos Islands is an unforced error that reduces the autonomy and efficacy of British defence policy. An increasingly insecure Indo-Pacific theatre just got much more parlous. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
New European
08-02-2025
- Business
- New European
Fixing Brexit can help Labour defeat Reform
Probably the most important speech so far about Britain's Brexit reset was delivered in Brussels on Tuesday by a senior Labour figure – all without the assistance of a voice coach. Even without Leonie Mellinger, the tone was different and the message clearer. After months of cheery platitudes followed by restated red lines and deep frustration, the remarks made by Nick Thomas-Symonds at a EU-UK forum felt like a positive shift. The minister for European Union relations, who will work with Whitehall big-hitters Sir Olly Robbins and Michael Ellam to reset negotiations, told those assembled on both sides that they needed to be 'ruthlessly pragmatic' and work fast. With both the UK and EU27 desperate for growth, Thomas-Symonds targeted the May 19 UK/EU summit in Britain as a deadline for delivery of 'a balanced yet ambitious outcome to benefit all our citizens'. That is just over three months away. Donald Trump and anaemic growth forecasts appear to have lit a fire under proceedings. What emerges won't be a great leap forward that includes the single market or customs union – and maybe not even the limited freedom of movement for young people that the EU desires. But a series of marginal gains will ease the red tape that is crippling so many small- and medium-sized British businesses and produce an estimated uplift to UK GDP of between 0.3%-0.7%. The Conservatives will say that this is nothing to get excited about, but they got deeply aroused by the total uplift of up to 0.15% from the 'Global Britain' trade deals of the wasted Johnson/Truss/Sunak years. And they are no longer the opposition party that Labour is most concerned about. A good result on May 19 or shortly after is important for Keir Starmer as a weapon against a rising Reform. The far right Farageists are tied with or leading Labour in some polls, with the woeful Kemi Badenoch's Tories slipping away. Perhaps not surprisingly, Reform have very little to say on the failure of Brexit. On the same day that Thomas-Symonds spoke of ruthless pragmatism, Farage was invited by Emma Barnett on Radio 4's Today to outline how he would do it better, but offered mainly waffle. 'We can improve the deal by saying to them, 'look, we can make this easier for both of us, we can go back through', we are up for a renegotiation anyway,' he said. In short, exactly what Starmer has been doing. Farage also suggested that a trade deal with the US might be a bigger prize than closer integration, but this is nonsense – a deal with Trump is estimated to be worth only 0.16% of GDP over 15 years. No wonder he did not want to embarrass himself further. If coupled with actual delivery of better arrangements with the EU, Reform's weakness here strikes me as more fertile ground for Labour than attacks on Farage for not being in Clacton, or MPs' attempts to shout him down. 'You broke it, I fixed it,' is a strong message. Rather than Brexit, what 'admirers of Nigel Farage' preferred to talk about this week – in an article by Katy Balls, published in Michael Gove's Spectator – was how Farage might become leader of a 'Reformed Conservatives' with the 'two warring tribes… brought together under one leader' in what some are apparently calling the 'James I model'. No idea why Nigel Farage should be so closely linked with the heavy drinking monarch who loved a good witch hunt, but let the fantasists go on with their dreams of a reverse Tory takeover. The rest of us can keep everything crossed for a long-awaited outbreak of ruthless pragmatism.
