J.D. Vance: Trump's Heir Apparent or the Republican Party's Biggest Gamble?

On Dec. 2, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump said, "I think [Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz] is a grossly incompetent man. I thought that from the day I watched JD destroy him in the debate. I was saying, who is more incompetent, that man or my man? I had a man and he had a man; they were both incompetent."

Although he backtracked later, Trump may have had a point. In fairness, most politicians make mistakes at some point, career but Vance has made a career out of being outspoken and at the centre of several political controversies, a firebrand, and there appears to be only two possible explanations for his gaffs and offensive comments. Option one is he absolutely believes what he is saying and doesn’t care who he offends. This is a quite possible option as he built his earlier career as a political commentator on hot-button social issues for CNN and as an opinion writer for the New York Post.

Later, as a new Senator for the State of Ohio, he refused to quieten down and became an ardent campaigner for Trump’s brand of conservative, nationalist populism. He was outspoken against rising immigration, and opposed American military aid to Ukraine, but this didn’t fire the flames of discontent enough for him, so he declared his opposition to same-sex marriages and abortion rights, just to turn the flames into a wildfire. By 2023, he had inspired sufficient division that you either loved or hated him – but there was no way you could be indifferent.

The second option, of course, is he could be politically stupid, but with a sound education from two of America’s top universities and sufficient time debating on the Senate floor, I feel it wise to dismiss this alternative.

Whichever way people choose, there is no doubt in the minds of most pundits – this is a politician who is going places – and as we all know, Trump was to announce him as his running mate in July 2024 at the Republican National Convention.

Five months later, J.D. Vance was installed into the second most important job in the United States and, as you would expect with any firebrand, he courted controversy. So, most political commentators were not greatly surprised when an article published by the Jerusalem Post drew widespread attention after alleging the Vice President of the United States disclosed sensitive Israeli military plans to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to the report, Israel had finalized a covert military operation—supported by Mossad and the Israeli Air Force—that envisioned leveraging Kurdish forces to destabilize Iran’s regime. The plan was reportedly halted at the last moment after former President Donald Trump intervened and vetoed the operation.

In the aftermath of the article’s publication, Israeli security sources have accused officials within the White House of leaking details of the plan. Several of those sources have singled out Vice-President Vance, alleging the information was passed on in time for Erdogan to contact Trump and urge him to block the operation before it could proceed. Most readers will not be surprised to learn Vance's press secretary, Luke Schroeder, immediately denied the allegation, and suggested the accusations were "categorically false", though notably Israel has not withdrawn their accusations.

This is far from the first time Vance has been in trouble with Israel, or the Jewish community. In October 2025, Vance criticized a vote by the Israeli parliament to advance a bill on the proposed annexation of the occupied West Bank, calling it "a very stupid political stunt."

While waiting at Ben Gurion airport to return home after an official visit to Israel, he added: "The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy. And if people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that, but we certainly weren't happy about it."

From this comment, we can only assume Vance shares the same level of arrogance as his boss and feels he has the right tell Israel what it can and cannot do, despite not being either an Israeli citizen, or an elected member of the Knesset.

More recently, Vance’s position is taking flak in both the Senate and House of Representatives as conservatives openly criticize his defence of President Trump’s deal with Iran. With mid-terms just a few months away, he finds himself in the unenviable position of being at loggerheads with many senators and congressmen and women, leaving him politically isolated.

When Vance was asked at a news conference recently about reports many senior Israeli were angry over the deal, he said: “My message to them would be twofold. ​No. 1: Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world ‌who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this ‌moment in time,” Vance said. “If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left ‌in the entire world.”

Vance added that two-thirds of the weapons Israel has “have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars …. The problem for Israel is not Donald J Trump, and anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.”

Now there are a couple of points here needing political dissection. Firstly, it is fundamentally untrue to suggest Trump is the only head of state sympathetic to Israel. While Israel remains grateful to US support, there are several international leaders who support the Jewish state including Friedrich Merz (Germany), Emmanuel Macron (France), Keir Starmer (UK), and Narendra Modi (India).

Secondly, pointing out Israel’s reliance on the US for supply of conventional weapons alongside a suggestion Israel should never condemn Trump, even when US actions may be detrimental to the country strikes me of bullying – and if Israel and the world have learned anything in the last 78 years it is how Israel doesn’t welcome bullies.

Vance's blind spot on antisemitism

While it would be wrong to accuse Vance of being antisemitic, his comments over the last few years have, at least, demonstrated a gross insensitivity towards the Jewish community. In particular,  in his efforts to promote his Right-wing views, he has ignored accusations of antisemitism “exploding” within the Republican party despite an October, 2025 “Politico” report regarding a selection of vile antisemitic and pro-Nazi messages from leaked group chats written by leaders of Young Republican chapters and various state GOP politicians and staffers; or a May, 2024 report in the New York Times exposing  a July 2023 email to Republican supporters where the Trump campaign employed an image bearing a striking resemblance to a Nazi-era cartoon of a hook-nosed puppet master manipulating world figures.

He said when asked about these points: “Do I think that the Republican Party is substantially more antisemitic than it was 10 or 15 years ago? Absolutely not … I think it’s kind of slanderous to say that the Republican Party, the conservative movement, is extremely antisemitic.”

Despite his weak rebuttal, a substantial portfolio is building up against him and leading many to question his attitude towards the Jewish people.

Other insensitivities towards the Jewish community

·       Vance defended the inclusion of antisemites in the Republican Party at the Turning Point USA conference in December 2025.

·       On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Vance’s 2026 statement commemorating the Holocaust did not mention Jews, Nazis, antisemitism, or the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust.

·       In December 2025, Vance absurdly claimed that stopping immigration is the best way to curb antisemitism in the U.S.

·       October 2025, Vance attempted to minimize the seriousness of a racist and antisemitic Young Republican (18–40-year-olds) group chat.

·       Vance defended Trump’s 2024 statement that Jewish Americans who did not vote for Trump were disloyal, calling Trump’ accusation “reasonable.”

·       Vance refused to denounce Tucker Carlson in 2024 for praising and airing the views of a Holocaust revisionist who falsely claimed that the Nazis’ destruction of European Jewry was not an intentional act of premeditated genocide.

·        In 2022 Vance said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene did “nothing wrong” in appearing at a white nationalist conference organized by Nick Fuentes (a well-that even some Republican leaders objected to.

