Go Unlimited with Magzter GOLD
Get unlimited access to 10,000+ magazines, newspapers and Premium stories for just
Try GOLD - Free
Europe's concerns Can Starmer influence Trump's new world order?
The Guardian
|February 22, 2025
In November 1940, Winston Churchill sent a telegram to Franklin Roosevelt expressing relief both at the US president's re-election and the victory of his anti-appeasement policy.
In November 1940, Winston Churchill sent a telegram to Franklin Roosevelt expressing relief both at the US president's re-election and the victory of his anti-appeasement policy. "Things are afoot which will be remembered as long as the English language is spoken in any quarter of the globe, and in expressing the comfort I feel that the people of the United States have once again cast these great burdens upon you, I must now avow my sure faith that the lights by which we steer will bring us safely to anchor," he wrote.
As Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron prepare to meet a very different US president, things are once again afoot that will live long in the memory - but this time the lights seem to be going out on a ship adrift in a sea of chaos.
In his "arsenal of democracy" speech, Roosevelt spurned those who asked to "throw the US weight on the scale in favour of a dictated peace". He also saw past Nazi Germany's "parade of pious purpose" to observe "in the background the concentration camps and 'servants of God' in chains". Donald Trump, by contrast, glories in the prospect of a US-dictated peace and in Russia he sees no gulags.
Starmer's nightmare is that the transatlantic alliance forged in the second world war is crumbling before his eyes. The inconceivable has become not just possible, but probable, or as Macron put it on Wednesday: "Do not think that the unthinkable cannot happen, including the worst."
If the central tenets of the postwar order are disintegrating, one of the casualties is likely to be Britain's self-appointed role as the US's bridge to Europe. There is a macabre circularity that France and the UK feel it necessary to plead with Trump to recall the US's history as the generous country that kept the flame of freedom alive in Europe.
This story is from the February 22, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM The Guardian
The Guardian
Sinner hits out at grand slams over player welfare talks
Jannik Sinner has criticised the grand slam tournaments for failing to engage with repeated requests from the world’s top stars to discuss prize money and welfare benefits for lower-ranked players.
2 mins
October 28, 2025
The Guardian
Ministers given warning not to scapegoat prison staff for release of sex offender
prisoners being released early, in error or even late, was an “endemic problem” that needed to be fixed by Prison Service leaders.
2 mins
October 28, 2025
The Guardian
Advertising Diversity and profits climb as firms cash in on change
Sarah Pochin's claim on Saturday that she was driven mad by \"seeing adverts full of black and Asian people\" might have seemed like another hard right hard sell from a politician who used one of her first sessions in parliament to ask Keir Starmer if he'd \"ban the burqa\".
2 mins
October 28, 2025
The Guardian
China spy row Case collapsed over lack of 'critical element', says DPP
Government evidence in the China espionage trial was missing a “critical element”, which meant there was “no other option” but to drop the case, prosecutors said yesterday.
3 mins
October 28, 2025
The Guardian
Sinner wants slams to be 'fair' on prize money
right now. The grand slams are the biggest events and generate most of the revenue in tennis, so we are asking for a fair contribution to support all players, and for prize money that better reflects what these tournaments earn. We want to work together with the slams to find solutions that are good for everyone in tennis.”
1 min
October 28, 2025
The Guardian
Nige shows Racist of the Week frontrunner his forgiving side
It's the hottest competition in Westminster.
3 mins
October 28, 2025
The Guardian
Humanity has 'failed' on 1.5C rise - UN chief
Humanity has failed to limit global heating to 1.5C and must change course immediately, the secretary general of the UN has warned.
4 mins
October 28, 2025
The Guardian
Generation game Farrell returns to an Ireland side who must prove they remain a real force
One minute we're winding the clocks back an hour, the next we're hurtling forwards into rugby's maddest month.
4 mins
October 28, 2025
The Guardian
Balloons sent by Belarusians will be shot down, says Lithuania's PM
Lithuania's prime minister has authorised the shooting down of smuggling balloons that cross the border from Russia's ally Belarus, calling them \"hybrid attacks\", in an echo of the term used to describe Moscow's destabilisation efforts.
2 mins
October 28, 2025
The Guardian
Taxing times How Reeves could bring down inflation and give boost to households
After nearly four years of the cost of living crisis, Rachel Reeves is well aware of the harm inflation is inflicting on British households - and on Labour's share of the vote.
4 mins
October 28, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size