The Viceroy puts lipstick on a pig

But it's still a pig

Published in the May 20th edition of the Edinburgh Evening News.

Viceroy Murray boasts that the UK was the first to secure a trade deal with the US, as though that’s a great achievement.

There’s a reason the UK was Trump’s first port of call. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said that “any agreement with Trump isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.” He cited Trump’s trade deals with Canada and Mexico during his first term, which were followed by slapping them with high tariffs in March.

He said that Trump’s divide and conquer strategy means he picks the weakest countries to “negotiate” with first, leaving stronger countries, ones the US is more dependent upon like China, at the back.

The deal leaves in place a 10% tariff on UK goods imported into the US, while Starmer’s negotiating geniuses decided to lower tariffs on US goods imported into the UK from 5.1% to 1.8%. Who seems to have come out ahead on this particular deal?

As even the BBC acknowledges, this isn’t a trade deal but an agreement to cut or reduce tariffs on specific goods. Furthermore, Congress, not Trump, must approve any trade agreement and that will take longer than the 90-day pause on some of Trump’s tariffs. A real comprehensive trade agreement will take much longer to hammer out.

Starmer tried to put lipstick on this pig by saying, “This is a really fantastic, historic day in which we can announce this deal between our two great countries.”

The value of the trade deals concluded since Brexit pale compared to what the UK has lost in trade, business investment and freedom of movement by foolishly leaving its largest and nearest market of 450 million consumers - the EU.

The ridiculous hard Brexit negotiated by the abominable Boris Johnson has resulted in the UK economy growing 5% less over the past 8 years than other similar countries. The ultimate fallout from Brexit could range anywhere between 4-8% of GDP.

And yet Starmer clings mindlessly to this disaster because he’s intent on selling off the rest of UK plc to the likes of Larry Fink’s BlackRock.

As European Powell points out:

Post-Brexit free zones, like the 12 free ports and 74 SEZs [Special Economic Zones] rolled out since 2021, are corporate playgrounds. Relaxed taxes, planning rules, and workers’ rights attract vultures like BlackRock, the $10tn US investment giant eyeing the UK’s green spaces and public services.

Scotland has 2 of these freeports - Forth and Inverness & Cromarty - and 18 SEZs.

Just like in the US, Scotland’s politicians - in London and Holyrood - have been thoroughly captured by corporate interests.

These compromised and careerist pols won’t rescue us from this unfolding dystopia - they’re in it too deeply. It will fall to us, the people, to figure a way out of this unholy mess and try to save our nation.