Thank goodness for Donald Trump, who seems more focused on Britain’s interests than its own Prime Minister, whose crisis of confidence is now on display to the entire world.
NATO allies, responding to sustained pressure from Trump for fairer burden-sharing, have agreed to place Britain in operational leadership of Joint Force Command Norfolk, a joint operational level command part of Nato — a clear elevation of UK sovereignty and defence authority — precisely as Keir Starmer’s government continues to destroy Britain’s independent strength through renewed deference to Brussels, risky economic overtures to Beijing, and persistent failure to secure the borders.
For years, European governments acted like children under permanent American protection, assuming the United States would underwrite their security forever.
It took a president willing to face elite outrage to state the obvious: Europe must shoulder its own defence burden. The need for such bluntness indicts Europe, not America.
America is Nato backbone — its funding, logistics, carrier groups, nuclear umbrella, and cultural confidence keep the alliance alive.
Strip that away, and Nato is a committee with a flag. Those offended by the directness should face the arithmetic: without America, Europe stands exposed. That truth deserves respect and gratitude from a continent liberated at enormous Allied cost.
For Britain, Trump’s sustained pressure for fairer burden-sharing has opened a real door. Nato's intensified focus on Atlantic sea lanes, Arctic deterrence, and undersea infrastructure protection matches Britain’s geography and strengths perfectly.
Joint Force Command Norfolk — safeguarding the Atlantic lifeline — now falls under British operational leadership as part of Nato's collective elevation of European roles.
Defence Secretary John Healey has confirmed doubling troops in Norway from 1,000 to 2,000 over three years, with UK forces central to the new Arctic Sentry mission and leading joint exercises against Russian hybrid threats. This is not a ceremony. It is post-Brexit statecraft—Britain stepping up where it can exert genuine influence.
Now look at the policy reality under Starmer.
Donald Trump just threw Britain a major lifeline because he believes in her more than the PM does - Lee Cohen | Getty Images
Starmer promised seriousness. What has emerged is managerial calamity when strategic clarity is required. Defence rhetoric has stiffened, but the fiscal commitment for rearmament lags badly.
New spending seems easier to justify for social transfers than for ships, munitions, and readiness.
A nation claiming Atlantic leadership cannot credibly do so while its Armed Forces stretch thinning resources across growing demands.
Downing Street’s January Beijing visit yielded £2.2billion in export deals, £2.3billion in market access over five years, and hundreds of millions in investments — including £250million potential from whisky tariff cuts. Trade serves statecraft; it is not statecraft itself.
Energy policy worsens the bind. The Ofgem cap sits at £1,758 for a typical household — still 45 per cent above pre-Ukraine levels and 69 per cent higher than winter 2020/21. Industrial costs erode competitiveness.
Net-zero targets remain untouchable despite questions over grid reliability, baseload power, and affordability. Energy security underpins national security. Pricing the industry into fragility cripples the capacity to fund defence and deterrence.
Borders tell the same story. The Government vowed to “smash the gangs”. Small-boat crossings hit over 41,000 in 2025—the second-highest annual total ever, up 13 per cent from 2024 — with high numbers continuing into early 2026.
Adjustments have not delivered the decisive drop that would signal control restored.
This is no accident. It stems from a governing instinct: alignment with Brussels on regulation, global climate frameworks on virtue, and multilateral processes on migration. Presented as pragmatism, it erodes leverage. The rhetoric is moderate. The result is drift.
Across the Channel, the pattern repeats. Decades of underspending on defence while leaning on American power. The two per cent target is treated as optional.
Strategic autonomy is proclaimed far more than funded. Only Washington’s “extreme rhetoric” prompted modest increases. That is not a European triumph. It is prolonged complacency.
Memory matters too. Allied soldiers — American, British, Canadian—died by the thousands while liberating Europe. Britain repaid its Second World War loans only in 2004.
Respect should be shown in a serious defence effort. Instead, many settled into dependency. Freeloading is rude. It is also accurate.
France talks European leadership, but gains no comparable command in this realignment. Germany announces turning points and struggles to deliver. Britain — outside the EU, tied to the Special Relationship — holds a unique position: nuclear deterrent, global maritime reach, Five Eyes integration, Atlantic tradition. Geography and history favour it.
Opportunity does not ensure success.
A government fixated on Brussels resets, Beijing commercial deals, and palatable energy stories will squander an opening built on deterrence and resilience. Sovereignty is not words.
It is brigades, stockpiles, secure borders, and reliable power. It rests on cultural confidence: the assumption that national interest is legitimate and defence an obligation.
The world has hardened. Russian hybrids hit the High North infrastructure. Chinese strategies target ports and chains. American patience for free-riding has limits. Facts, not speculation.
Britain faces a choice. Persist in managerial disaster — neutralising borders, rationalising costly energy, constraining defence, balancing foreign policy carefully — and watch as its global integrity combusts.
Or treat American burden-sharing demands as a correction, not an insult. Restore energy realism, match defence funding to rhetoric, enforce borders decisively, and handle China with sobriety. Act as a sovereign state in a dangerous decade.
History rarely rewards mistaking comfort for strength. Britain still holds serious power instruments, but under Starmer’s leadership, they are receding every day.
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