At the time of typing (6 am on Wednesday morning) it is crystal clear to me that Donald Trump has won the US presidential election. If I am wrong, you can laugh at me!
The message from the American public is clear; it is en masse prepared to overlook the behaviour of Donald Trump because they have got his message. He has asked them if they feel better than they felt when he left the White House and the American public has said “no”, he has told them that he will kill inflation, stop wars and make America Great Again and they have believed him.
You can bang on all you like about the implausibility of his keeping these promises and of the improved economic situation of the United States but that will make no difference to the result of the election.
Simple messages, delivered with conviction get listened to and the messaging from the Democrat party for most of Biden’s period in power has been complex and under-powered, For most of the time, Kamila Harris has been nowhere to be seen.
I do not congratulate Trump, I deplore his behaviour and don’t believe his messages. But I am not American and I don’t feel let down by my Government as a high proportion of Americans clearly do. To draw parallels with other populist leaders who have captured their public’s imagination is not helpful.
Our prime minister is going to have to shake hands with Trump and do business with him and distasteful as he may see it to do so, he is going to have to get on with him.
You may call this appeasement but here we need to take a step back and recognise that we do not have the right to demand other countries – even our allies – conduct their overseas policy as we would like them to.
The messaging from Donald Trump around Ukraine, Gaza, North Korea, Russia – China is not what the UK and Europe wants to hear, but it is what we are likely going to get , especially if Trump has both Congress and the Senate aligned to him.
We need to get the message too and we need to have a clear policy to ensure that we benefit from our relationship with America. We are no longer aligned to the EU and its common market, our economic ties need to strengthen with America , even if it brings in tariffs.
So, upset that I am that America has given us the message it has, I am clear what the message is and I think we need to think long and hard how we can adjust to what is clearly a new paradigm over the pond.
Trump is a disruptor and he knows it, we must make sure that we pick up on the simple messages and adapt to them. People want simple things, cheap eggs and milk, low petrol prices and a pint off the price of beer.
We need to feel good about ourselves and our country and if sophisticated people don’t think we have things to learn about how we treat people in the UK , then they will suffer the fate of the Democrats.