Vance's Israel problem

·       Vance has opposed aid to Israel and promotes policies that are harmful to Israel.

·       Vance voted against the post-October 7, $14 billion emergency aid package to Israel twice, on February 13, 2024.

·       After Republicans defeated it on February 23, he voted against the package again on April 23, 2024, when it did pass, with most Republicans voting for it.

Other gaffs and political mess-ups

·       Vance admitted he falsely claimed Haitians were eating pets in Ohio after his rhetoric inspired violence against that community.

·       In 2024, senior Labour figures in the UK rejected comments by Vance, that the UK could become the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon” under the party. This is despite, at that time, Muslim immigration being less than 5% of the overall population

·       In March 2025, in an interview, Vance appeared to downplay his earlier comment about the potential of “20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years” in monitoring any ceasefire. His comments were widely perceived to be directed towards the UK and France, who have been leading European efforts to secure a peace deal between Russia and Kyiv.

Liberal Democrat defence spokeswoman Helen Maguire MP, a former Captain in the Royal Military Police who served in Iraq argued: “JD Vance is erasing from history the hundreds of British troops who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan I saw first-hand how American and British soldiers fought bravely together shoulder to shoulder. Six of my own regiment, the Royal Military Police, didn’t return home from Iraq. This is a sinister attempt to deny that reality.” A Conservative Opposition MP, Mr Obese-Jesty, who also served in Iraq and Afghanistan cited Vance’s account in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, of his own time as a Marine Corps journalist in Iraq, where he said he “was lucky to escape any real fighting”.

The MP for Huntingdon went on: “I was part of British forces fighting in highly kinetic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter in response to Article 5 following 9/11 … The disrespect shown by the new US vice-president to the sacrifices of our service personnel is unacceptable.”

·       This follows a highly controversial diplomatic row in June 2026, when Vance and other US officials spoke out regarding the handling of the tragic murder of Henry Novak. Vance suggested the death happened "the same way a civilisation dies," which drew a sharp rebuke from Downing Street over alleged attempts to stir up racial division in the UK.

·       On 15^th May 2026, Vance was met with a humiliating silence when he tried to transform a memorial event into a political stump speech. Speaking at a memorial service for the Fraternal Order of Police’s National Peace Officers, Vance got a quiet reaction to his raving about the Trump administration’s efforts to end cashless bail. “How about we have a federal government that puts violent criminals in prison, as opposed to letting them out of jail?” Vance said. There was a long, awkward pause, before the quiet members of the audience slowly started clapping.

It’s possible the crowd of law enforcement officers and their families are aware there is no significant documented increase in violent crimes among arrestees out on cashless bail, which allows people suspected of a crime who can’t meet bail to avoid spending time in a cage before they’ve been convicted. Or perhaps the audience weren’t impressed by how Vance used his pulpit to deliver a political speech

Political Comment

With a little over two years to the next presidential election, we can all look forward to a great deal of political jostling for both Republican and Democratic nominations for the presidency. You will forgive me if I ignore the candidates for the Democratic nomination, but now, there are no significant candidates coming to the fore, but for the sake of democracy, we can but hope someone will emerge to offer the electorate a decent alternative.

To critics, J.D. Vance has tunnel vision; his focus is on immigration and to reduce aid to Ukraine and Israel; issues that at one time would have been a recipe for political ruin. But Vance doesn’t seem to buy any hyper-partisan strategy. Quite simply, he speaks a style of firebrand right-wing Trumpism fluently and there are many Americans who love it. In his mind there can be no compromise - you can try to do Republicans politics and work with Democrats, or you can choose to say, ‘I’m not going to try to be Mr Nice Guy, I’m just going to get the job done with or without your support.’ Arguably the main reason why we will eventually see him seek the Republican nomination for the presidency.

Make no mistake, Vance is a MAGA firebrand who will be a huge asset to the United States political system because he has the capacity to mobilise disengaged voters, force neglected issues onto the national agenda and act as a crucial check on institutional stagnation. Now, I confess, I despise everything he stands for politically. In my mind, he is Trump 2.0 but with a brain that, it appears has little care for Israel and its place in the Middle East. Against this, sometimes a political firebrand can revolutionise a country. Take the examples of Margaret Thatcher, or Clement Atlee in the United Kingdom – in Thatcher’s case alone, over a period of ten years, she changed the face of Britain and a generation later the country changed completely. Was it for the better? Well, here you come to personal opinion and that is not for this argument.

But there are dangers in giving Vance more power. The US is visibly a nation divided and Trump has encouraged this political ‘civil war’ to further his own agenda, and, despite his promise, America isn’t seen internationally as being great. If Vance has the intellectual and political acumen to reunite the country and bring the warring factions back to the table, he will effectively restore trust in the United States. Would a Vance presidency be good for Israel or Ukraine? Absolutely not and, based on his current performance demonstrates a naïve lack of Middle East history and politics. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and many Arab countries, even post-Gaza war and starting to normalise relationships with the Jewish state and, under normal circumstances, we would expect a US president to play a major part in those negotiations. Add to this an ongoing war with Iran that has no interest whatsoever in adhering to Trump’s “Agreement”, so if Vance wants the Republican nomination, he will need to tread carefully because there are many in the GOP opposed to him and he will need to do a lot of smooth talking to gain the keys to the White House.

For Israel’s sake, it is my hope that he never becomes the Republican nomination and instead Mick Huckabee or Marco Rubio stood against him. Both have sound credentials and either would make excellent presidential candidates.

But if Vance were to secure the nomination and perhaps the presidency, political commentators like myself will have much to write about for the next few years.

Welfare to Work Doesn’t Work—and the Evidence Is Clear

Wherever we are in the world, we are being forced to live a myth; a lie that for some can destroy us physically, profoundly harm our mental health, corrupt us socially, or leave us emotionally desolate. I am, of course, talking about work, the social and economic need to ‘earn a living’ and pay our way in the world. This isn’t to suggest some don’t thrive in the work environment, clearly there are examples of retirees who shrivel away without a job to go to each day; or those dedicated few who genuinely believe they get their identity from the job they do and savour the experience every day. But I would argue most people work for the salary they are paid each month.

By now many readers will be thinking, ‘Oh here goes, another lefty wanting to ‘smash the system’, but that is very far from my intention. I have nothing against earning a living, but what I hope to show is how our hard-earned taxes are being misspent to perpetuate a grossly unhealthy myth about the idea of work and it’s not even working.

