Article published in Daily Telegraph
Mrs Von Der Leyen claims “the shift in the world order is not only seismic – but it is permanent”. “We now live in a world of raw power”. This seems to be a response to the possible use of force by the USA in Greenland which Donald Trump has ruled out. Where was she when Russia used raw force from 2014 onwards to occupy parts of Ukraine? Has she forgotten the use of force by the Soviet Union to suppress eastern European countries before the fall of the Berlin wall? Has she not seen how Afghanistan, Iran and other Middle Eastern states have been using raw power against their own citizens and neighbouring states? Has she missed the terrorist attacks of the recent decades? Raw power has often been a chosen means of more than half the world which is not democratic.
She also wrongly asserts that the answer to this outbreak of raw power is to speed up and strengthen European union. So how would more EU laws resolve the problems of Ukraine? Would the stronger EU have an army and navy capable of intervening against the abuse of raw power in the Middle East and its disruption of trade and energy? Of course not. The EU’s answer to every bad trend and crisis is more EU, when more EU has pushed the member states further and further behind the USA in growth and military capacity.
Mr Carney rightly observes if “the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself”. He comes late to this realisation. The rules of his idealised Davos world did not protect us from wars, hunger, poor economic policies prior to Donald Trump. When did the UN last negotiate a peace and enforce it? When did the WTO last intervene to stop unfair trade with China? When did the international order last constrain Russia? Why didn’t the UN COP s he so liked get China and the emerging world to produce and hit tough carbon targets in the way the UK and EU did?
Belatedly this globalist has come to offer the advice I have given for years to UK governments. “A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself has few options”. Exactly. The UK needs to grow more of its own food, produce more of its own energy and strengthen its defences. The last 125 years of history shows us we could only rely on the USA to help us in brutal wars, and then only if we had the power and ability to fight alone for a long time until their national interest required them to join in.
What President Trump is exposing in his own provocative way is the so called international rules based system let us down. The UN cannot prevent conflicts and had to allow great powers to veto actions. The WTO allows China and emerging economies asymetric rules that rest easy on them. The COP UN climate change system is ignored or gamed by most of the world. The Davos consensus on how to run economies has delivered vicious cycles with banking crises and nasty recessions. The independent Central Banks of Europe, UK and USin the west in the last six years allowed or created high inflation whilst the politically controlled central banks of China and Japan kept inflation down.
Mr Carney and Mrs Von der Leyen are wrong to think a tilt to China is the answer to their prayers of how they can grow faster and have better defence.
January 25, 2026
Mr Carney and Mrs Von der Leyen are wrong on just about everything and have been for a long time prob. all of their lives?
To grow faster and have better defence you certainly need to ditch net zero and have pro-growth policies which they and Reeves/Starmer have also got totally wrong.
January 25, 2026
Carney and von lies a lot love the autocratic regimes and the WEF would like a world governed by unelected elites just like Starmer. Their realisation that a country that cannot defend or feed itself will be in trouble but this doesn’t stop them continuing ruinous net stupid policies, or closing the EUs porous borders.
The deindustrialising of Europe is making it increasingly difficult to protect against aggression and Trump has exposed the lie.
It looks like Farage spoke to Bessen about the stupidity of giving away Chagos who in turn briefed Trump on the gross stupidity. Now it looks like common sense has prevailed as the treaty with the USA demolished all Hermers spacious arguments for the giveaway. Well done Nigel.
Reply There was plenty of briefing sent to US through a variety of channels. Conservatives made sure Rubio, Bessent, the White House were all briefed.
January 25, 2026
Reply to Reply,
I seriously doubt Mr Trump could name ANY member of the PCP, not even its leader. However, Mr Farage gets invitations to Mar a Lago, so, which is more likely? Has Chagos give-away finally been cancelled?
Our problem is we’re losing the initial promise of ‘honest democracy’. Autocrats have found a way to subvert it, even now, in our own country, we are seeing it in the locals. I fear we will once again soon need to fight for democracy, will anybody?
Look at birthrates worldwide, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?view=map, The reason for mass immigration- – with very alien societal attitudes.
Reply Influencing important people who have lots of staff and main reports requires using multiple routes. You rarely find out which one if any was decisive. There are close contacts between leading Conservatives and Republicans.
