US officials’ leaked messages should spur Europe into action

Good morning. It’s another day where an intervention from the Donald Trump White House is, ultimately, the most important story in British politics.

All-American

Another day, another news story to reminds us that Donald Trump’s return is bad news for Europe. US officials accidentally added the editor of the Atlantic to a Signal group chat where, among other things, they made plain their dislike of their European allies.

When the US vice-president thinks trying to restore global trade through the Red Sea is not in his country’s interests because only 3 per cent of US trade runs through it, and the defence secretary agrees with him that “acting to secure global trade routes” is some kind of favour the US is doing for Europe, the continent must readjust its spending priorities and foreign policy in a drastic way.

The political problem for Keir Starmer is that, although British voters really don’t like Trump as new polling shows, they dislike all the ways you could potentially pay for increased defence.

Note the two most unpopular choices — cutting spending for the NHS and increasing people’s taxes — are the two commitments the Labour government has thus far burnt all number of things at the altar of. (Incentives to hire part-timers, the path back into work for those returning from illness or parental leave, foreign aid for the world’s poorest, welfare for people who cannot get out of the bath unaided.)

Politically, the government is obviously right to fear that raising taxes to pay for increased defence is something it can’t come back from. But thus far — and yes, I know I am a stuck record on this — the government is over-indexing on “voters don’t like tax rises” and under-indexing on “can we keep Britons safe without being willing to court unpopularity over tax?”

Now try this

This week, I mostly listened to the somewhat incongruously titled Chopin for Lovers while writing my column. It’s Vladimir Ashkenazy at his best. But I continue to be perplexed by how anyone would get “in the mood” listening to Chopin’s piano pieces, however skilled the pianist in question.

Top stories today

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