But let me first talk about how having a job may be harmful.

How work messes with your mind

For years, psychology has been used to tell us work is good. In 2006, Waddell and Burton did some research commissioned by the UK Department of Work and Pensions and it unsurprisingly argued:

·       Work meets important psychosocial needs in societies where employment is the norm;

·       Work is central to individual identity, social roles and social status;

·        Employment and socio-economic status are the main drivers of social gradients in physical and mental health and mortality;

It sounds plausible, but there is also strong psychological evidence showing how our working conditions and a lousy workplace environment can affect our mental health, so it isn’t black and white. I mean, we know high job demands, low job control, high effort–reward imbalances, injustice in the workplace, role stress, bullying and a lack of support can create mental health problems – in other words, the kind of difficulties most of us face nearly every day.

Social effects of work may not be as good as we think

The negative social impact of work may seem obvious but let me spell it out. At its most basic level, research has shown work can degrade interpersonal relationships and create spillover impacts on families. Even worse, workplace dynamics such as exclusion or not being allowed into social or work groups can affect us badly, as can being deliberately ignored by our work colleagues

A more recent social effect has been the post-Covid trend towards remote, or lone working - while offering a lot of flexibility, it brings with it distinct isolation risks, which can significantly damage natural social functioning.

Negative spiritual effects of work

We often tend to ignore the spiritual effects, but they can have a profound effect on our well-being. Take for example times when we work in a toxic environment that lead us to feel a lack of purpose or identity. We see this when people are employed in, what they feel are pointless or unfulfilling jobs and this can undermine your sense of autonomy that can lead us to feeling hopeless, depressed, or maybe simply as though our careers have stagnated. Add a toxic management, or disrespectful colleagues and all this can disrupt your inner peace, making it difficult to maintain a contented or relaxed mindset.

So why do we work?

Well, here we come to the crux of the matter, because governments and employers want us to believe work is wholesome, character-building and gives us a sense of identity (and, of course, for some this is true), but the reality is far simpler – we work because we have to. It’s as simple as that. We work because if we don’t, we can’t pay our rent or mortgage, we can’t eat, drink, or stay warm, and all this ignores the wonderful toys our consumer society churns out every day that we convince ourselves we ‘need’ – after all, where would life be if we couldn’t buy the latest smart watch, a new electric car, the latest Apple phone, or a crazy foreign holidays,

So, we work primarily to survive and secure financial independence, it fulfils core human needs by providing routine, community and, for some, it gives a sense of purpose. For those lucky enough it can challenge us to grow, foster personal development, and give us a feeling we are contributing our unique skills to society – but here I would urge caution as this is unlikely to be the common view of work.

A few years ago, an ex-colleague of mine told me he had been working so hard on a project that he’d literally made himself unwell. He didn’t offer this as a health update, or to warn me about overexertion. It was, oddly enough, a boast. But why is work treated, strangely enough, as if it were next to godliness

In 1905, Max Weber gave us some answers when he suggested work is driven by a "Protestant work ethic," where labour is viewed as a divine "calling" and wealth accumulation a sign of spiritual salvation. What Weber could never anticipate was how society would move away from this “Protestant Ethic” and turn to abstract deities that would command our deep devotion; deities like the “free market” - the ultimate, supreme deity in a consumerist world, demanding constant economic growth and competition; or the” Brand” where entities like MacDonalds, Starbucks or Walmart/ Asda act like patron saints, offering worshippers a sense of belonging, status, and identity in exchange for their loyalty. Then there is the role of “the media”, the priesthood and messengers of the modern era. Where social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook broadcast what society should desire, setting the trends and making us feel our lives are inadequate without the latest products.

But what about the unemployed

For a society to work there must be conformity to maintain order, co-operation and social cohesion so, it follows, if the norm is for people to work and participate in a consumerist society, then those unable to do so must be encouraged or forced to do so. To achieve this many governments internationally run “Workfare”, or to use a more British term, “Welfare-to-Work programmes to help, or one could argue force unemployed people back into work. There is nothing new about this approach, policies compelling unemployed people back into work trace back to inter-war Britain, or even as far back as the 1880 Famine Codes in British India.

 More modern “Workfare” programmes are government-administered social policies requiring able-bodied welfare recipients to engage in community work, public-service jobs, or job training in exchange for receiving state income benefits. Its declared aim being to reduce poverty, prevent long-term dependency on government aid and help individuals build recent work experience. The covert goal is to reintegrate the unemployed back into a thriving consumerist society.

Unfortunately, the World Bank, amongst others argue workfare programmes have no lasting effects on total national employment or the full-time long-term employment of those who have been out of work for over 12-months. It simply doesn’t work.

Despite this, these programmes remain popular and involve billions of pounds/ dollars of government investment.

I was thinking recently about Viktor Frankl who developed an argument suggesting the purpose of life is to secure well-being. The corollary is, of course the creation of meaningless work is contrary to the creation of well-being, and forcing people into such work may even be harmful.

We know workfare or public works programmes (PWPs) work effectively as social safety nets to provide temporary income and food security, but as long-term tools for returning people to employment their success is mixed; research shows they often fail to create lasting infrastructure benefits and, more importantly their effectiveness depends heavily on their context (whether they are targeting long-term unemployed, young people, elderly etc ) as they are not a one-size-fits-all solution to poverty or unemployment.

The effectiveness of UK workfare/ welfare-to-work programmes – the Restart Scheme

The Restart Scheme was established to help long-term unemployed people return to work, offering training in employability skills, skills development and job placements. Since 2021, 1.2 million unemployed were referred to the scheme and the government set a target of achieving 310,000 successful outcomes during a five-year period (an outcome assumes an individual secures 16-hours of work per week for a period of 6-months), costing the taxpayer an estimated £2,429 per person. The scheme achieved only 280,000 successful outcomes (88|%). In their analysis of Restart, the Institute of Fiscal argued had absolutely nothing been done to help these people, 246,400 would have naturally returned to employment without any form of assistance.

One of the reasons UK workfare programmes are destined to fail is because they are contracted out to independent employability companies eager to maximise profitability and secure the full funding for each referral (they only receive 30% of funding when the person is referred and the remainder when they secure employment). As a result, most providers ‘cream’ (only accept referrals from those who can be found work quickly) or ‘park’ (spend as little time as possible on those with complex needs and difficult to find work) to distort statistics and suggest high success rates.

