Britain’s spirit faces its sternest test yet, but across the pond, the contrast could not be more striking - Lee Cohen

Their nationalities—Argentine, South African, Mexican—don’t matter as much as what their behaviour signals: contempt for the West, contempt for American values, and open celebration of political violence. Trump acted without hesitation. If you show that kind of hatred toward the country you’re visiting, you don’t get to stay.

And that’s just one example in a much larger crackdown. Since January, more than 200 visas have been revoked in the U.S. due to foreign nationals ’involvement in anti-American or pro-terror protests—many tied to the fallout over the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The U.S. State Department is using AI-powered surveillance to monitor social media and public behaviour. The rules are clear: if you’re here on a visa, and you promote hatred, terrorism, or violence against the United States, you’re gone. This includes students, tourists, activists—anyone abusing the privilege of being in the country.

Even high-ranking foreigners aren’t exempt. Colombian President Gustavo Petro had his visa cancelled after encouraging U.S. soldiers to defy orders during anti-Netanyahu demonstrations. Trump’s message is crystal clear: no one gets a free pass when it comes to national security.

That’s strong leadership at its finest. Not posturing. Enforcement.

The contrast to Keir Starmer's version of leadership couldn’t be more enormous. His Government’s response to anti-British activism is hesitation, hand-wringing, and fear of offending the “wrong” people.

Starmer’s administration has failed to deal decisively with rising anti-British sentiment, especially among those who’ve entered the country under the guise of asylum or education. The UK’s immigration system is in chaos.

Small boat arrivals continue to surge. Deportations are tangled in secretive appeals processes. Public faith in the system is collapsing.

Starmer likes to talk tough when the pressure builds. His Government has floated modest reforms—raising English language requirements for work visas and adjusting asylum criteria—but they’re too little, too late. None of it addresses the core issue: Britain is being treated like a soft touch by those who hold no respect for its laws, values, or people.

Worse still, Starmer and his allies are actively hostile to those who raise legitimate concerns. He’s labelled Reform UK’s calls for stricter migration controls as “racist” and “immoral.”

That tells you everything. This is a leader more interested in virtue-signalling to the international press than securing his own borders.

And it’s not just immigration policy. It’s the total lack of coherence. Starmer has flip-flopped on nearly every major issue—from immigration to gender identity to public spending.

He uses the Windrush scandal as a shield against criticism, while quietly expanding benefits for foreign nationals and downplaying the strain on public services. Even members of his own party are growing restless as he tries to balance a progressive agenda with working-class demands for law, order, and national pride.

Meanwhile, tensions are rising. Since April, anti-immigration protests have spread across the UK—many peaceful, some violent. Last month’s 'Unite the Kingdom' rally drew over 100,000 people, and ended in clashes with police. These protests are driven not by racism, but by real, growing fears about national identity, uncontrolled migration, and the sense that politicians aren’t listening.

And still, Starmer refuses to act. His claim that we won’t “surrender the flag” to extremists is hollow when he’s surrendered every other inch of ground to them already. He’s emboldening those who despise the very idea of Britain.

Activists who wave foreign flags while burning British ones. Radical clerics who rail against the West while living off British welfare. Foreign students who treat university campuses as staging grounds for anti-British agitation. All are shielded by a system too scared—or too unwilling—to defend itself.

Britain doesn’t need slogans. It needs enforcement.

It’s time for a visa policy with teeth. If someone comes to Britain and uses that privilege to attack the country—online or offline—they should be out. Visa and residency revocation should be swift, public, and unapologetic. No secret appeals. No activist judges. Just a clear message: if you hate Britain, don’t come to Britain.

Britons have every right to demand a Government that acts like one. Starmer’s dithering, his two-tier policing, his appeasement of radicals—all of it must stop. It’s time you brought back pride in British citizenship, respect for the rule of law, and the basic idea that sovereignty means something.

America under Trump is doing it. So why can’t Britain? In Trump’s America, national pride is defended. In Starmer’s Britain, it’s an afterthought.

The choice is simple: strength or surrender.

Britain deserves infinitely better.