REVOLUTIONS, INVASIONS AND POTHOLES

It is a salutary experience to sit down to write a review of UK politics at the end of a week in which Donald Trump threatened to intervene in Iran’s brutal protest crackdown, the United States faced domestic outrage over a fatal shooting by an ICE agent and the former President of Venezuela became accustomed to his new accommodations in the Metropolitan Detention Center (sic), Brooklyn. Not to mention Greenland. Greenland! Against this international backdrop it is perhaps inevitable that British politics, from business rates U-turns to solemn but absurdist Government declarations about fixing potholes, feels simultaneously petty and surreal.

International: hypocrisy without irony

Iran: anti-government protests in Iran, described as the largest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, have been met with a violent crackdown that human rights groups say, as of Sunday evening (11th January), has killed more than 500 people and detained thousands, even as authorities imposed an internet blackout to suppress reporting.

In this game of international brinkmanship world leaders also become absurdly conversant with tee times on US West Coast golf courses… (William Christou, Deepa Parent and Lorenzo Tondo, The Guardian: Iran warns US against attack as protest death toll reportedly soars, 11th January, 2026)

European and international leaders, including the UK, called for restraint and a peaceful transition of power in Iran, with ministers emphasising that any regime change should be rooted in respect for human rights. This seems to overlook that they are addressing a US President who sanctioned the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela earlier in the week, making the US posture on Iran a bewildering mix of self-contradictions. Are we pro democracy this week or against that sort of thing? Hard to tell really.

Minneapolis: back in the United States itself, domestic tensions mirror the contradictions of its President’s international posturing. On Wednesday (7th January) an ICE agent (and firearms instructor no less) shot dead Renee Good, an unarmed and clearly quite chatty 37-year-old woman driver in her own car on the fringes of an immigration enforcement operation. This sparked further protests and recriminations in a city already put on edge by the arrival of these strangely Orwellian immigration officials and their militarised “law enforcement” colleagues.

City officials condemned the shooting, while federal defenders including a trigger-happy, stetson-wearing Kristi Noem, a crassly over-compensating James Vance and the President himself, who all framed the incident as the result of a confrontation with a “domestic terrorist.” This is ghastly and appalling in itself, (if for no other reason then because none of the above seem to have seen the videos circulating within minutes, before rushing out their spin on the victim’s intentions and motivations.) However, the truly extraordinary thing is that THIS is the President who suggests that he should bomb Iran in order to support protestors seeking to overthrow a dictator. In a lengthy interview with the not-terribly-MAGA New York Times, the Pres graciously indicated that he was unconcerned about international law as the only thing holding him back was his own innate morality. No, this is not making any sense. (Julie Bosman, New York Times: Fatal Shooting by ICE Follows Weeks of Turmoil in Minnesota, 8th January, 2026.)

Greenland: speculation about the Donald’s strange conviction that Greenland should be bubbled to the surface again this week, provoking a mix of alarm and satire in European capitals. Coverage ranged from incredulity at the notion of US territorial ambitions to sober defence questions about Arctic security. (Nick Beake, BBC News: ‘We need Greenland’: Trump repeats threat to annex Danish territory, 4th January, 2026.)

The self-same Donald, defender of Iranian freedom and supporter of democracy everywhere (except Minneapolis, obvs) has spent more of his time this past week playing cat and mouse (“at lege katten om musen” for the Danish scholars amongst us) with Greenland, which it is apparently critical for the US to “own” for its national security, despite the existence of the Defense (sic) of Greenland: Agreement Between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark, April 27, 1951 treaty as amended, affirmed and supplemented on 6th August, 2004. This literally beggars belief. It being the Mastermind of Manhattan, however, everyone had better suck up wildly to prevent another rush of blood (or other substance) to the Presidential head. Here we go with “Oh Mr President, may we erect a golden statue of you bringing peace to the troubled peoples of Greenland at the Nuuk Center Shopping Mall?”

[NOTE LACK OF UKRAINE ON THIS LIST. OR ISRAEL FOR THAT MATTER. OR YEMEN IF YOU MUST. NOT EVEN THE US CAPTURE OF A RUSSIAN SHADOW FLEET OIL TANKER ON THE RUN FROM VENEZUELA MAKES THE CUT. TRUMP CRAZINESS DRIVES THE AGENDA. INSANELY.]

Back in Starmerland

Meanwhile reality intrudes in gentler, more provincial form in dear old Blighty.

Last week’s changes to business rates, billed in the Budget back before the beginning of this Geo-Political Era on 26th November, as a “long-term” plan to modernise property taxation, had the (presumably) unintended consequence of threatening the continuing viability of pubs and local hospitality businesses across the nations. Within hours of public uproar as Implementation Day hove in to view, the Government announced a “recalibration” of the policy, averting what officials evidently feared would be a politically damaging rebellion on the Finance Bill. (Brian Wheeler, BBC News: Starmer urged to rethink business rate reforms to save pubs, 7th January, 2026.)

Most reasonable and sane individuals would have expected that this might have slipped through unnoticed by presumably blotto pub landlords who are all just natural Labour supporters. No Rachel. No. Stop the madness. Are you literally insane? (Darren Norbury, Beer Today, Industry responds to a disappointing Budget, 27th November, 2025.)

This brave policy “recalibration” on business rates comes in the newly-established Starmerite tradition of similar climbdowns over cuts to winter fuel payments, cuts to disability benefits and imposing inheritance tax on smaller farmers. This rapid retreat (to as yet undefined rates neutrality for the hospitality industry) adds to the pattern of policy reversals and “adjustments” that has become the hallmark of Starmer’s “leadership” (sic.)

Polling, reality, and quiet panic

Perhaps unsurprisingly, voters appear unconvinced. Recent polling from More in Common puts Labour on 19% (down) behind both the Conservatives (21%, up) and Reform (31%, also up), suggesting that Labour’s careful managerialism is not translating into broad public confidence.

Also, the constant effort mounted to make Rachel Reeves look less like an accident any bystander would class as “unfair to a newt” has not gone unnoticed by The Great Unwashed. There is no-one behind the curtain after all: Rachel Reeves is actually as thick as everyone suspected.

“Prime Minister, there’s someone on the phone: Vlodomir Shelenskiki??? He says you’ll know who he is. No? Never mind: we’ll say wrong number again shall we? Should we draft that briefing note on potholes in Greenland? Excellent. Oh yes, it will be a great success.”

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