The effectiveness of US workfare/ welfare-to-work programmes

The main workfare/ employability programme running in the US is known as TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), a federally funded, state-administered programme providing short-term cash assistance and support services to low-income families with children. Often referred to as "welfare”, it aims to help parents achieve self-sufficiency through work-focused programmes helping them back into work. In order to achieve this, the government funds states a total of $16.6 billion each year (the overall federal budget for means-tested budget for welfare programmes is about $1.1 trillion), but unlike workfare programmes in the UK, recipients are usually required to find employment or participate in job-training programmes within two-years of receiving assistance.

What we do know when we look at workfare programmes critically, is that since 1997 the UK, much of Europe and parts of Asia have been eager to adopt welfare-to-work approaches based on extremely limited evidence of their ability to boost welfare recipients' earnings on a long-term basis

So too has the belief programmes prioritising moving people into work quickly are more effective than ones seeking to enhance human capital (skills training, assistance overcoming complex needs etc). Additionally, what is particularly disturbing is how both the US and UK governments have ignored the lack of evidence on how long the beneficial effects of programmes last after people leave them and their almost inevitable future return to unemployment and poverty within five or six years.

 

Political comment

Transparently, we need to rethink the whole concept of work, ranging the current work leisure balance where one-third of our day is spent in work, one-third asleep and up to one-sixth travelling to or preparing for work, leaving only four hours a day for leisure or personal study. But we also need to re-examine our entire ‘back-to-work’ approach because it quite simply isn’t working. In the UK we have 10 million people who are economically inactive and close to 6 million on out of work benefits and 49% of sick and disabled people without a job, In its response, the government is intending to invest £3.8 billion during this parliament alone on programmes supposedly geared to get them back into work; programmes that consistently fail to deliver.

Additionally, we know in the UK, 2.7m people are in work and claiming benefit largely because they have forced into part-time work and have not been able to obtain full-time employment.

Action must be taken if this is to change. In particular, we need to

·       Reappraise the nature of work and re-examine our work-leisure ratio

·       Help young people into training or education programmes by offering them proper skills

·       If unemployment levels vary regionally, offer financial incentives to move to ne areas

·       Offer employers significant incentives to take long-term unemployed

·       Provide greater support to families eg. provide greater financial support for childcare

·       Dramatically increase public works spending eg attack the homelessness crisis by funding a substantial programme to build far more social housing so workers can move to where jobs are at any given time

·       Substantially improve training programmes to respond to cyclical unemployment especially in high-growth industries

·       Lowering interest rates and use tax incentives to allow new and young businesses to expand rapidly.

There’s nothing new here – it’s what we’ve always known, but what we’ve always lacked is the real desire to bring about real and effective change. Handing out hundreds of billions of pounds or dollars to employability providers so they can mage huge profits from governmental ambivalence is not the answer. It is time to develop a cohesive and strategic plan – but the key question is whether we have the willingness.

 

A Pack of Distortions: Why the Tory Numbers Don’t Add Up

As most readers will know I am something of a stickler for honesty in politics. Politicians who lie shame themselves and the party they represent.

You will also have seen that broadly speaking I like to think myself as fair and non-partisan. I describe myself as politically disenfranchised and I rather like the freedom this brings.

So, yesterday, I started fact checking some of Kemi Badenoch's (the Opposition leader) recent pronouncements on how the Tories would resolve the £23bn  defence budget gap by cutting welfare spending. Sadly, the conclusion I came to was that it was fundamentally a pack of lies and distortions. 

I attach some of my reasoning, her exact words are in quotes.

1.  “A million more people are claiming Universal Credit since last year’s Budget.”

Caused by the "Move to Universal Credit" managed migration scheme, which transitioned claimants from older "legacy benefits" (such as Employment and Support Allowance) to the UC system.

2. “They [Labour] believe the way to end poverty is to give money to people in poverty until they are not in poverty anymore.

Not totally accurate, increases in welfare, tax credits, and targeted social security have not been exclusively funded by income tax rises. While income tax yields are substantial, these expansions are heavily funded through a combination of broader tax increases (such as Employer National Insurance Contributions), frozen personal tax thresholds (fiscal drag), and elevated government borrowing.

3.  "'Relative poverty' just tells you what proportion of households earn below 60 per cent of median income.

That is not a measure of poverty at all."

Actually, it is. The UK Median wagae is £39, 039 of which 60% amounts to £23,423. Assuming a 37.5 hour week this equates to £12.01 per hour. The National minimum wage is £12.71.

4. "In Hackney alone, 1,000 families on benefits with 5 or 6 children stand to gain £74 million from the lifting of the two-child benefit cap.

Equates to each family receiving benefit £74,000 assuming it was distributed evenly"

Clearly these statistics are wrong.

5. "Do you know how many people’s thresholds were frozen just to pay for those families in Hackney?

340,000 taxpayers."

In fact, the actual number of taxpayers in Hackney is closer to 148,000 BUT income tax was not the main funding source to finance lifting the two-child cap.

6. "Last year, we saw the fastest increase of children in workless households we’ve ever had."

Actually, the data reveals this was actually in 2023 – 2024 under a Conservative government when it surged by 160,000

7. "There are now more children in the UK growing up in households where no one works than the entire population of Estonia."

True but be should also recognise their population is only 1.35 million so hardly a reasonable statistic.

8. "For all that is going wrong now, and let’s be honest has gone wrong in the past nations can absorb shocks.

The financial crisis, Brexit, Covid."

All 3 were under Tory governments so I fail to see the point.

9. "Unemployment has risen every single month.inder Starmer."

While the overarching trend shows a rise in joblessness from historic lows, there are several instances in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data where the number of unemployed people and the headline unemployment rate have recorded small dips or remained flat over rolling three-month periods.

10. “Quite simply, our sickness benefits system was not designed to handle the age of diagnosis we now live in. So, we are also going to review which conditions the state treats as disabilities when it comes to benefits.”

How will this work? Who will be affected and how will it be scrutinised? Bearing in mind chronic failings in the existing PIP assessment procedure that remain unresolved this proposal could lead to disturbing diagnostic conclusions

11. "But in an age in which one in four people now self-report as disabled, it’s clear that we are now going to have to draw a line on what health issues the state can support people with.”

