Sir Keir Starmer faces a huge task in wrapping the UK in a security blanket for our uncertain times. The last of our prime ministers to confront an existential threat of this order was Winston Churchill: he became, during the Second World War, our national bulldog, an indomitable force of nature ready to take the fight back to the Nazis.
Starmer is never going to acquire Churchill’s magnificent snarl. Mild of manner and unskilled in oratory or wit, he is an arch-technocrat. Unlike Churchill, fortunately, he does not yet have to lead a country at war.
But he has to prepare for that eventuality, or at least make the UK capable of standing proud against the most obvious continental enemy. Churchill had to find allies in both the West and the East.
Half-American, he threw himself into an embrace with US president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both saw sense in drawing the USSR into their joint military effort against Nazi Germany. Without the Grand Alliance, Churchill would have gone on fighting with bared teeth and failed to defeat Adolf Hitler.
Starmer, too, needs allies. He has not inherited a worldwide empire or a pulsating economy, and Vladimir Putin has loved to mock British premiers of every political stripe.
Apparently the British Prime Minister gets on well with Donald Trump – in this he is replicating the ties between Churchill and Roosevelt – even though Starmer’s sport is football, not golf.
But the Alaska summit showed everyone with eyes to see that Trump’s greater fondness is for Putin; the current occupant of the White House respects displays of strength. After three hours in Anchorage, American militancy was blown away like dandelion fluff; no more was heard of Trump’s threat to implement crippling economic sanctions if Putin failed to implement a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Britain remains an important European military power but it can never match the might of the United States. Until this year the Europeans could count on confronting Russia in tandem with the Americans. This calculation no longer holds much water, and Starmer has his work cut out in seeking ways to bring Trump on board. So far, diplomacy and charm have been ineffective.
What does Starmer need to do? He is not going to turn himself into a bulldog; that kind of canine ebullience cannot be manufactured to order. He has to hunt instead in a European pack, and the other dogs are no more impressive.
Friedrich Merz behaves like a German Shepherd which is trained not to bite, while Emmanuel Macron’s yap is more remarkable than his capacity to worry Putin – it should not be forgotten how late the French president was in condemning Russian preparations to start the 2022 war. But it is now left to these three politicians to assemble the core of Europe’s unequivocal support for whatever Ukraine decides to do in its own interest.
They have a hard road ahead. They still have to buy sophisticated military equipment from the US on behalf of the Ukrainians, and both tact and firmness are required for this. They cannot expect to form a common European front. Italy’s premier Giorgia Meloni has already said no Italian soldier will set foot on Ukrainian soil. Countries like Hungary and Slovakia are Europe’s advocates for Putin’s cause. The Anglo-Franco-German troika must therefore provide the vanguard, and tough fiscal and industrial decisions are inevitable.
Churchill was lucky to have the allies he had for the duration of most of his wartime premiership. He himself made a lot of that luck: he had incomparable prowess in the conduct of the military conflict.
But as the war itself neared its end, he lacked the power to compose the peace as he wanted – and both Stalin and Roosevelt compelled compromises upon him. Even in 1944-1945 the United Kingdom’s room for independent manoeuvre was a constrained one.
Now Starmer also has to play a fiendishly difficult hand of cards, and to do this from an even weaker position. The time has come for him to adjust his style.
Next time Trump drops his papers on the floor, he should not stoop to pick them up. He needs to tell Trump some home truths. One of them is obvious enough: the outcome of the Alaska summit was an unforced and unforgivable mistake, but it is reversible and must surely be reversed in the interests of both Europe and America.
Robert Service is Emeritus Professor of Russian History, St Antony’s College, Oxford and a biographer of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin
Sir Keir Starmer faces a huge task in wrapping the UK in a security blanket for our uncertain times. The last of our prime ministers to confront an existential threat of this order was Winston Churchill: he became, during the Second World War, our national bulldog, an indomitable force of nature ready to take the fight back to the Nazis.
Starmer is never going to acquire Churchill’s magnificent snarl. Mild of manner and unskilled in oratory or wit, he is an arch-technocrat. Unlike Churchill, fortunately, he does not yet have to lead a country at war.
But he has to prepare for that eventuality, or at least make the UK capable of standing proud against the most obvious continental enemy. Churchill had to find allies in both the West and the East.
Half-American, he threw himself into an embrace with US president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both saw sense in drawing the USSR into their joint military effort against Nazi Germany. Without the Grand Alliance, Churchill would have gone on fighting with bared teeth and failed to defeat Adolf Hitler.
Starmer, too, needs allies. He has not inherited a worldwide empire or a pulsating economy, and Vladimir Putin has loved to mock British premiers of every political stripe.
Apparently the British Prime Minister gets on well with Donald Trump – in this he is replicating the ties between Churchill and Roosevelt – even though Starmer’s sport is football, not golf.
But the Alaska summit showed everyone with eyes to see that Trump’s greater fondness is for Putin; the current occupant of the White House respects displays of strength. After three hours in Anchorage, American militancy was blown away like dandelion fluff; no more was heard of Trump’s threat to implement crippling economic sanctions if Putin failed to implement a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Britain remains an important European military power but it can never match the might of the United States. Until this year the Europeans could count on confronting Russia in tandem with the Americans. This calculation no longer holds much water, and Starmer has his work cut out in seeking ways to bring Trump on board. So far, diplomacy and charm have been ineffective.
What does Starmer need to do? He is not going to turn himself into a bulldog; that kind of canine ebullience cannot be manufactured to order. He has to hunt instead in a European pack, and the other dogs are no more impressive.
Friedrich Merz behaves like a German Shepherd which is trained not to bite, while Emmanuel Macron’s yap is more remarkable than his capacity to worry Putin – it should not be forgotten how late the French president was in condemning Russian preparations to start the 2022 war. But it is now left to these three politicians to assemble the core of Europe’s unequivocal support for whatever Ukraine decides to do in its own interest.
They have a hard road ahead. They still have to buy sophisticated military equipment from the US on behalf of the Ukrainians, and both tact and firmness are required for this. They cannot expect to form a common European front. Italy’s premier Giorgia Meloni has already said no Italian soldier will set foot on Ukrainian soil. Countries like Hungary and Slovakia are Europe’s advocates for Putin’s cause. The Anglo-Franco-German troika must therefore provide the vanguard, and tough fiscal and industrial decisions are inevitable.
Churchill was lucky to have the allies he had for the duration of most of his wartime premiership. He himself made a lot of that luck: he had incomparable prowess in the conduct of the military conflict.
But as the war itself neared its end, he lacked the power to compose the peace as he wanted – and both Stalin and Roosevelt compelled compromises upon him. Even in 1944-1945 the United Kingdom’s room for independent manoeuvre was a constrained one.
Now Starmer also has to play a fiendishly difficult hand of cards, and to do this from an even weaker position. The time has come for him to adjust his style.
Next time Trump drops his papers on the floor, he should not stoop to pick them up. He needs to tell Trump some home truths. One of them is obvious enough: the outcome of the Alaska summit was an unforced and unforgivable mistake, but it is reversible and must surely be reversed in the interests of both Europe and America.
Robert Service is Emeritus Professor of Russian History, St Antony’s College, Oxford and a biographer of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin