Trump’s inauguration speech highlighted everything the UK is lacking

On Monday 20th January, we witnessed the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States. Whilst at The Hawker Gazette, we predominantly focus on events within UK politics, Monday’s inauguration, and in particular the speech that was delivered by the incoming President, could not be ignored. This is in large part due to the inevitable global repercussions that will follow some of the monumental declarations that Trump made during his speech, but also because they shone in no uncertain light the stark failures of leadership that we in the UK have already been forced to endure since our own change of Government back in July.

It is not hyperbole to observe that Trump’s inauguration speech might be one of the greatest, most ambitious, patriotic, hope-filled and totemic visions of aspiration and leadership that I have seen. It was filled with messages of hope, delivered with an undeniable clarity of belief and mission, and wrapped in values intrinsic to the American dream and way of life.

Sure, some of it was bonkers… the reclaiming of the Panama Canal, and re-naming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America stand out as impractical nonsense designed to grab headlines, but that will never realistically come to pass. But rooted within his speech was a fundamental determination to focus on the things that will drive America forward… Economic prosperity, energy security, and business growth. And to end the unnecessary and infuriating distractions from such goals, waging war on wokeness and pledging to end DEI initiatives, the re-establishment of meritocracy in all forms of life, and an end to the net zero madness that is making countries around the world, including the UK, poorer and less secure.

Monday’s speech reminded us how easy it can be to turn our backs on the utter failure of so-called progressive politics. If only our politicians in the UK could take inspiration from Trump’s pledges and replicate them over here. Unfortunately, with Starmer’s Labour government, that is about as likely as the woke liberal left in America accepting Trump’s victory with the grace and dignity that the democratic process deserves (the leftie meltdowns have begun in earnest, believe me).

The following are just some of the promises that Trump made in his speech that highlighted what is wrong with politics in the UK at present.

Inspiration, aspiration and the re-emergence of the American Dream: Trumps speech was filled with positive rhetoric about America’s future.

He claimed “From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation… Our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free. America will soon be greater, stronger and far more exceptional than ever before.”

Compare this with the dreary message of doom and gloom that Sir Keir Starmer haplessly delivered to the British people outside No. 10 in July. Instead of a vision of hope and positivity, he gave us 20 minutes of dread and drudgery, repeatedly talking down Britain’s economic prospects, and warning us all of great pain to come. It was a message of hopelessness, delivered with all the charisma and panache of a washed-up car salesman one week away from forced retirement.

It should not be too much to expect for those charged with the leadership of a country to demonstrate unwavering faith in that country’s ability to achieve great things. Particularly when leading one of the richest and most politically-stable countries in the world. And yet our Labour government provide absolutely zero inspiration, crush aspiration at every turn, and drive potential investment away from our shores and into the grateful arms of our neighbours.

A zero-tolerance approach to illegal immigration: Trump immediately declared a national emergency at the Mexican border, stating “All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico policy.”

The incoming President made it very clear that the defence of America from the dangers of illegal immigration is viewed as his top priority as Commander in Chief of his nation.

Compare and contrast this to the limp approach of our Labour Government in the UK, with whom responsibility for controlling illegal immigration lies in the porous hands of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, a woman who would rather virtue-signal her progressive attitudes by holding up “Refugees Welcome” signs than actually deal with the very real threat that thousands of undocumented male migrants flooding into our country poses.

Labour’s “progressive”, globalist, open-borders approach to immigration is entirely unsuited to the task at hand. Trumps strength of conviction when it comes to repelling illegal immigration could not be further from the attitude and actions of our Government, who upon gaining power immediately set about abolishing all deterrents to illegal boat crossings, without having any kind of plan and failing to replace those deterrents with any alternatives.

The left in the UK seem entirely rooted in their irrational belief that all illegals entering the UK on small boats are genuine refugees fleeing war and persecution, and that they must immediately be provided with taxpayer-funder accommodation, food, mobile phones, benefits and free healthcare, whilst being trustworthy enough to be left completely unattended to slip away into the black economy as soon as they feel like it.

They expect us to believe that all of these poor young men fleeing these terrible foreign wars (but who incidentally did not consider their plight too dangerous to leave their wives and children back home to fend for themselves), who decide to by-pass all legal and legitimate means of applying for asylum in the UK, who have passed through multiple safe countries on their route here, and have completely by accident dropped all of their identity and travel documents overboard whilst crossing the channel, are certainly NOT economic migrants.

And anyone who suggests they are must be a far-right extremist. These gentle souls are of course genuine asylum seekers, who have no intention of gaining entry to the UK to commit any acts of criminality or terror, and our public are safe to have these unidentified and undocumented foreign males living in large groups in hotels within our communities across the UK.

Confidence amongst the UK electorate in Labour’s ability to curtail illegal immigration is on the floor. Trump may find it difficult policing an area the length of the US Southern border, but at least the determination and commitment to re-take control of the situation is there in earnest.

The return of free speech: Trump promised that “The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of our justice system will end… After years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.”

How refreshing it must be to millions of ordinary Americans to hear their government tell them they can freely and safely express their legally held and legitimate views on topics such as immigration, without fear of authoritarian state overreach shackling them in chains for simply exercising their right to free speech. What contrast this provides to the attitude of our Labour government in the UK, who from day one in office have sought every opportunity to brand their political opponents, and anyone who dares to criticise their policies on immigration or to express trepidation over the potential threat of undocumented illegal immigrants to our communities, as far-right racists and Nazis.

In Britain today, you are more at risk of being arrested and imprisoned for expressing legitimate and widely-held centre-right views on social media, than for committing crimes such as theft and burglary. Our police appear to have been instructed to divert an increasingly disproportionate amount of time and resources to policing thought-crimes, non-crime hate incidents, mis-gendering and the use of incorrect pronouns, and law-abiding citizens saying hurty-words on Twitter and Facebook, than to tackling knife crime on our streets, breaking Pakistani grooming gangs, and monitoring and restricting the movements of undocumented illegal criminals.

The speed with which Keir Starmer ensured that people expressing what he deemed to be “far-right” views during the Summer disorders had their sentencing expedited through our justice system, whilst the actions of grooming gangs were being overlooked so as not to risk inflaming racial tensions, spoke volumes for the priorities of our government when it comes to policing free speech. What I would give to live in a country that values freedom of expression in the manner that Donald Trump has described.

The end of wokeness: In a further retraction of so-called progressive politics, Donald Trump also stated that he will “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colour-blind and merit based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”

In a further nod to the demonization of Western colonialism that has infiltrated history teaching in schools, where young white children are increasingly being taught that their heritage is something to be ashamed of, and that they should feel “white guilt” over the crimes of their forefathers, Trump stated: “We have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves in many cases, to hate their country… All of this will change, starting today”.

A leader whose governance reflects the common-sense attitudes of the vast majority of his people. Again, this doesn’t sound like too much to ask, and yet is completely at odds with what we have here in Britain. Here we have a Labour government that vehemently holds DEI at the core of its liberal politics. We are constantly being told that “diversity is our greatest strength”, touted in the face of rapes, organised crime, and high-profile acts of terrorism being conducted by foreign nationals, and despite overwhelming evidence that the multiculturalism experiment, in this country and across the Western world, has failed.

Yet we are not allowed to suggest that diversity might be anything other than a positive for this country, for risk of being labelled as far-right and racist. We are forced to embrace the infiltration of so-called inclusive policies into mainstream society, allowing transgender women to use ladies’ toilets and changing rooms, and being accused of being a Transphobe or a TURF by the overly-militant trans community if we consider this inappropriate, or dare to express concern about the threat that this potentially poses to the safety of biological women and girls.

Anyone in this country who does not wholeheartedly subscribe to ludicrous transgender ideology is dismissed as a far-right dinosaur unable to adapt to progressive attitudes which must simply be accepted as the inevitable evolution of Western society. And yet these “progressive” DEI attitudes are the result of corporate think-tanks influenced by groups such as Stonewall, who advise companies on their DEI policies whilst being themselves influenced by the agendas of those who fund them.

