12 November 2024

Trump’s victory is a cataclys

Andrew Marr

There is no sugar-coating. This is a huge victory for the right which challenges British political security and prosperity. Suddenly, we seem a social-democratic outlier, surrounded by angrier, more confident and more pugnacious neighbours. What will be, will be. The world is as it is. There is no point hand-wringing now about the policy failures and delusion of the Kamala Harris campaign. What matters is to think clearly about the choices Britain makes next.

Nor should we feel sorry for ourselves. Any grief, any empathy should be reserved for our liberal brothers and sisters in the United States, who face a much bleaker future; and of course, for the people of Ukraine, who may be forced into a humiliating and destructive “peace”. I spoke this week to Sergei Markov, the former adviser to the Russian president, and well-connected Moscow politics professor. He said he expected Donald Trump almost immediately to call Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to demand an immediate ceasefire, followed by talks which would recognise the Ukrainian conflict as, essentially, a civil one between Russians rather than independent states.

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