Reform and populism are continuing to grow as we sleep walk into dangerous times. No doubt about it that the failings of both the Conservative Party and now Labour have contributed massively to this. Perhaps we should pay a bit more attention to what is happening in the US to see where this may lead us and belatedly learn from it.

Trump got in largely because of the failure of the Democrats and the liberal elite to effectively address the growing concerns of very many ordinary Americans who felt themselves let down and ignored. One easy scapegoat, as always in times of economic difficulties, was not only illegal immigration but immigration as a whole. Any of that ring any bells?

If Starmer actually demonstrated that he and his government could take a far tougher stance on immigration, and illegal immigration particularly, we might stand a chance of avoiding some of the problems that the US is currently facing (and belatedly waking up to) with their Toddler in Charge. Not that sorting immigration alone will make much difference in reality to the whole array of issues we face in this country (much of it inherited by Starmer btw). Trump has successfully curbed illegal immigration in the US, bringing it back down significantly from some of the figures seen under Biden yet this has made little or no difference to the vast majority of Americans-including increasing numbers of the MAGA crowd. Despite his continuous lies and bragging, over 73% of Americans are unhappy with Trump's economic policies according to latest polls. In this country, do people seriously think that Farage could do any better?

Trump is a dangerous buffoon. His attack on Europe was based on far right theories around European culture being in imminent danger of being over-thrown by Islamic immigrants and claims that they were weak, decayed and over-woke. He has no intention of supporting Ukraine and recently leaked documents suggest that he would encourage the right-leaning leaders of countries such as Italy, Austria and Hungary to break away from the EU whilst actively supporting right wing political parties such as Reform in the UK, National Rally in France, Vox in Spain and AfD in Germany. He clearly fancies Meloni and has a kind of bromance with Orban with whom he agreed to allow an exemption that enables Hungary (a NATO member) to continue to buy Russian oil. The White House has denied the leaked reports-anyone believe them?

There was lots of talk in the early 2000s about a semi-mythical New World Order but we are currently seeing this come to a slightly different objective. Trump would seem happy to let Taiwan fall to the Chinese and Ukraine to Russia, China can have its sphere of influence (including sharing Africa with Russia), Russia can have theirs (including Eastern Europe) and he will concentrate on South America (probably because its not so far away and has the word "America" in its name).

The Jon Stewart show (amongst others) pointed out Trump's hypocrisy over Venezuela. Amongst Trump's election promises was one to keep out of foreign entanglements like Iraq and another to stop the flow of drugs into the US. His attacks on Venezuelan fishing boats are partially based on claims that they were part of drug trafficking operations against the US, fentanyl in particular. There is no doubting that there are large drug cartlels in the country but the fact is that Venezuela is not a great source of fentanyl. The irony of the Trump administration's decrying America's war in Iraq as one that was one based on seeking regime change and oil under the false guise of looking for WMD, is that they are doing nearly exactly that with Venezuela. They even use the same terms, calling the influx of drugs into their country "weapons of mass destruction". Trump wants a regime change there and he wants access to their natural resources such as gold (his favourite) and oil. Despite all his gab about seizing the "shadow" oil tanker -and this is true, it was-and his claims that the country is involved in illegal oil trafficking (again, true) he has also granted Chevron an exemption to operate in Venezuela. Moreover, for all his anti-drugs talk, he did recently pardon former president of Honduras and drug lord, Juan Hernandez, because he felt that the Biden administration had been too harsh on him. You can always count on Donnie to talk tough on issues but grant exemptions and pardons whenever they may suit him personally.

All this, of course, is purely about the US and their current POTUS and whilst some of Trump's actions will almost inevitably impact on ourselves, they are not our own issues. I'm just saying that whilst I am in complete agreement that both illegal and legal immigration into this country needs to be urgently tackled, we should be careful what we wish for if Labour fail to get to grips with it and Reform are voted into power. I don't think that Nige is as bad as Trump but quite apart from him sharing similar personality traits and beliefs (not least, his grifting) with the Orange One, I certainly do not see him having either the intellect or ability to begin to resolve the array of issues we face in the UK.