
Mr Guidelines and Mr Break The Guidelines.
The Lawyer and the person with the legal conviction.
The human rights barrister and the brash New York actual property tycoon.
To place it gently, Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump are reasonably completely different characters – and that’s earlier than we even get on to speaking about insurance policies.
Place in historical past
The prime minister’s personal colleagues have known as him “Mr Guidelines” as a approach of summing up the essence of his character, what makes him tick.
There’s even a reputation for this that teachers have used – “the juridifcation of politics” – that means “a reliance upon authorized and quasilegal, i.e. guidelines, norms, conventions, procedures, means to deal with substantive issues of public coverage.”
The factor is, to state the apparent, the person now within the Oval Workplace is the polar reverse on just about each single phrase of that.
However maybe, some ponder, all this should not be overstated.
“Most international leaders annoy Trump to some extent,” one shut observer informed me.
The important thing, many imagine, might be coping with the brand new president in a approach that he likes and, so the idea goes, may go.
So out with long-winded displays of international coverage trivialities and in with concepts that both contribute to his ‘America First’ agenda, whereas securing wins for the UK too, or assist the President cement his place in historical past maybe within the Center East or Ukraine.
We will count on the prime minister to fly to Washington fairly quickly to satisfy President Trump on the White Home.
It’ll imply Sir Keir and International Secretary David Lammy will have the ability to cease continually referring again to the hen dinner that they had at Trump Tower in New York in September of final 12 months once they met Trump for the primary time.
Exactly when Sir Keir finds himself on a aircraft over the Atlantic, and which leaders are invited earlier than him, might be pored over – and there are clearly some, comparable to Georgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy and the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, who’re ideologically a lot nearer to the president than Sir Keir will ever be.
Chagos plan on maintain
The timing in all probability issues much less, past the symbolism, than what comes out of the assembly.
So what may discover itself on the agenda?
Ukraine, commerce, defence spending, the Center East, local weather change, the Chagos Islands, to call half a dozen.
The Chagos Islands is a possible early flashpoint, or at the very least second of awkwardness.
The UK’s plan at hand over the archipelago within the Indian Ocean – which is residence to a joint US/UK navy base – to Mauritius has been placed on maintain for President Trump to try.
On Ukraine, the UK’s posture is evident and was pointedly doubled down on by the prime minister simply days earlier than President Trump’s inauguration.
Sir Keir was in Kyiv to signal a 100-year pact with the nation at simply the purpose a brand new president takes workplace who has promised to finish the battle in a short time, which many suppose would depart Russia trying just like the victor.
Might President Trump and incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio promote a deal broadly seen as dangerous for Ukraine? And, would Russian President Vladimir Putin have an interest within the battle ending now, or hope to hold on to safe extra territory?
The promise of a State go to
And on commerce, how does the UK keep away from the potential of crippling tariffs, import taxes, being imposed by America, as President Trump has threatened to do on pals and foes alike?
Authorities sources right here within the UK speak up what they see as “the alignment of priorities” between London and Washington on getting our economies rising.
The US is the UK’s largest buying and selling associate, accounting for practically 18% of complete UK commerce.
The factor is tariffs may scupper any development and Downing Road should hope that it might probably speak the president out of them.
And if President Trump calls for huge will increase in defence spending, can the UK afford it?
Maybe an argument will be made that tariffs would make paying for defence more durable.
Then there are the ideas and social media posts of the president’s pal Elon Musk, which have been extraordinarily hostile in direction of the prime minister for months, solely easing mildly final week when the federal government set out its response to little one sexual exploitation.
In Sir Keir’s again pocket, bear in mind, is the prospect of one other state go to for President Trump and the First Woman.
President Trump’s mum was born and grew up on the Isle of Lewis – his affection for the UK is real, as is his love of the Royal Household.
Do not be stunned if that invite will get delivered to the White Home in the end. The query might be when does that card get performed?
It has grow to be a predictable to say that President Trump is unpredictable, as a result of it isn’t solely true, however an understatement.
The world goes to really feel reasonably completely different – and that distinction begins now.