How America is 'managing' Britain right now

I've tried to join the dots this week. And I can see logic to what has been announced. And it's bloody lovely

Foreign Policy is a complex, 4D Chess game.

What you see is not always what you get.

But scrutinising US foreign policy towards Britain this week, I think I can see how they are handling us. And the good news is, it's a savvy strategy.

A 21st Century Marshall Plan

America after the Second World War rolled out The Marshall Plan.

Worried about the spread of Communism, the US Government gave $13 billion of aid to Western Europe to help economic recovery and re-industrialisation in order to water the parched earth upon which Communism seems to flourish.

When countries decline and the cost of living soars, the sense of unfairness and palpable wealth divides tend to help ideas such as ‘sharing the wealth’ flourish. And as we all know, despite what is said on the tin, Communism does not work. It tends to exacerbate divisions and create resentments, erode democracy and lead to a greater downward spiral in a kind of political doom loop.

Sound familiar?

Without a doubt European economic glory has been very much in decline.

Back in the Sixties, when the Western World stood side by side fighting against Communism, Europe's share of global GDP was around a third. Today, that stands at around 14%.

It is little surprise that in societies where economic pain currentlt feels tangible, the ideas of unfairness that fuel the drive towards the hard left take root.

Those of us who battled for Brexit firmly believe that Supranationalisation and Bureaucratisation, as happened in the USSR, and have been ironically emulated by the Brussels behemoth, drive this decline ever deeper.

Dreams of becoming Singapore on Thames, Taking Back Control, trading with the world, unleashing the Anglo-Saxon work ethic and standing proud on the world stage were the optimistic promises underpinning our push for independence.

Yes, we didn't get it. Because nobody who thereafter sat in Number 10 ever got it nor believed it, and unpicking the Gordian Knot five decades in the making as we became part of a United States Of Europe was never going to be an overnight phenomenon.

But what it did do was extract the lion from the circus, even if that lion is still drugged and traumatised and doesn't quite yet know how to roar, because it has not been allowed to for so long.

It does mean that Brexit Britain however is the key to unleashing the entire continent of Europe.

And that is what America is trying to do. Let me explain.

Power Play

Photo by Nicolas HIPPERT on Unsplash

We all know that those who have fuel have fight. Oil wells, gas fields, nuclear technology… If you can keep your lights on, power your factories, and even better, sell that energy abroad, you have prosperity, progress and position.

While most of the Communist world is alive to this, and has gone hell for leather striving for this, China, Russia et al, Europe has done the opposite. Saving the world by self flagellating at the altar of Net Zero has critically driven deindustrialisation while lining the pockets of our adversaries.

Yes, there is arguably limited fossil fuel reserves in Europe (a longer, debatable issue that would require a whole new analysis), and in any case, Mad Miliband has cemented up our oil wells while fracking has been successfully and wrongfully demonised for a generation, there is one area in which the UK and US can cooperate. Nuclear.

For years now joint efforts to create Small Modular Reactors, mini nuclear ‘pop up’ power stations based upon the military technology which propels our nuclear submarines, has been an Anglo-American project.

China doesn't have the technology. Yet. They have been begging France to help. Even France, however, the once home of nuclear and Marie Curie, run diesel-powered submarines whose clandestine manoeuvres are thwarted when they have to semi-surface for a re-up, hence losing the contract last minute with Australia to add to their naval fleet, replaced by AUKUS, a joint partnership with the Aussies, Brits and Yanks.

The logic goes that if we can master this technology above ground, not only can we power our own industries, but offer the same to the developing world, pushing China out of contention, despite the best efforts of their Belt and Road initiative, and in their place, get access to the rare earth minerals and mining rights desperately needed in the 21st century.

During Covid I was working on such a proposition. But the Conservative Government seemed to be sleeping at the wheel on this one. However hard the Consortium I was attached to lobbied, they were more interested in playing Musical Chairs and faction fighting than availing themselves to any sort of long term sensible plan.

The irony that it has finally come to light this week during the state visit is no testament to Starmer. It is more down to the fact Trump is now in office, not Biden, and his administration is determined to drive this home.

With the highest energy costs in the world and an economy about to fall over the precipice, Starmer was forced to take that win.

But the win is America's. Any way to mitigate Russia's war machine by either going for drill, baby, drill (hence Trump pushing for Britain to frack and the North Sea reserves to once again be opened up), the aim is to lower global fuel prices, limiting their the market take home of our adversaries, and a vital back-of-the net against Communism / Anti-Western Axis.

It also binds the special relationship for the long term. Whomever is in office. That alliance must hold, or the lights go out.

The New Arms Race

Photo by Philipp Katzenberger on Unsplash

We all know that the 21st century is defined by a Digital Arms Race.

Be it the race towards AI and advance technologies or the power of information in a post-truth era, he who holds the keys to the computers holds massive sway over a globally interconnected world, the dissemination of propaganda and unprecedented power.