In the UK, approximately 5.5 million working-age disabled people (aged 16–64) are in employment. This corresponds to an employment rate of 52.8%

Furthermore, the interim chair of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), Penny Young, has written to the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, about a claim in the Conservatives’ Alternative King’s Speech that “for the first time ever, the total welfare bill is now higher than total receipts from income tax”.

In addition, welfare payments have been higher than income tax receipts for many years, and the position is expected to reverse this year.

The UK Statistics Authority also said it was worried that the Conservatives were giving the impression that “welfare” was mainly about sickness and out-of-work benefits, when “approximately 55% of social security expenditure is spent on pensioners”.

A Conservative spokesman has reportedly told the PA News Agency the party acknowledged their claims were inaccurate and planned to correct its document. This did not appear to have happened as of 4pm on (29 June).

How woke became broke and threatened democracy

As I look around, it’s becoming increasingly clear “wokeism” and political correctness have become one of the greatest political dangers of our time. You might think that sounds pretty outrageous, but let’s look at just one example to show you what I mean. It goes back to when I was an ankle-snapper growing up in a Welsh city still recovering from the Blitz. Every day, I would ride a small red trike along the pavement outside my house. In those days, parents didn’t worry about traffic because there weren’t many cars around, and as for the risk of paedophiles, perverts or white slave traders whisking me away? Well, It was easy - we had a sense of community and if my parents weren’t keeping an eye on me then, you could count a local neighbour would be, and besides, the local “bobby” (an affectionate name for a police officer) always seem to be patrolling the area and was quite happy to give me a ‘clip around my ear’ if I misbehaved.

One day as I rode up and down the street, I looked in shock as a tall, elegant gentleman walked towards me. “Mum,” I screamed, “there’s a big black man!” Instantly, my mother ran onto the street, telling me off for calling him a ‘black man.’ “He isn’t black, he’s a coloured gentleman,” she continued, taking care to apologise for my outburst. This was the mid- to late 1950s and my parents were passionate antiracists but this was the first time I, as a four-year-old, was to learn about prejudice. It was a lesson I took on board and throughout my life I’ve had a deep hatred of intolerance. It was because of this that, when a few years later, I went to Grammar school, I was somewhat shocked to learn it was no longer acceptable to use the phrase “coloured people” but instead the new antiracist term was “Black”.

Eager to be a good-hearted liberal, I happily went along with the change. A few years later, as my schooldays were coming to an end, the world seemed to turn upside down: students across Europe were rebelling and occupying universities, throughout Europe the name “Danny the Red” was on every young person’s lips, everyone seemed to be against the Vietnam war and, of course, the Beatles were causing a worldwide sensation. But, unlike the majority I hated them (sorry Beatle fans) because I adored a new style of music coming from Detroit. The new Tamla Motown record label introduced me to Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and the Supremes, Temptations, and Four Tops; all of whom transformed my world my world. In the terminology of the day, I fell in love with what we then called, Afro-Caribbean singers because terminologies like “black” or ‘coloured person’ were démodé, and replaced by a new, more exotic term, Afro-Caribbean – well, until some bright spark realised this was also the name for a Black hair style. 

In order to not offend, the liberal “grammar police” told us we must now call “Black” people, “African-Caribbean” while at the same time apologising profusely for their unfortunate error – even though most black people had no links with either the Caribbean or Africa – neither ‘George’ from Queens, a fifth generation American with ancestors who had served in the Civil War  or ‘Harry’ from Edinburgh, with several past members in his family who had fought in the Napoleonic wars, felt they had any kind of link to Africa. Unfortunately, liberal “political correctness” demanded they identify as African – even if they didn’t want to.

By the time we reached the late seventies/ early eighties, many Black people were also pointing out they had no connection to Africa or the Caribbean so, guess what? Yes, of course, the liberal grammar police found a new word to describe them, but they were tiring of finding new terms, so went back to the 1960s and rediscovered “black” For a while it seemed the perfect solution; liberals were happy, so were those defining themselves as black and the world appeared to be a happy place, but, of course, that wasn’t going to last.

As society became increasingly multicultural, lexical liberals realised the “Black” couldn’t be used to identify Asians, or Native Americans, so to solve this problem, they settled on People of Colour”, but don’t get too settled, because you can be sure of one thing – somewhere in a grubby little bedsit there are a group of opinionated Foucauldian lexical anarchists preparing for it all to change all over again.

The point of this trip through history is to show how we have spent the last 75 years trying to satisfy every ethnic group (whether they want it or not) and despite our best efforts, we’ve largely failed. But what we did do with all this ringing of hands and self-flagellation is open the door to “wokeism” and “political correctness”.

It is to this term “wokeism”, I wish now to refer, because it is a relatively vague term with multiple meanings, so it’s important to define it from the outset.

Essentially, “wokeism”, as defined by those who believe in it, is a term used to describe progressive attitudes and activism focused on social and political inequality, systemic injustice, and identity politics.

Brilliant, but has it done what it set out to achieve?

                                   Dr Ibram X Kensi

“Wokeism” holds how the U.S. and other Western nations were fundamentally compromised by a history of injustice toward “historically marginalized groups.” Gays, people of colour, women, ethnic minorities, transsexuals and disabled were oppressed by a dominant culture that subjugated them throughout history. The “Wokerati” (those governed by a wokeist agenda) treat this structural racism/ sexism/ homophobia/ transphobia (take your pick) as being almost ineradicable, and so, to combat these injustices, they then call for full recognition of all these ethnic, or gender and other identities and, in some cases, even demand reparations. As wokeist icon, Ibram X. Kendi put it, “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” These neo-liberal wokerati also push for extensive “antiracist/ anti-gender” indoctrination and—in many cases—suppression of what they see as bigoted speech. So, for example, in the case of gender identification, we’re left with not two genders, but LGBTIQQCAPGNGFNBA2SS+. (Please don’t ask me to explain each letter, it was bad enough typing them correctly.) – and the only way to counter earlier prejudices is to deny old, now obsolete pronouns like him/ her and replace them with neopronouns like Ze/ Zer/ Sirs or, Ey/ Em/ Ears, or Xe/ Xem/ Cyr …. the list is simply endless.

