This is not the end, but it’s well past the beginning of the end, or even the middle of the end. It feels, with six days until the Makerfield by-election is expected to return Andy Burnham to Parliament, that we are at the beginning of the end of the end.
It is also well past the point of no return for Britain’s credibility on the world stage. Like the clockwork toy which goes off just as you have drifted off to sleep, Keir Starmer weathered an interview with the BBC on the departure of two ministers from the Ministry of Defence (and two ministerial aides) only to get an Exocet in the guts from the Americans.
Elbridge Colby is one of the Washington hawks, but he also has a respect for Britain. When David Lammy was foreign secretary and making new friends with the Trump administration, ‘Bridge’, as he is known, was one of his friendly contacts in DC. Which makes it doubly damning that Colby has been the one with his finger on the trigger today. In a post on X, the US Under-Secretary of War wrote:
If Burnham wins the by-election, Starmer can safely book a winter holiday far, far away
The United Kingdom has an extraordinarily proud military history. It commands our respect. There is again a great need for more British military strength in this critical time. We urge the UK to meet that need with urgency, scale, and determination.
