While it is too soon to say if Trump will go through with the threatened tariffs, some impact is already being felt, said Pultz: “The Trump threats are creating a lot of uncertainty for businesses, which could have a knock-on effect on the job market, potentially.”
Pultz added: “The UK cannot let itself become so dependent on another country, whether the US or China, that we risk being bullied and pushed around like this.”
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For others, that question of what kind of country the UK wants to be is a chance to look beyond the mythical special relationship.
“This is an opportunity to declare our independence to the US, finally,” said Nick Dearden, the director of Global Justice Now. “I think by being a normal European country, that would actually be much better for many people in this country because it would stop us distorting our economy towards spending so much money on the US, towards following the US into various wars. It would mean that British governments had to be more accountable to the people of this country rather than to whatever the US president has said.”
Starmer’s framing of global entanglements as the price of a lower cost of living presents a false choice, Dearden added.
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“Where are they pulling the money from that they’re going to be spending on the military? They’re pulling it from other parts of our economy that should actually be about making life fairer for us here and around the world. So it’s going to mean less spending on the welfare state, it’s going to mean less spending on some public services,” Dearden said.
Starmer also invoked the spectre of climate change in his speech, with security questions becoming more prominent “as climate change reshapes the arctic”.
Viewing these questions through a military lens can obscure what’s at stake, but the crisis also presents an opportunity for the UK to approach climate differently, said Pauline Heinrichs, a lecturer in war studies at King’s College London.
“It’s a bit like suggesting that the way to stop a fire is to throw more fire at the fire,” said Heinrichs.
“I think for the UK, it has to be explicitly clear that dependency on fossil fuels and fossil fuel powers are inherently volatile, risky and insecure.”
Heinrichs added: “The choice is either to say we’re going to invest in the past in insecure attachments to fossil fuel powers, or we’re going to invest in a future that looks different with different forms of partnerships and different forms of ideas and collaboration.”
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