Trump has breathed new life into Davos Man

So bad was the debut of this Labour government that many think it has already failed. But now, I suggest, there is at least a chance it will succeed. If it leads industrial recovery based on defence and security, tackles the flawed basis of large areas of welfare spending and sweeps away planning restrictions to build more, it will have confronted problems which the Tories evaded for years. Labour can do this, of course, only if it abjures the beliefs that Sir Keir Starmer has espoused throughout his political career, but that seems to be exactly what his managers, led by Morgan McSweeney, are now (rightly) forcing upon him.

Rupert Lowe is not the first Lowe to split Reform. In the 1860s, Robert Lowe, a gifted, virtually blind Liberal politician, who deserves lasting fame for having enshrined in law the joint stock limited liability company, broke with Gladstone over Reform (always referred to with that initial capital). To the Victorians, Reform meant reform of the franchise. Gladstone was thus stymied and it fell to Disraeli, stealing the Liberals’ clothes, to introduce the 1867 Reform Bill. Lowe and friends were called the Adullamites, being compared to David and his followers hiding from King Saul in the Cave of Adullam. David, says the Bible, ‘gathered every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented… and he became a captain over them’. Presumably, Rupert Lowe will attempt something similar with Reform supporters. And Kemi Badenoch, if she can, will make herself the Disraeli of the situation and profit from the falling out of Saul (Nigel Farage) with David.

I may have given too much credit to Graham Usher, the Bishop of Norwich, as a suitable candidate to be Archbishop of Canterbury. I had found no evidence of him using the cant phrase ‘global majority’. I am informed that Bishop Usher is so woke as to be sleepless. His diocese recently instructed its churches to move away from ‘Eurocentric’ prayers and use its ‘anti-racist toolkit’ instead. It is also alleged that Bishop Usher, when a suffragan elsewhere, would, if asked to visit a parish church, cause his office to send out a form for the churchwardens to complete, which included the question: ‘Will there be any VIPs present?’ The search for the right Primate of All England goes on.

Dominic Grieve, formerly the most moaning of Tory Remoaners, has been appointed to chair the government’s new council on Islamophobia. Hardeep Singh, the admirable Sikh journalist who occasionally contributes to The Spectator, wanted to know why, and put in an FOI request for background correspondence. This has been refused, on the grounds that the public interest lies in ‘maintaining a “safe space” in which officials and ministers are able to reach policy decisions away from external interference and distraction’. The government is ‘actively exploring a more integrated and cohesive approach to tackling racial and religious hatred, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism’. To give such information might ‘cause a “chilling effect” on ongoing discussions’. What about the ‘chilling effect’ on the rest of us of not knowing why Mr Grieve has been put in charge of the bogus concept of Islamophobia, designed to silence public ‘ongoing discussions’ about free speech?

Monday’s drone attacks on Moscow were a welcome reminder that Ukraine remains in the fight. If Britain and continental Europe are to re-arm, we shall have an immense amount to learn from Ukraine, arguably our most combat-tested military western ally since the second world war. When I was in Kyiv for the third anniversary of the Russian invasion, I was taken by the proprietor, Taras Ostapchuk, a former maker and installer of street lighting, to see his drone and robot factory. It is called Ratel, French for ‘honey badger’, and produces three types of unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) robot, Ratel S, M and H. All can be operated remotely and carry infra-red cameras. Some have caterpillar tracks which enable them to trundle over minefields without detonating. Some carry mines to plant, and the kamikaze ones carry their own mines which, on remote command, blow up the enemy’s mines. Ratel H, the biggest, can carry, supine, two of the wounded. No robot has yet been developed which can rescue the wounded alone, but H means that fewer people need risk (and lose) their lives in any rescue. As Taras puts it: ‘You still need human beings to help the soldier, but now there might be only one dead person rather than four.’ This made me think of these pharisaical pension funds that won’t invest in defence manufacture. If there are wars, it must be ethical to make devices which minimise your side’s casualties. These are best provided by people who make weapons.

By the way, why have we not already experienced drone terrorism? The nearest in this country so far are animal rights drones, which illegally trespass on private land as vigilantes against hunting. I have seen their buzz seriously alarm horses. How long before real terrorists attack with drones, thereby saving their own lives as they kill? Or would that be unattractive to Islamist young men spurred on by the promise of 72 virgins in heaven?

Donald Trump’s repulsive attack on President Zelensky has succeeded in breathing new political life into Davos Man. Without Trump, Mark Carney, ex-governor of the Bank of England, would have had little chance against the Conservative insurgency of Pierre Poilievre. Now he loftily returns to his native Canada to become Liberal Prime Minister even before he has a parliamentary seat, and it looks as if his party might stay in power after all. ‘Intellectual disgrace/ Stares from every human face’, wrote W.H. Auden about the elites of the late 1930s. It applies equally to the Trumpists.