January 25, 2026
At what point Sir John? The deal was approved by President Trump and the USA previously what changed (apart from Greenland).
Relly The President clearly hadnt been briefed and did not understand how bad the deal is. Indeed, still doesnt as he thinks they pay us for the islands!
January 25, 2026
The part of Carney’s Davos sermon that tickled me was;
“More recently, great powers began using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.
You cannot “live within the lie” of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
What the hell does he think the EU has been doing and demanding for decades and yet used his position as BoE governor to try to influence the EU referendum in favour of us remaining subjugated.
He complains that the rules based order is diminished yet has never been a voice warning against overreach and abuse of power by those “authorities”.
January 25, 2026
Quite so. Send Carney a mirror for his birthday.
January 25, 2026
+1 There has been a battle to be the dominant power in the One World Order.
All 3 factions are agreed that there must be one world order, ie the Communists (China), the old German politics represented by the Globalists (the EU and western ‘leaders’ like Carney) and Islam.
The impediment to that was the exceptional riches of the ‘white’ world, so the first task was to dismantle that so that the worlds citizens were all alike – poor, uneducated, low IQ, easy to control. That’s why the western leaders have attacked their own people.
Carney hates us for thwarting the Globalist faction so intently, that he surrenders to the Communists hoping to punish us.
January 25, 2026
A very astute post. Many a true word…….
January 25, 2026
The hypocrisy of the ruling class knows no bounds.
January 25, 2026
@dixie – the EU has finessed the distortion of World Trade Organisation agreements to such an extent that they have become meaningless.
January 25, 2026
Starmer’s Chagos fanatics are determined to ensure that this surrender goes ahead
These quislings must never again be allowed near the levers of power
Daniel Hannan today.
Let us hope not. £30 bn for a negative outcome is not clever (circa £1000 per home) but circa half of homes pay no net tax.
But we also had Boris’s £600 bn for very negative outcomes of Covid Lockdowns and net harm Covid “Vaccines” £20K per home. They damaged health hugely and impoverished the nation too.
But largest of all these lunacies is net zero – costing perhaps £6 trillion (just the UK) or £200k per household again with negative benefits. Some of which is destruction of the UK economy, negative growth and an inability to feed or even defend the nation. A deluded war on the gas of life! A con job! Clearly the last one will not really happen in full but vast harm is being done trying to!
January 25, 2026
@Lifelogic – the latest according to the media is Parliament will change the Law, make new Laws so this corrupt legal team can push on and get their big payday. Parliament is set to nullify the 1966 “UK-US Agreement”
Just how corrupt can they get. Then again they have just got started, another 3 years what would be left?
January 25, 2026
Wise historical data.
January 25, 2026
Sir John asks, “Where was she [Von Der Leyen] when Russia used raw force from 2014 onwards to occupy parts of Ukraine?”
In the warm embrace of Mutti Merkel who threatened the newly independent Ukraine, telling it it could not be neutral as it intended but must choose either the EU or Russia. Ukrainians knew nothing of the EU except that it expanded by handing out shed loads of other people’s money and promised (falsely but they did not know this) freedom and democracy. With EU and US Democrat interference the Ukrainians suffered the Maidan riots, lost their elected president Yanukovich and had selected for them by these same imperialists, Poroshenko because he had agreed to sign an accession agreement with the EU once in office.
Given Ukraine’s close historical relationship with Russia, its treaties with Russia providing naval base facilities and access to the Black Sea and an ice free route to world trade via the Mediterranean, and both countries being slavic, not European, one would think that Russia’s response was entirely predictable. Russia tried a counter financial offer which was not enough to lift the veil on EU propaganada and then resorted to force to assert its strategic interest. Given the predictability of the course of events it is fair to blame EU expanionism for the war. the risks were known and accepted. It is absolutely certain Russia would not have invaded had the EU not attempted to block Russian access to the Black Sea and seize Ukraine’s vast resources, not only grain but iron ore, titanium, graphite, and critical minerals for Green Energy.
