2026: Week 3 - Greenland, China and tariffs
It has been a turbulent week in politics, dominated by Trump’s petulance around not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His obsession with this has led to the very real threat of NATO collapsing, which will surely happen if he makes good on his threat to take Greenland, with “military force if necessary”. He has also announced plans to impose tariffs on all goods exported to the US from the UK, Denmark and other European countries if we don’t acquiesce to his demands.
Trump’s assertion that if the US doesn’t “own” Greenland, then Russia and / or China will invade is nonsense. Article 5 of the NATO treaty is about collective defence, if a NATO country is attacked (Greenland, as part of Denmark is a member of NATO), then it is seen as an attack on all members of NATO and as such, all member nations will respond accordingly. Once again, Trump is using lies to get what he wants, whipping up his supporters into a frenzy of misinformation and untruths. He has also conveniently forgotten that one of Alaska’s closest neighbours is Russia, and therefore his argument that the USA can’t have Russia as a neighbour is moot.
Allies do not attack one another: militarily or economically. Starmer’s US policy lies in tatters: he needs to stand up for our country now. Trump is now punishing the UK and NATO allies just for doing the right thing. It is time for the PM to stand firm against the bully in the White House, and work with European and Commonwealth allies to make him back down from this reckless plan.
Building on a bad week for our national security, Starmer has made his biggest mistake yet by allowing the controversial Chinese Super Embassy to be built here in the UK. The Prime Minister knows his decision today will amplify China’s surveillance efforts here and endanger the security of our data - not to speak of the safety of the brave Hong Kong people on British soil. It’s categorically wrong that he’s embraced these threats to further his flirtation with China. This Government should be ashamed of its decision to allow the super spy embassy to go ahead.
The official stats for the number of employed people in the UK has fallen again, particularly in shops, restaurants and hotels, reflecting weak hiring, while private sector wages grew at the slowest rate in five years.
These dismal figures will come as a huge disappointment to all those worried about their job prospects, with the unemployment rate showing no sign of coming down.
Ministers have only got themselves to blame. Hospitality employers, so often giving young people their first taste of the workplace, face a business rates bombshell, while small businesses across the country are hammered by the misguided jobs tax.
Things could get even worse if the tariff king in the White House is allowed to slap even higher tariffs on Britain. Keir Starmer must grow a backbone and do everything in his power to protect jobs here at home, and the best way to do that is standing shoulder to shoulder with our European allies against Trump.