Now the worst of this is the wokerati argument of how, when I point out how ridiculous this has become, I am automatically anti-Black (or person of colour), transphobic, homophobic, disablist, or sexist. Well, let me be clear, I am none of these and take huge offence at any such suggestion. For most of my life, I’ve fought against racism and for gender equality. I’ve marched against the oppression of women and, I have no problem with whatever sexuality or gender you choose, but please do we have to carry it on our sleeves? If you want to be gay, trans, bi, or any one of the letters I wrote above, go do it, have a ball – be the person you are meant to be and be happy but, please, for the love of riley, does it really have to be in our face so much? Should an estimated 300,000 trans people in the UK, out of an overall population of 66 million be able to force an initial spend of at least £21m because they demanded changes in the design of toilets at general outpatient care in hospitals when the NHS deficit is running at about £1 bn? Putting this more simply, there are about the same number of trans people in the UK as there are Jews. There are over 1200 hospitals in UK, but only just over 100 provide kosher food. What would happen if Jews demanded every hospital provided kosher meals? Answer? I can guarantee, there would be outrage. So, once again, may I say quite categorically, if a one-legged, gay, blind, black dwarf, trans woman and her Asian sapiosexual  Deaf, depressive,  girlfriend both need treatment, require housing, need employment, or simply want a seat on a train then they should have exactly the same opportunity and courtesies as any other human being – nothing more, nothing less.

Why do I say this, because isn’t it obvious? Isn’t it? Apparently not.

Take the recent tragic case of Henry Nowak, a white 18-year-old student in the UK, who was on his way home when his assailant stabbed him multiple times leading to his death. When the police arrived, Nowak was on the ground and bleeding profusely, while his killer insisted he was racially attacked by the victim. Rather than providing emergency care and calling for an ambulance, Mr Nowak was handcuffed, while Diwa (the perpetrator) told a ‘story’ about how he was attacked. Nowak told police he couldn’t breathe, but despite this, he was offered no help and died in handcuffs. Later evidence suggested police did not act because they assumed a racial attack and prioritising this over the welfare of an ordinary civilian. Political correctness was prioritised over basic human decency, even while the victim’s blood was soaking into the pavement.

J.K. Rowling

There is an insidious side to wokeism because if you speak against it, then the immediate counter is to suggest the writer or speaker is a “fascist”, or “TERF”. Yet liberal wokerati demand the right to “speak their own truth” but deny opposing voices the same right to express their opinion – they are simply cancelled. The most well-known case being J.K Rowling who, for most of her adult life, has been a staunch advocate for women. When, as part of this advocacy she spoke in defence of Maya Forstater in December 2019, a British researcher who lost her job after tweeting people cannot change their biological sex, she was immediately condemned and called transphobic. Rowling then cemented her opposition to the wokerati in June 2020 for criticising an article for saying “people who menstruate” (distinguishing them from trans women who do not).

Now it’s not the purpose of this article to defend Rowling, this is about something far more serious – the right to say what you think or feel, without fear of censorship. Indeed, I would argue, the result of wokeism is how it has created a form of censorship where a person who has shared a controversial opinion, expressed an ‘inappropriate’ viewpoint, or whose actions are perceived as offensive, can be called out and then ‘cancelled’ for their errant behaviour. The end-product being how it denies a free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, and it is becoming more constricted daily.

Naturally, the wokerati argue cancel culture doesn’t threaten free speech and they go further; by implying it doesn’t exist in the first place. In their mind, just because some ideas or thoughts are discouraged for fear of other people not liking it, does not mean they are forbidden from saying it. But is this true? If speaking out can result in job loss, your career or your entire livelihood disappearing overnight, (as has happened) then I would argue censorship has denied our right to free expression.

JS Mill, one of the fathers of liberal thought, once claimed: “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

It would appear the wokerati are of a different mind.

In its original form, wokeism was based on an assumption positive discrimination would solve the problems in our society: people from diverse and minority groups would be able to obtain better, jobs, improve or have greater access to housing, health and social care and of course gain greater political representation which would allow these groups to have a louder voice in modern society. Unfortunately, something went wrong along the way. Instead of making things fairer, we created a world where a minority have authority over the majority;  a society where we tried to remove intolerance and division and replaced it with narrow-minded dogmatic principles like "cancel culture," public shaming, and ideological conformity resulting in increased polarization, where instead of uniting communities, we point accusatory fingers at those who deviate from an assumed norm.

…. and it’s not even worked.

In the UK, the latest Home Office statistics, published annually, show there were more than 18,000 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation and over 3000 trans related hate crimes between March 2024 and March 2025. While in the USA, latest annual crime reports from the FBI highlight, once again, while overall violent crime in the U.S. continues to decline, hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community remain alarmingly high. The FBI’s report noted there were 1,950 recorded incidents relating to an alleged victim’s sexual orientation in 2024 and 463 relating to an alleged victim’s gender identity. Race/ ethnicity motivated hate crimes remained the largest category, making up 51.8% of all hate crimes. Hate crimes based on religion were second, just ahead of sexual orientation.

It’s no better on the job front either. LGBTQ+ job opportunities still face significant challenges. Research shows up to 40% of LGBTQ+ employees hide their identity at work due to fears of discrimination, and a substantial pay gap and glass ceiling still limit career progression.

Political comment

Wokeism may have started with the best of intentions, a desire to improve the quality of life for those who have historically been oppressed. Fine words, but if it hasn’t fulfilled its objectives – and the hard data show it clearly hasn’t, then why are we keeping it?

The original notion behind “wokeism”, which used to mean “awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination”, was co-opted by pseudo-liberal political upstarts who’ve used it as an opportunity to grind their own axe as publicly as possible, and each one has an ostensibly bullying agenda designed to suck all our hard earned freedoms. Immediate cancellation is executed against those who dare disagree, and then they are sentenced to a social “Devil’s Island” where they are forcibly socially or politically isolated until they repent , and even then this may not be enough.

   

Piers Morgan

Lately, the writer, Piers Morgan suggested “woke is dead”, but I’m very far from sure. Certainly, it’s been weakened as it tried, and failed to usurp control from more and more eccentric theatres, but it still retains a stranglehold on much of modern political life. Don’t believe me? Try saying you don’t believe in “crazy pronouns”, or arguing J.K Rowling made some interesting points; or, announce you refuse to ‘bend the knee’ and question whether “Black Lives Matter” is the best way forward.