Then as Russia built up its forces to invade, Germany refused to send weapons, only blankets and helmets. Not until 3 days after the invasion, Germany and the EU blackmailed Zelensky, in his darkest hour on 27 Feb 2022: if he sign over the future sovereignty of Ukraine to the EU he could have German weapons. He signed, of course. The EU’s objective was primarily to seize control of those critical minerals for Energiewende and EU Green Energy. Von Der Leyen has declared that post war reconstruction of Ukraine will be directed towards EU Green Energy, and plans are being completed in detail.
It is a very sordid history, a betrayal of Western values and a callous exploitation of the Ukrainian people who believe they are fighting for their independence but in reality will become a subject of foreign anti-democratic rule by the EU and will have their natural resources stoeln from them and exploited for the benefit of the EU and Germany – the latter, of course, was Ukraine’s brutal occupier and ruthless exploiter in WW 1 until thrown out by the Treaty of Versailles. Repeating this is Germany’s long sought place in the sun.
January 25, 2026
@Peter Gardner. Well said. The EU is delighted to use raw power when it can, however much damage and mayhem it creates. It just doesn’t like it when a bigger power can do the same thing to Brussels.
January 25, 2026
Wanderer
Indeed the EU used the power of tariffs and regulation for their own benefit decades before Trump started to impose the same in more recent times.
Some people have very short memories.
January 25, 2026
What is it about the pandemic that sends the Right so mad? Other countries like Australia suffered far less from Covid and far less economically than UK and did so for much longer than UK without any vaccines at all. Its health service proved far more resilient and the country recovered fully long before the UK. Yet the Right in UK cannot accept these facts. They fantasize about Freedom because they believe the myth there were no restrictions in Sweden. It is just not true. Sweden also suffered far more deaths than Australia, more economic impact and a slower recovery. Despite Australia out performing both countries by all significant measures, the Right in UK just cannot accept the factual success of Australian non-pharmaceutical interventions in the pandemic. They really are deranged.
January 25, 2026
Well I disagree with almost all of that. The difference is that, due to seasonal variations, and being remote they were largely able to keep Covid out until it had become rather less deadly! Dr Claire Craig’s recent book A shot in the dark – is excellent on this topic and much else.
In Australia, COVID-19 vaccinations are recommended (still I think) for everyone 18+ and children 6 months to 17 with high-risk conditions. Most require a single primary dose, with extra boosters every 6-12 months suggested based on risk factors and age. Severe immunocompromise may require 2-3 primary doses.
Dangerous insanity in my view! They must have even worse or more bought perhaps “experts” than those in the UK. The vast majority of young people and children were never at any real risk even in the early stages of Covid unless they had fairly rare conditions!
January 25, 2026
Plus why on earth give vaccines to people who have already had Covid?
January 25, 2026
Peter there seems to be some rewriting of history there. I seem to remember Australian and New Zealand had some of the most brutalist regimes after China on the planet.
January 25, 2026
Ian Wragg
They certainly did… I have a family member who lives in Sydney!
You couldn’t go into a shop without showing a pass going in and out. You couldn’t go to work unless you were jabbed!
January 25, 2026
Fair summary.
JR chose to forget the raw power deployed by the EU and the USA against the Serbs, the RAF and Luftwaffe in the air together ! Bombing our wartime ally the Serbs to force them to cede ancient lands with 1,800 year old churches to the Mozlems.
Where is Czechoslovakia? Was that not destroyed by raw power deployed by the ‘peace-loving’ west?
The brutality allowed by the State on British citizens in the modern era is unprecedented. We are denied the protection of the police and the law. Many are mentally and physically destroyed.
How does breaking British people one at a time help us love this vicious, narcissistic, frankly criminal political class, kow-towing to barbaric invaders and suppressing our right even to self-defence?
I am glad the billionaire Globalists are beaten. We need to crush them underfoot then turn our attention to the other two factions who intend to subjugate us.
January 25, 2026
So why, Peter, did *European* countries that like Australia imposed very strict lockdown measures fare so badly on the measures you quote? E.g. Spain, Belgium etc., not to mention the UK’s disastrous performance on both economic and health outcomes. Yes, Sweden did introduce some restrictions, mainly on large gatherings, but that was all. Their police did not club a 70-year old woman lying on the street as in Australia, btw.
