British Prime Minister Keir Starmer believes that his grovelling to Trump in the WH is why the UK 'only' faces 10% tariffs. Lucky us.
Image: Reuters, Claudia Greco
Forward-looking, self-respecting nations are moving with purpose and energy to make new global alliances, recognising that the world economic order has shifted - in the way tectonic plates shift before tsunamis Trump golfs.
Not so the UK Labour government. Trump is golfing - for the 9th weekend out of 10 - this time at the Saudi golf tournament in Florida while financial markets crash to the discordant tune of his spiteful tariffs, and Starmer is hoping it will all just go away.
Just as Labour has swept the disaster of Brexit under the ever-lumpier political carpet, so it is now trying to do the same with Trump's tariffs.
Maybe Starmer believes that his grovelling to Trump in the WH is why the UK 'only' faces 10% tariffs. Lucky us.
It's because we have a relatively equivalent trading relationship with the US. So, we've only got the same level of tariffs as the uninhabited Heard and Mac Donald penguin islands in the Antarctic.
From where I'm standing, the penguins have far more credibility than Sir Kier Starmer. Penguins may not be able to fly, but they are pretty cool in the water.
It's Starmer who is entirely frozen by fear and political indecision.
Amanda Baker I Edinburgh