Wokeism has waged a silent war on our free speech and in doing so, it has eroded democracy. More worryingly, it did it openly, and we sat silently while it happened allowing wokeism to politically neuter us and smiling as it happened. Today, there are some who want to kick back, but history taught us one thing – every time society takes a wrong turn it has never been possible to go back precisely to point zero. So will have to accept there is no point closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. We may be able to pull back from some of the lunacy of wokeism but, because we closed our eyes, we will never be quite the same ever again,

Why Americans Need to Get Much Angrier About Donald Trump.

Over the months and years, I’ve watched America transition from a tolerant, bastion of free speech, to a divided nation where intolerance abounds and the only permitted political comments are those lauded towards their new Caesar, President Donald J. Trump. Looking back, it was an inevitable love affair. On the international scene, presidential indecision had, by 2017 left the US looking weaker than at any other time in history. America hasn’t won a major sustained war on its own since Word War 2, though there have been a few ‘successes’ if you include smaller interventions.

In 1983, the US swiftly invaded Grenada (with an estimated population, then 110,000) and overthrow the Marxist military government. Similarly, in 1990, in Operation Just Cause, they quickly ousted dictator Manuel Noriega and installed a democratically elected government. I do not include the Gulf War as this broadly successful conflict involved a 35-nation coalition, of which the US was only a part.

Prosperity on the Home Front

On the home front, US citizens were at their most affluent (if defined by how easily a single wage earner could buy a home, raise a family and buy a car) under Dwight  Eisenhower, while they were able to save the most under Nixon and Carter;

although, unemployment was high under Reagan and Ford, but healthcare arrangements were improved the most for the elderly and low-income populations under Lyndon B. Johnson, though I’m sure some readers would argue in providing cover to over 30 million Americans,  Obama’s Affordable Care Act deserves mention.

Against this, Trump has referred to his own presidency as a “very beautiful and romantic time”, and after his first term, “our country was thriving, we were just beating everyone,” but is this true?

International markers during both Trump eras show that, if we examine the Happy Planet Index (a tool created by the New Economic Foundation to measure national well-being, we see Costa Rica is top, the UK comes in at 34^th, while the US is way behind at 108^th. Equally, if we look at the Human Development Index, an UN-inspired economic tool to measure economic opportunity and capability, Norway is top, the US 13^th and the UK close behind at 14^th. Finally, using the OECDs Better Lives Index, a tool identifying 11 facets essential to well-being (housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, civic engagement, health life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance), Norway, Finland and Denmark come top and the US is far behind in 15th place.

Similarly, if we explore the rate of inflation over the last twenty years, the U.S. has averaged roughly 2.5% to 3.0% annually, marked by a period of historic stability between 2006–2020, followed by a massive 40-year peak of 9.1% under Trump in 2022 due to pandemic-era factors, and more recently, we see a volatile run back up to 4.25% due to recent energy price shocks following the Iran war.

Given this why I fail to see anything beautiful or romantic about Trump’s two presidencies, especially when you remember unemployment went to its highest during his first term at 14.7%. Now you might accuse me of being unfair given this was during the Covid lockdown, but comparatively during the same era, Japan kept unemployment to between 2.8 and 3.3%, Germany averaged 3.8% and the UK averaged 4.9%. So clearly something went badly wrong with Trump’s economic policy.

Taking the honesty test

Although a very bitter pill to swallow, it might be possible to forgive him if he was honest, but what is widely known and has been proven beyond doubt is the level of his dishonesty resulting in a criminal grand jury indicting him on one count of making “false statements and representations”. This related  specifically to hiding subpoenaed classified documents from his attorney, who was trying to return them to the government. And let’s not forget his 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in the first degree.

By now, “true defenders” will argue Trump is frequently maligned and these prosecutions should never have happened because they were either errors or, at worst, business matters with no bearing on his political acumen or integrity.

These are by far from his only dishonest actions. There are plenty more – let’s look at just a few:

1.  “Already, I’ve secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States.” It would have been great if it were true, but it was false.

2.  “Our country was being invaded by an army of 25 million people.” Those numbers weren’t even close to being true.

3.  “I was elected in a landslide.” Untrue.

4.  “The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33% compared to Biden last year.” It wasn’t true.

5.  Trump said the Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed this year included, among other things, “no tax on Social Security.” Sound nice, but it wasn’t actually part of the package.

6.  “When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country.” Trump says this all the time, but as I showed above, it was demonstrably false.

7.  “I’ve … settled eight wars in 10 months.” I get the sense he’s convinced himself this happened, but it hasn’t, no matter how many times he repeats the line.

8.  “Gasoline is now under $2.50 a gallon into much of the country. In some states, it, by the way, just hit $1.99 a gallon.” This is a weird thing to lie about, since consumers know better, but for the record, this obviously was not true.

9.  “The price of eggs is down 82% since March, and everything else is falling rapidly.” Trump would have been even more popular if this were true, but it was a lie.

1.  “I negotiated directly with the drug companies and foreign nations, which were taking advantage of our country for many decades, to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400%, 500% and even 600%.” This whopper came  close to the top spot because of the sheer absurdity of the lie.

1  “Between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes caused me to lose the popular vote.” (There is no evidence of illegal voting.).

1  “Take a look at the Pew reports (which show voter fraud.)” (The report never mentioned voter fraud.)

1  “After being forced to apologize for its bad and inaccurate coverage of me after winning the election, the FAKE NEWS @nytimes is still lost!” (It never apologized.)

.  “I saved a lot of money on those jets, didn't I? Did I do a good job? More than $725 million on them.” (Many of the cost cuts were planned before Trump.)

I could go on, but rather than bore you, I will move on, as many journalists now argue there may be as many as 20,000 – 30,000 other lies I could have included. I am no great follower of either TV, or TV personalities, but I believe there is one celebrity called Judge Judith Sheindlin, who once said a teenager is likely lying simply if "their mouth is moving". It seems this is also true of President Trump.

Trump on the international stage

But it is on foreign policy he has failed the most. During his two terms, he has consistently miscalculated the strength or weakness of other parties, as well as often making promises he was obviously incapable of achieving. Take his much-touted promise to solve the ongoing conflict in Ukraine within 24-hours; a promise that ultimately fell completely flat. This failure, combined with repeated wavering commitments to ⁠NATO has discredited the United States as a dependable security provider and forced many European allies to reconsider their own defence postures. This became apparent when Trump called on NATO countries to support his action in Iran, only to find they all pretty much refused point blank. Or his operation to oust Venezuela's elected (albeit in a highly contentious election) ex-President Nicolas Maduro; a unilateral action to remove a national leader without any discussion with his allies.