January 25, 2026
P G According to WHO statistics, the percentage of population receiving at least one covid 19 vaccination was 88% in Australia and 79% in UK. Australia was among the highest vaccinated in the world.
January 25, 2026
Assuming Burnham is not blocked by Two Tier’s mates (does he have any) and wins the bye-election he will very likely replace Starmer in short order. He is however backed by three rather dire lefties Sadiq Khan, Lucy Powell and Ed Miliband it seems – all rather worrying!
Lucy Powell rather oddly left Oxford after one year (Chemistry) and transferred to the King’s College, London ending up with a top-notch Chemistry degree and a full grasp of quantum mechanics. So she too should surely realise what insanity the May/Miliband Net Zero agenda is? But perhaps not?
Though I am with Richard Feynman—”If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics”.
January 25, 2026
If Gorton and Denton are invited to send a message to Keir Starmer, the natural response is not to vote Labour. If they are offered Burnham as candidate, that sends a message that Labour are divided. If they are offered a Starmer sympathiser, he will suffer the national opinion we all have of our PM.
January 25, 2026
It will indeed be interesting to see if Burnham can get elected as a Labour candidate.
If he is then those in the Labour Party are more likely to see it as an endorsement of Labour but under a new leader than a sign of improved popularity for the current two tier administration.
Sir Two Tier curry and beer is a dead man walking either way. If the capricious, ultra left Burnham loses then Labour will determine that Sir Two Tier curry and beer is so unpopular even the messiah can’t carry them to victory, if he wins then Sir Two Tier curry and beer will face a leadership challenge.
January 25, 2026
You seem to persuade us that excellence in chemistry also comes with commonsense and detailed knowledge of how western world economics works.
January 25, 2026
@Lifelogic – Burnham, why? he wouldn’t change anything. What is needed, only the only thing needed is a proper GE and put the power back to the people
January 25, 2026
Burnham is not the answer, but if enough people want him to be a contestant in the seat, then he should be allowed to stand (if his Local Party members want to choose him)
Anyone should be able to stand in any election, and the local Party members of any political party should choose their own candidate (not Head Office) it is then up to the local people to choose who they want with their vote.
January 25, 2026
Von Der Leyen says ‘we now live in a world of raw power’ as if she is unaware we always have done. For example President Reagan notably used American power to defeat the Soviet Union by building up huge nuclear weapon stockpiles in West Germany, UK, Italy and the Netherlands. He bombed Libya and attacked Islamic terrorism in Lebanon etc. It’s all very reminiscent of what president Trump is doing. Throughout history all great powers have used raw power too and we always will live in a world of raw power.
As for the WEF, they have damaged developed world economies though advocating mass unskilled, unproductive immigration. Just look at the UK. The millions of unproductive migrants which have entered the UK since 2000 is the main reason our labour productivity has reduced from +4.4% in 2000 to -0.6% today. It should be noted labour productivity correlates closely with GDP growth rates because it is a primary cause of them.
Like the WEF, UK governments always made this facile and inaccurate claim ‘immigration is good for growth’ – not the way they have done it with mass, unskilled, unproductive labour. We now need net migration capped at its long-term average of net 50k per annum so there is control and the economy can return to equilibrium. The intake needs to be on a needs basis only. We need skilled migrants ONLY and they must be the best in the world whatever country they come from including Japan, USA and Germany.
Reply Democrat Presidents Clinton and Obama did plenty of bombing other countries.
January 25, 2026
As did Blair and Cameron & all rather counterproductive as was predicted by wiser people than them.
January 25, 2026
@Lifelogic – yes Blair the inventor of weapons of mass destruction, that was found to be a figment of his imagination. 179 UK & 4,400 US service personal were killed, and it is said upwards of another 150,000 other deaths all attributed to another rising star from the UK’s left-wing legal system.
January 25, 2026
and Bush and Blair kneeling in prayer…..but to which God? that wished shock and awe 2003?
January 25, 2026
Carney has pivoted to China as a direct result of Trump’s threats to annex Canada and impose his tariffs on the Canadian economy.
