Im no fan of Starmer but …

[BettyWhittaker]

I am very anti - Labour government, have never voted Labour in my life and never would and I hope an early GE is called …

BUT - AIBU to think he really couldn’t have handled Trump any better than he had? Christ the man is completely unhinged, his behaviour is getting worse and worse - AIBU to think Starmer really couldn’t have done more to handle this?

I thought his statement yesterday was pretty good. Let’s just hope the mad man gets taken out of office before he kicks off another bloody war

That seems to be what the Chagossian people would prefer.

Yes, of course.

But I think people are ignoring why the UK did the deal at all - its not out of altruism, its geopolitics (and largely can be traced back to Brexit).

Pre-Brexit our largest trading partner was the EU (obviously). One of the theoretical benefits of Brexit was a heightened ability to negotiate better trade deals with non-EU countries.

One of the major deals the UK was trying to secure, post-Brexit, was with India (given its rising as an economic powerhouse).

India, though, had long been the primary champion of Mauritius in its dispute with the UK (India being strongly anti-colonialism, and viewing Chagos as a one of the last remaining holdovers of British colonialism in the region).

The continued dispute was considered a point of contention in trade negotiations with India. A trade deal was ultimately formalized in July 2025 (shortly after the Chagos deal was formalized in May of the same year).

Worth adding, too, that pre-Brexit, other EU countries voted with the UK to prevent the dispute with Mauritius from being referred to the International Court of Justice. After the Brexit referendum, EU countries stopped blocking the referral, which ultimately led to the (advisory) ruling against the UK, which increased diplomatic pressure on the UK generally, just as it was emerging into the post-Brexit world.

Can you say more about the voting, are you talking about Mauritius bringing it to the UNGA? Which years are you talking about?

On India deal they and China may be happy but the Labour were still prioritising US as Lammy said ‘The Chagos Islands deal will not go forward without the support of US President Donald Trump, the foreign secretary has said.’ BBC

They’re up against it now that the support has gone.

Excuse me. Where did he say that?

Yep Brexit is the gift that keeps giving.

UK should do whats best for the UK, not the USA, if they are so concerned, they can pay to lease the base/take it over.

Threats to UK/Europe wont be coming from the other side of the world or not ones we can defend against.

With every day, its becoming increasingly apparent Trident is a total waste of money (if it even works) and we need to increase conventional defence spend very quickly, after 14 years of Tory cuts.

It was in an interview with Emily Maitlis in 2023.

Did they get a say? I wonder why not if so

What he said was that he preferred Davos because:

"Westminster is just a tribal, shouting place"

"Once you get out of Westminster, whether Davos or anywhere, you engage with people"

But of course it has been spun into something sinister by the conspiracy theory types and Reformites.

Yes. It's hard to imagine Rachel Reeves playing Rishi Sunak at chess in Westminster, for example. It's clearly a very different atmosphere.

(Reeves won btw)

Ok then.

Glad we are in agreement!

His reasoning was the point though. It was about it being a more open, less polarised discussion forum. It wasn’t that he thought we could swap them out or that he didn’t think Westminster was as important. It was part of a ‘this or that’ quick fire.

Davos is in a lovely location

Even those anti globalists attending would agree going by their SM photos.

Interesting that in a quick fire round, his instinct was to answer Davos. That's why it's lingered and gets repeated. He's a globalist in a world where that is being questioned.

But he gave reasons. So no it isn’t ‘interesting’ in the way you imply. He said he preferred it for not being so tribal. It wasn’t about importance or his preference of subject matter, simply about the ability to discuss and reach a consensus.

Ties in nicely with the WEF conspiracy theories

No idea about that. I just have to wonder why a British PM prefers being away from home.

Who knows. Maybe it's less challenging because they all just pat each other on the back and aren't facing up to their respective electorates who don't think they're doing a great job on the domestic front.

That is your interpretation of his comment

People were up in arms when he said Friday nights would be family time at home.

That isn't what he said, though. The Davos event is once a year. So unless you think he wants to hang out in Davos year round, he is not saying he prefers to be away from home.

Well, clearly it's my interpretation of his comment. We're on a forum where people share opinions. Mine differ to yours. All good.

I think that Davos is a metaphor for world politics and I am sure if I were a leader not doing well in the polls at home, getting away from it all to hob nob with political elites would be a welcome break.

He isn't in Davos now. Yesterday he met the Danish PM at DS, she left a very complimentary comment.

Of course he should be in Davos! Stop reading goady tabloid trash and actually think about how fucked we’d be with that cretin Nige in charge! Jeeezus doesn’t bare thinking about 🙈🙄

Badenoch was there too. So was Farage.