It's widely reported e.g. here, that the American Vice-President is obsessed with his version of free speech. The UK's laws on hate speech are anathema to him (which view is shared by several extreme-right figures in the US administration and elsewhere). This, it is said, may end up as a sticking-point in getting a US/UK trade deal. Both senses of the expression, apply i.e. it will be a point where things get stuck, and a place where the US administration posts up its message that those who bend the knee get a pat on the head.

So what do you reckon? When Starmer, McSweeney, Streeting, Reeves, Cooper and the other gruesome crew are sipping their tea together and doodling, Starmer will stand up and declare that this is a sovereign state, an historic alliance of nations, forged on the principals of freedom and democracy. Legislation is written and approved subject to the will of the electorate and can never be overthrown at the whim of a foreign power?

Or, will he stand up and declare that Mandleson and Campbell were always good for a few weasel-words, so they'll be brought in to find a way of saying that it's not really giving anything up, it's the spirit of cooperation between two great powers to achieve the greater good. Then maybe sneak some bits into a new trade-bill that repeals and replaces the Public Order Act 1986, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, and the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 and then make sure nobody reports on it and Trump's yer president.
 

Oh the former for sure. This labour govt. has been nothing but courageous and steadfast in sticking up for the disadvantaged. I see no reason that wouldn't continue.

Thank goodness. 

I'm still getting over my disgust at the govt response to the sickening cruelty of carers' allowance prosecutions to be honest (basically nothing at all, but catch them faster so that when their lives are fucked for innocent breaches of the absurdly complex rules, they only get fucked for a few months so it looks like Starmer and Reeves and Streeting and Tom Cobley are caring people).

 

Vance is just a trained monkey pushing Trump's talking points du jour and wallowing in his 15-minutes of infamy. His sole obsession has to do with proximity to power. He's a straight up grifter, and whatever he may be saying has nothing to do with his intentions or his convictions, as if he had any.

You're probably right. I always wonder about what people like Trump and Vance actually believe or care about. I'm pretty sure neither of them give a flying fuck about most of the issues they bray and rant about apart from that it keeps them in power.

Mostly they're performing, reading scripts or repeating movie tough guy lines.

Trump was shot at and slightly injured on July 13 2024. Two days later he appointed a much younger, fitter and, apparently rabid right-winger as Vice President. Some might speculate that this was a smart move as in "Assassinate me and this is what you'll get".

Certainly looks that way. I think all the ridiculous faux-Mussolini postures that Trump keeps doing would be amusing if his rag tag mob of followers didn't seem to lap it up. And all the weird strong-man faces he pulls. Vance seems to be aiming for a kind all-purpose thug, although it's possible he sees himself as somewhere between Tommy DeVito and a statesman.

Nah I don't think so. Vance just made all the right mouth noises, only louder.

And yeah, just to bring home that these people aren't really remotely funny; clowns like Trump, Vance, Musk et al half-laughed and half-raged as they destroyed US foreign aid. Oh how amusing to see Trump letting his puppy Musk wave a chainsaw over things.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/trump-usaid-hiv-aids-africa-b2734448.html

Of course, I'd-be-a-mini-Trump-but-oh-gosh-the-focus-group-err-that's-me-and-Rachel-and-my-boss-Mr-McSweeney-won't-let-me-Starmer, is aiming to do the same.