Trump has forced Zelenskyy to negotiate with his GRU handler, the war criminal Putin, under fire. Tripartite meetings have been held in Abu Dhabi between Ukraine, Russia and America representatives. There has been no ceasefire to give peace a chance
Putin has used the opportunity to continue his savage campaign of bombing Ukraine civilians, hospitals, energy infrastructure etc. Trump’s response? He will not provide Ukraine with any military support unless the EU pays for it.
I’ve had enough of seeing Trump’s contorted orange face on my TV screen. It’s a knee-jerk reaction. See Trump, change the channel. NOTHING he says is worth listening to, particularly his insults.
January 25, 2026
A ceasefire ‘to give peace a chance’? You mean to give NATO a chance to rearm Ukraine as it did after 2014, when the Donbas rebels gave Kiev a proper hiding,
January 25, 2026
The past week has exposed the utter weakness and vulnerability of the UK as a second rank power on track to become a third rank power, run by clueless politicians. Perhaps it might shake up public opinion enough to accept the need for change.
January 25, 2026
A very good article here _ I agree with about 90% of it.
However Mrs Von der Leyen ought to apply the notion and tell the Greenlanders ‘we live in a world of raw power.’ Furthermore the West should stop posturing and tell the Greenlanders the West won’t defend them against Russia or China just as they didn’t defend Ukraine for fear of a nuclear World War 3 which of course Dimitri Medvedev wouldn’t be slow to remind them of! Unlike Ukraine the 57,000 Greenlanders wouldn’t be able to overcome a small army invading by parachute. Donald Trump is also right that no country is going to defend a Lease or a concession. The only real defence for Greenland is to become part of the sovereign territory of the U.S.A. – otherwise Greenlanders are likely to end up in a Russian gulag or a Chinese reeducation camp alongside the Uigars. Even in terms of sheer trade it is unlikely their natural resources would be as well developed in an independent statelet as well as in a stable part of the U.S.A with American knowhow and American capital. Donald Trump’s offer of a considerable golden hello payment to become a part of America is by far the best offer they are ever going to get and it is folly from them not to see it. It is even greater folly for Western leaders and all the party political leaders here not to see it and lead the Greenlanders astray. This is showing just how very low calibre and unrealistic and unintelligent Western political leaders, Donald Trump apart, actually are.
January 25, 2026
Since 2022 the west has given £380 billion or so to Ukraine at least. Also military intelligence and critical personnel.
God knows how much was invested since 2014 when they paid to build the fortifications throughout Donbas.
We are demilitarised, impoverished and beaten. Face it. We gave our all withholding only our paltry forces who might have rebelled.
The EU and western leaders are only capable of bullying individual civilians and importing a mercenary army to rape and pillaged us on their behalf.
January 25, 2026
“Raw power has often been a chosen means of more than half the world which is not democratic.”
And the half of the world that is “democratic”, too!
Remember regime changes, invasions, proxy wars, resource-grabs and the like in Libya, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Bolivia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, etc etc…?
Pot calling the kettle black, methinks.
January 25, 2026
This has been the trend since conception, now look where this has got it. The EU now resembles an old woman, crippled by aging illnesses, displaying signs of Alzheimer’s disease but still demanding love, admiration and attention from all.
Personally I am sick of these so-called globalists – they never explain where they want to take us, use vague terms like RESET, but if their intentions were honest and it meant a better life for all why do they talk about DESTROYING THE CURRENT WORLD ORDER?
They want to reduce world population to a fraction of what it is now, which suggests evil intentions mixed with hysteria and a large degree of fantasy.
Our world was not perfect but before they started to mess with it but at least it had a chance of evolving into something better – Globalists seem to expect a future where they are the elite and we work for them. We deserve so much better.
January 25, 2026
@Harry MacMillion – agree
January 25, 2026
It is listening to idiots like those two that got us into the mess we are in today.
January 25, 2026
@Keith from Leeds – they own it, they know that. There answer is more, more, more – the usual keep making the same mistake and you keep getting the same result of Socialist thinking
January 25, 2026
It would be interesting to know if Mm Von der Leyden’s line would command a majority of the current House of Commons? I suspect it would.
January 25, 2026
‘The last 125 years of history shows us we could only rely on the USA to help us in brutal wars’
and in each conflict the USA has had a wonderful surge in sales of all sorts to the UK, and others, in fighting those conflicts. The economy and industrialisation as a result of demand has been a terrific boost for them.
