WHOSE FOURTH OF JULY ?

It being the 4th July it is not possible not to make political comment. There are events which occurred on this day which require comment or at least a recognition that these events had some significance. Two years ago on this day in 2024, in the United Kingdom, the Labour Party headed by Keir Starmer won a general election with 411 seats in Parliament, giving it a clear majority of 172 seats. This is not an insignificant number. 

Another event of historical note is that on the 4th July 1776, at a meeting of worthy colonial citizens known as the Second Continental Congress, the United States Declaration of Independence was adopted, formally announcing and explaining separation from Great Britain and the creation of the United States. Again, not an insignificant turn of events. 

That country was almost incinerated during a civil war which lasted 4 years. The most significant battle of that war occurred at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania between the 1st and 3rd of July and on the 4th July 1863, the Confederate Army under General Robert E Lee withdrew from the battlefield, signalling the beginning of the end of the Civil War. In that same year, five months later 163 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln delivered an address over the burial of those who had fallen during the battle. He began by saying: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”  He ended his speech with the comment: “…we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The deep divisions that slowly grew from the foundation of the new nation, which exploded into that vicious conflict 87 years later, were quelled with Lincoln’s notion of a new birth of freedom which has persisted for the last 163 years, and the nation has not perished - yet. 

I say, yet, because that nation is in great peril. Never before has any President of the United States been such a divisive figure. Never before has any President been so crass and venal as well as being a psychotic narcissist. He seeks nothing but his aggrandisement by putting his name on every cherished edifice in America and by attempting to associate his image with that of the Presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore. The obsessive vanity is without parallel as is his stupidity. He has pissed on real American values and is going boldly around the United States in full bullying braggadocio manner, spouting crap, abusing and embarrassing the United States with every utterance. This is a gangster charlatan in full flow with his acolytes of lick spittles. 

His catastrophic effect on the world is intolerable and yet he remains unchecked.  When will he be told, in no uncertain terms, by the rest of the world’s leaders that his time is up. Which brings me back to Mr Starmer and his own 4th of July reminiscences. He has managed, with other European Leaders, to  reach some sort of modus operandi in dealing with Mr Trump. He has dealt with the United Kingdom’s foreign affairs as best he can, yet somehow has been unable galvanise or uplift the British population out of its current doldrums. Perhaps the less than aggressive European accommodation towards Mr Trump is symptomatic of that lack of brio. Well meaning but too straight. 

So, the United Kingdom, after two years, with the Labour Party still in possession of that huge majority gained on the 4th July, is perhaps about to have its own new birth of freedom  with its appointment of a new Prime Minister. Whoever that person is, they should, without question, first make it clear to Mr Trump that any cajoling or mollycoddling is over. The United Kingdom is a sovereign nation and is taking back control. The United Kingdom’s special relationship is with the people of the United States and not the executive horror that purports to lead it at the present time. The Prime Ministers of all European countries should make it clear to the entire Congress of the United States that it is through them there will be dialogue and future discussions. Make the United States Congress stand up and be the effectual representative body it once was. If the 4th of July’s Declaration of Independence, established by that Second Continental Congress, is to have any meaning, then it should now stand up and be counted. 

While the new Prime Minister is doing that, perhaps he or she can spend some time sorting out the United Kingdom using that 172 seat majority obtained by Mr Starmer on the 4th July 2024.