Last week as Americans celebrated July 4, Brits could mark a year of the Starmer government. As with all incumbents throughout the West, Starmer has seen his popularity plumet. He is attached from the Right over immigration, from the Left over benefit cuts and is generally denounced in the media as being spineless and rudderless. Rebels inside his own party try to knife his initiatives in parliament and form splinter parties, while he is pilloried as heartless in the press. Rachel Reeves his Chancellor of the Exchequer could be thought to me the most loathed woman in today’s Britain.
But how has Starmer conducted British foreign policy? By many accounts quite well. He has had successes with Trump where other have had failures. He has brought Britain closer to the EU by stealth. That is what we delve into in today’s podcast.
In his role as UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy has often talked of his concept of progressive realism, but what does that mean? And how has that impacted British foreign policy over the past 12 months?
In this episode of Disorder, Alex Hall Hall returns from her very brief retirement to join Arthur Snell and delve into the complexities of British diplomacy over the past year – offering a grade point for each area of British foreign policy. They assess the UK's relationships with the US and EU, the implications of NATO and defense strategies, their dealings with Ukraine amidst the ongoing conflict with Russia and the government's response to the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.
To close – and Order the Disorder – the pair express the need for a clearer vision in foreign policy, greater engagement with the Global South, and a clearer moral backbone from Starmer and co.
1 (Arthur) – For most of my professional life. British governments would, make assumptions that Britain is a country that can change things at a global level. Obviously with alliances, but we would want to be involved in the invasion of Iraq because we felt that we were a player on the global stage. We would want to be, a participant in major. World changing events. And I think, the realism which we're seeing now is partly the realism of the declining power and reach of Britain.
2 (Arthur) – In a way it is the polar opposite of the rather farcical idea of global Britain, which of course was Boris Johnson's idea. Britain was big and successful and was a player on the global stage. Now that's easy to say, but when you say yes, but what does that mean? what will we do? How will we be global? There was no answer to that. whereas progressive realism starts from an assumption that we have to come to terms. With the reality of what Britain is britain in the 2020s is not the Britain of, the colonial era, but it's not even the Britain of the early 21st century when Tony Blair was in power when we had a bigger economy than China then. So I think a lot of things, have changed and it starts from that place.
And now greetings from Sweden Mega-Orderers.
Now if you incorrectly thought that illegal strawberry sales were a minor issue….
How strawberries are funding crime in Sweden
Police say illegal fruit sales turn over 'billions' of kronor a year for gangsters
Illegal strawberry sales are a 'lucrative sideline' for Sweden's criminal gangs
(Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images)
Swedes have been warned that picking up punnets of strawberries from roadside vendors risks fuelling the country's gang war.
"What strawberries and cream are to Wimbledon, the jordgubbstarta strawberry cake is to Swedish midsummer", said The Times, "a wholesome and indispensable accompaniment to one of the high points of the national calendar".
But Swedish police raided several roadside strawberry sellers in the run-up to this year's midsummer festival "to cut off what appears to be a lucrative sideline for one of Sweden's most violent criminal organisations."
And now some carefully selected AND COMMENTED memes from FB for the Paid for Substackers:
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