Always a price to pay for being ‘friends’.
January 25, 2026
‘if “the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself”’
Perhaps the inhabitants of Crowborough are thinking this, and it’s time to arm themselves against the invasion on their doorstep.
How about the simple homeowner protecting himself against burglars, given the authorities deem this a low priority?
Time for the government to recognise its duties to provide security for the population as a whole, not just the establishment, otherwise we will see vigilante groups on the rise and rough justice.
January 25, 2026
Our civil service and now our Prime Minister are in thrall to “international rules” and systems. Slavishly following these diktats when other countries follow asymmetric rules or game the system to their own advantage we must demand the same latitude or just take it.
This is why we had to leave the EU, our civil servants imposing gold plates EU rules on us (yesterday’s conversation about silt being a case in point).
We need to be part of an international conversation about standards but only sign up to those that do not disadvantage us.
Rules and laws must be transparently debated and passed through Parliament not imposed by standing instrument.
We need to be self sufficient and independent. This will not happen with a large government workforce and with 9 million people on benefits when they could be working. To get them working we need to overhaul benefits and net zero (costs of employment and business).
January 25, 2026
“The UK needs to grow more of its own food, produce more of its own energy and strengthen its defences.”
Absolutely correct, Lord John. But our socialist rulers have been deliberately moving us in the opposite direction with EU membership to destroy sovereignty and nationhood, mass immigration to destroy our culture and unity and Net Zero to destroy our industry, economy, industrial capacity and hence national security. To defend ourselves we need our energy to be cheap, abundant, reliable and storable. Renewables provide none of these. The latest DESNZ ‘Electricity Generation Costs’ report shows the LCOE for fixed offshore wind to be £103/MWhr and that for new gas £68/MWhr excluding the carbon tax. And the LCOE does not include all the wider system costs for renewables of grid upgrades, grid stability and storage. Renewables are parasitic energy as they cannot operate without gas backup or uneconomic electricity storage. Renewables are not abundant as their exceedingly low energy density means that they must use vast areas of undefendable sea and land. Renewables are not reliable as energy is only chaotically and intermittently generated when the wind blows and the sun shines. Renewables are not storable. Electricity cannot be stored economically unlike coal, gas, oil and nuclear fuel. Finally renewables are not secure when their dreadful energy inefficiency means we must rely on the imports of turbines, solar panels and all the metals and minerals, if not the devices themselves, for motors, generators, cabling, transformers, vehicles and heat pumps from a coal-fired country our security services describe as “hostile”.
January 25, 2026
A new world is on the cards and well underway – Carney is correct – the Europeans are working hard at it but Von Der Leyen needs replacing she is well out of her depth. However pity the Americans who empowered that awful Trump and who knows how that’s all going to end? not good I would think. Anyway what a week and I didn’t even buy a newspaper because the situation was ever changing and so fast the newspaper news was always old news so I just sat there watching TV not not knowing where it was all going – I think we need a new order but not the American one. The irony is that the Chinese appear to be the only sane sensible ones on the world stage today – In the light of everything I have no doubt we need a new system in Europe if only to defend ourselves
January 25, 2026
Its a case of give someone a little bit of authority, then their ego gets in the way and they forget who the ‘Work For’
This is similar to the bizarre trend we have seen with the UN, ECHR etc. There has to be a shake up, a change, bring back democracy. Democracy the thing those that when they are empowered through the ballot box immediately forget, what it is about, they want to deny it not uphold and fight for it These people are not rulers, 3rd world tyrants although they act like it, they are servants of the people.
Democracy is not perfect, but compared to the alternatives, these ego seeking overlords, it is the safest direction for everyone.
That is also the point of regular, I would prefer fixed date elections, if nothing else it affirms approval of the directions being taken by those we pay and empower. We had during the week a Council Leader saying by cancelling elections until 2028 the council got to save money! Missing the point that their electorate, the people they serve they people paying their wages is disenfranchise.
We lend these cronies our power and authority, it is not their.
January 25, 2026
‘so called international rules based system let us down’ These ideals always start out well intentioned, but as soon as hose involved stop serving others and start protecting themselves they consign their very purpose to the history books