It is unlikely they would have disagreed with the operation, but the fact he chose to move without consultation created a lot of global uncertainty, leading experts and senior diplomats to warn this unpredictable approach damaged diplomatic relations and emboldened other competitors. Essentially, his rogue action created an uncertainty where it became unclear where, or how, Trump might act in the future. Could he attack Guatemala, Cambodia or Turkey simply because their leaders came to power in unfair elections? The Maduro kidnap occurred because the US accused him of “narco-terrorism”, but could the same happen to other leaders in Ecuador, Colombis, or Mexico? Outrageous perhaps, but Trump’s foreign policy has lacked finesse and forethought leading many countries to distance themselves.

As for the relationship between the US and Russia, far from easing tensions, it has become a strained dynamic, because while Trump previously sought a close, transactional friendship with Putin to resolve global conflicts, it has shifted to frustration as Moscow’s aggressive actions in Ukraine continue and peace becomes increasingly elusive.

Equally, and just as in Ukraine, the once warm relationship between Trump and Netanyahu has deteriorated into name-calling and anger, but unlike Zelensky, Benjamin Netanyahu has no fear of an American withdrawal and appears to almost welcome to ‘go alone’ and destroy Hezbollah on his own, if necessary.

The Iran Deal

The recent agreement between the Trump administration and Iran has ripped the mask off the so-called “Best Friends Forever” relationship between Trump and Netanyahu. If we explore his history, we can see how Trump tends to favour alliances with political strongmen, often siding with them over traditional friends and allies, but only so long as they serve his personal purpose. However, the moment they outlive their usefulness, or become a personal liability, the friendship evaporates instantly.

For Netanyahu, the writing is now on the wall, and Trump has decided to fly solo while ignoring Netanyahu and the needs of the Israeli people; any fealty to Trump has run its course. The Iran deal is so profoundly detrimental to Israel that what was once a political asset - the bond with Trump—has become a liability.

As for the rest of the world, the Wall Street Journal defined it perfectly in their editorial when they argued: “President Trump is touting his latest ceasefire deal with Iran as peace in our time,” the Journal writes, “but the world is more likely to see it as a strategic retreat short of achieving his war aim.”

In fact, I must ask did he ever have any war aims, beyond destroying their nuclear capability? Sure, he told the Iranian people “help is on its way”, but it never really happened and anyway, it was primarily the Israeli Air Force who attacked and killed Ayatollah Khamenei and eliminated much of the IRGC hierarchy, while US forces concentrated on military and nuclear bases.

Much to Trump’s surprise, Iran did not capitulate – they stood their ground and fired back resulting in a financial cost (according to the Pentagon) of approximately $29 billion, though Sen. Chris Murphy argues the cost may be much higher and could be as much as $60 billion, along with the lives of 13 US military personnel.

With Republicans in Congress increasingly unhappy about the war and mid-terms due in November, Trump panicked and as we saw from the “Agreement”, pretty much capitulated on everything. Even his declaration of the terms of the agreement was hysterical, with him refusing to announce its content until the actual day of signing, while Tehran took the upper hand and were so cock-a-hoop they announced the full contents a full week earlier AND claimed victory in the war.

As Melanie Phillips the political commentator so eloquently stated in her blog:

“He has surrendered America to Iran.

He himself admitted that he stopped the war because of the threat of economic catastrophe if it continued. That was because of the oil shock caused by Iran seizing control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump was therefore signalling that America was powerless to defeat the regime. At a stroke, he turned the United States into a paper tiger, seen to be unwilling to do what it takes to fight a war until victory.

He thus ensured that Tehran would have the upper hand in everything that now follows in the negotiations for a final “deal.” It will be able to run rings round the Americans over the proposed “online blending” of the enriched uranium Trump once pledged to destroy, the destruction of centrifuges, disarmament verification, or anything else.”

After several military disasters over the last few years, the US needed a victory in Iran and with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” banners flying high, he looked to be the man to do it. He had everything in his favour: a strong ally with a highly trained and experienced well-equipped military, a region eager to see Iranian influence shut down, on the home front a nation angry with the Ayatollahs and eager to see justice for the Iranian people, and a powerful US military dedicated to defending democracy and freedom.

Trump should have been unbeatable – but somehow, he managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Political Comment

Unquestionably, the United States is full of people who pride themselves on their courage and loyalty; a people who are ever eager to defend the oppressed; and, to their eternal credit, a people who, quite simply, don’t like bullies. I’m not American but I can understand their pride and their patriotism – they have fought hard for it. Occasionally, there are people who superficially say all the right things, sound strong and upright, but beneath the bustle and bravado there is weakness. We have seen it in the UK – in 1939, Neville Chamberlain sucked up to Hitler so heavily, it was frightening and had Lord Halifax become prime minister instead of Winston Churchill, this post would have been written in German.

Despite the bravado and unusual delivery (albeit joyously funny, after all, his presidency will be remembered for his ability to create several new words to the language, including ‘bigly’,’ braggadocios’, ’hamburrderers’, ‘panican’, and my favourite ‘confide’). But despite the humour, let me be clear, Trump is weak and collapses when the conflict is tough. The international media have a nickname for him, calling him “TACO” Trump, an acronym standing for “Trump Always Chickens Out”. Sadly, in the last three months it’s a title he has earned:

21^st March – Trump issued a 48-hour deadline then extended it.

31^st March – He told Iran to make a deal, or US would obliterate energy plants.

1^st April – “We will bomb Iran into the Stone Age.”

5^th April – “open the f****n’ Straits, you crazy b******s or you will be living in hell”.

7^th April – “An entire civilisation will die tonight.”

21^st April – “I expect to be bombing.”

4 – 5^th May - Operation Project Freedom designed to escort ships through the Straits but lasted no more than a day when Iran fired on US military forces.

11^th June – “The US will hit very hard tonight” but cancelled the attack only hours later.

Was it any wonder Iran didn’t believe a single threat Trump made and felt justified in assuming they could go into negotiations with an upper hand.

Make no mistake, despite the “agreement” this war is not over, because Iran believe they are winning and while Trump may be too weak to continue, we all know Israel will not back down and if the US does not finish the job, Israel will do it for them.