And Britain has always been at the heart of the lot of it.

Our very own Charles Babbage invented the computer. Tim Berners-Lee the Internet. And we have long been a World leader in FinTech while our 17 World top 100 universities remain at the international epicentre of advancement in the sector.

America knows this. It also knows that the EU, through its regulatory purgatory, has prevented anything even remotely close to a Silicone Valley ever emerging in Europe.

Instead, there has been serious brain drain. The brightest and the best from this side of the Atlantic have all migrated to The States to help supercharge Dot Com in San Fran.

But it’s not just that. By bringing all the Dot Com bros to Britain last week to plant facilities in Britain, Team Trump have calculated when the battle for free speech really erupts, our tyrannical socialist Government will be risking some 12 thousand jobs in Britain by not acquiescing to America's First Amendment. Well played, Donald. Well bloody played. And thank you

And, it is important to point out, all those servers will come with hefty electricity bills, so they need to be brought down too. So look out for SMRs in Northumbria, lower energy bills if this works, and an eleventh hour reprieve from economic extinction at which point the combined forces of The Gulf and China could call on a shed load of debt and essentially own us.

The Actual Arms Race

Defence pacts are at the heart of Empire Building. And if Trump's America wants to save The West, and The World, it needs to make sure they are armed, and we are, too.

Trump has rightly pushed for Europe to get real on defence spending, with some success. The UK has kind of agreed to pull their socks up with a shallow commitment to meet the required 5% of GDP spend NATO lays out…at some stage. But given the dire straits the economy is in (particularly given our woefully high welfare bill), American capital injection and impetus is vital. You want to defend Europe? You'd better have weapons. Thankfully the moral argument over Ukraine means Starmer has to go with this, or be crucified at the altar of public opinion. I wonder without showboating with Zelensky, whether Sir Kier would be quite as open to fighting against the CND lot and Free Palestine Freaks when it comes to getting tooled up.

But also sharing military technology with all the confidentiality clauses, resale restrictions, and shared intelligence also binds us as Siamese Twins in geopolitics. Remember at the outbreak of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany, who sold multiple arms to the old Soviet Satellites, wouldn't let the likes of Poland and Czechia hand them over to Kiev. They had their Russian gas pipelines to worry about, and all the manufacturing jobs dependent upon them.

Well, Nordstream 1 was mysteriously blown up in the deep sea (hardly a difficult whodunnit) and the plans for the second umbilical cord became ashes in the wind.

But Ukraine was also fighting with old Soviet equipment that the Kremlin knew how to foil. Not any more. The Killing Fields of the Dombas became real time R&D for weapons manufacturing, powered by Western technology.

When looking at international alliances, look at who buys whose kit. Because when boots are on the ground and planes are in the sky, the country who has the instruction manual for your fifth generation fighter jets gets to decide whether they take off or not.

Ukraine has proven a vital war, however grim that sounds, in re-concretising Western defence alliances against the Crinklies (China, Russia, Iran and North Korea).

While Starmer's government has been writing giant charity cheques to Beijing for windmills, America has realised that by deepening investment in Britain's military industrial complex, accountable for a quarter of a million domestic jobs, means when it comes to the crunch, we are inexorably tied back to Washington.

The Leader of The Free World, doing his job

So while MAGA knows Starmer is at best a clown, at worst a threat, they know they have him by the short and curlies if we aren't going to have to go begging to the IMF for a bail out.

They also know that we are slipping into deeper decline exactly because of the sorts of Socialist codswallop together we once fought against.

And they are using that weakness to grab us by our lapels and push us back to where they want us to be.

It's worthwhile also pointing out that it was Lord Mandelson banging the drum for giving up the Chagos Islands to China's patsy, Mauritius, complete with America's vital strategic air base Diego Garcia. On the eve of the state visit, someone leaked those Epstein emails to the American press. Bye bye, traiterous cretin.

Can you see who is pulling the strings?

Tonight, I can sleep a little easier, knowing that The Oval Office are ‘marshalling’ us back to where they need us to be. And where we need to be.

Thank. You. Donald.

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A brief note, from me.

What you have just read isn't cribbed.

I haven't even come up with this content after reading anyone else's.

It's based on life experience, geekery, and having a watchful eye on Geopolitics for my whole life

Don't ask me what series on Netflix I'm into. I'm busy hitting up Signal and Telegram talking endlessly about what is happening in the real world.

It is entirely self-driven and self-researched analysis - and I love to do it.

If only I had a wealthy benefactor!

If you do so enjoy the nuggets I extract from my own natural resources, it would be great if you could support me, just as America is supporting Britain!

I don't ask for much, less than a fiver month. But it helps me keep my productivity levels high, and it's journalism you won't find anywhere else.

Do consider becoming a supporter of this little output. And I promise to use every commute, every bath time and every spare five minutes bringing you authentic content.

Thank you