Blame Brexit for Theresa the Appeaser
Brexit has forced Britain’s hand in our relationship with Trump, writes Sam Willis
Horrified by Donald Trump’s ban on Muslim refugees and migrants? Mortified by Theresa May’s silence? Well, I’m sad to say, this is only the beginning.
Last week I spoke of Theresa Miliband. For a while, Theresa Maybe was a thing. This week it’s Theresa the Appeaser. When MP Mike Gapes used the term in the Commons, Foreign Secretary Boris deemed the comment distasteful. Frankly, the indecent haste with which she invited President Trump for a state visit leaves a much worse taste in the mouth. And the worst part is, like the dregs of that wine you had at hall last night, this is a taste for lingering.
“The slogan ‘Take Back Control’ never explicitly guaranteed to give that control back to the British people. That control will be sold to the highest bidder.”
Obama had to wait two years for his invite – as did Bush Jr, as did Clinton. What’s changed? You’d think a tendency to be repugnant would have had the opposite effect. And why is it Theresa May looks like she’s digesting needles every time she appears in public? Because she knows Trump is a reprehensible figure. Because she knows she has no choice but to suck up to him.
The slogan – and what a brutally effective slogan it was – of the Leave campaign was ‘Take Back Control’. I hate to be sourpuss or spoilsport, but that isn’t quite what’s happening, is it now? Let’s have a look at the evidence. The UK stands on the cusp of negotiating its exit from the EU, an exit that looks set to eject us from the single market with dim prospects for sectoral deals (as the chief negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, keeps helpfully reminding us). At the same time, May hurries off to the US, invites Trump for a state visit, and refuses to condemn him for his migrant ban. Across the Atlantic, at a very different sort of meeting, Angela Merkel and François Hollande contrastingly do not refrain from criticising Trump. Why is this?
Well, unlike us, Merkel and Hollande have much less to lose. Trump has already torn apart their trade deal (TTIP), and, well, Merkel and Hollande probably think, ‘Fine’. Now they can say: ’We don’t need to pander to this demagogue. Sure, we have our problems, but we also have a market of 500 million people to trade with. Let’s focus on holding that together.’
Britain has everything to lose, or at least May does. She has invested an awful lot of political capital into securing these “trade deals with the rest of the world”, and obviously the US is a pretty big part of the ‘rest of the world’. Britain is a relatively big European country, and a big economy by any standard; but, once out of the EU, it won’t be able to resist the gravitational pull of an economy like the US. For the people who didn’t like TTIP, this means, in all likelihood, a deal much worse than TTIP. An NHS with chunks up for sale? I’d put money on it. Alignment of regulatory standards (which, in many cases, are much lower than the EU equivalent)? Highly probable, too. The slogan ‘Take Back Control’ never explicitly guaranteed to give that control back to the British people. That control will be sold to the highest bidder. And the natural buyer is Trump.
So what does this mean now? It means, in short, expect more of Theresa the Appeaser. If Britain is going to survive outside the aegis of the EU, it will probably need the States. Over the past few months, the reality of our situation has been revealed to us. Forget the choices and possibilities proposed during the referendum. Forget the halcyon dreams offered us by Vote Leave. The choice is between Trump’s America or the EU