The mere fact that 99.9% of the British population think that transgender ideology and the increased prevalence of insipid woke policies into our everyday way of life is a complete load of bollocks matters not a jot to the liberals running our country. They have their progressive agenda and they are determined to stick to it, and to hell with all the millions of people who disagree with it. They believe that we must all be far-right lunatics, who ourselves no doubt pose a danger to society with our radical views. Views such as “only a man can have a penis”, or “there are only two genders”. What kind of dark-ages thinking must we all be subscribing to, to believe that a job should be awarded based on merit alone, and NOT to consider diversity first and foremost when making hiring decisions.

The unravelling of DEI wokeness from the fabric of American society is long overdue, and may even see the stock values of giants such as Disney and Budweiser, former behemoths of the American stock market, return to the levels enjoyed before their boardrooms were filled with diversity hires and leftie liberals determined to prioritise progressive working practices over profitability, which have seen their share prices plummet in recent years.

Reversal of damaging net zero commitments: In a stunning blow to the climate change lobby, Trump declared that America will utilise the natural oil and gas in the ground to bring prosperity back to his nation. With the familiar cries of “drill, baby, drill!”, he stated:

“[we have] the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it… We will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate… In other words, you will be able to buy the car of your choice. We will build automobiles in America again.”

Somewhere in the world, a certain Swedish teenager would have been spitting feathers at what she heard. Closer to home, no doubt climate change sensationalist Chris Packham is already planning a trip to America to film his next documentary about how criminal activity can be excused, as long as it is in the interests of a cause that he supports, namely eco-fanaticism.

Whilst we push forward in Britain with plans to ban gas boilers and petrol cars within the next 10 years, forcing our citizens into spending large sums of their hard-earned money on electric vehicles and heat pumps that they simply don’t want, we must increasingly challenge the argument that the astronomical cost to the UK of achieving net zero is justifiable. It appears increasingly futile for a nation that produces less than 1% of global carbon emissions to be squandering billions and even trillions of pounds in pushing for net zero, whilst the developing world (and in particular China and India) continue to extract and rely on fossil fuels to advance their industrial evolution.

Allowing eco-loon Ed Milliband to give away nearly £12billion of British tax-payers money in overseas climate aid, whilst simultaneously allowing British pensioners to freeze to death over Winter by taking away their Winter fuel allowance in order to raise less than £1.5bn, was the single biggest act of self-harm since… well, since we elected this inept and incompetent Labour government on July 4th.

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It remains to be seen to what extent the newly-elected President Trump will deliver on his promises. However, his positivity and strength of conviction in the prospects of his country under his leadership can only inspire confidence and hope amongst the millions of Americans who voted for him.

Compare that to the damage that Labour have done to investor confidence in the UK in their short time in power. Their constant talking down of Britain’s economic prospects has shaken business confidence, scared away investment, sent the price of guilt yields souring, and increased the cost of government borrowing to its highest levels in four years (yes that’s right… by their own standards, Labour have indeed crashed the economy! Interesting how that one slipped under the radar within the mainstream liberal media).

Our Chancellor, henceforth known as Rachel from Complaints, who lied about her credentials repeatedly to the electorate in the run up to the Summer’s General Election, has been exposed as being hopelessly out of her depth. The front benches of government are a who’s who of inadequacy, a litany of hopeless, pro-woke, virtue-signalling imbeciles without an ounce of business experience between them.

What we wouldn’t give for just one of them to convey a fraction of the passion and positivity of Trump’s inauguration speech. Alas, we appear doomed to at least four more years of incompetence, economic mismanagement, sky-high taxes and low growth, delivered by a bunch of under-qualified and idealistic no-hopers.

Love him or hate him, what you cannot deny is that Donald Trump has put a deep and unequivocal marker in the sand at the inception of his second term as President. Certainly, he won’t actually deliver on every one of his statements, some of which should be taken with more than a pinch of salt. But the message is clear and the intent undeniable… Trump is back. America is back. And anyone living in the USA from this point on unwilling to subscribe to American values and way of life can take a running jump off the nearest Mexican border wall.