Bearly Newsworthy: Standing Up to Trump
UK politicians could learn a lot from Canada's newly-elected Prime Minister Mark Carney about guts and grounded, grown-up leadership, argues The Bear.
Something happened this week, and I don’t think it can be overstated just how important it is – someone who stood up to Trump not only won an election but did so completely against all the odds.
Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England, former Bank of Canada boss, and long-time bête noire of populists everywhere, is now the newly elected Prime Minister of Canada. And while there’s no shortage of reasons for his victory – a Labour-style Liberal turnaround, Conservative overreach, and a well-managed campaign – it’s the political defiance at the heart of it that really matters.
Carney won not by sidestepping Trump, or pretending he wasn’t there. He won by looking at the frothing, increasingly authoritarian circus south of the border and saying, very calmly: abso-bloody-lutely not.
And here’s the incredibly important bit of it all – it worked. Spectacularly well.
Don’t Kiss the Ring
While his opponent, Pierre Poilievre – a man who spent most of the campaign kissing Trump’s ring and peddling imported MAGA nonsense – thought he could ride the coat tails of America’s strongman, Carney offered voters something grounded, grown-up, and frankly exceedingly rare: leadership.
And to add insult to injury, Poilievre didn't just lose the election, he went full Liz Truss and lost his own seat. The very one he held while echoing every barking anti-vax conspiracy, screeching about globalists, and parroting JD Vance’s paranoid ravings about Canadian “wokeness”.
This goes beyond a stunning victory for the Liberals in Canada and should be treated as a public service announcement. A billboard-sized reminder that appeasing Trumpism isn’t inevitable or the only viable choice, and that people, when given the chance, will still choose sanity.
So, my increasingly frustrated question now is: why the hell are we not doing that here?
Because I’ll be very honest here, the UK political establishment’s response to the return of Donald Trump has ranged from outright cowardice to confusing complicity.
Reform UK? Please. Reform is currently so far up Trump’s backside that all you can see are Farage’s little Union Jack socks poking out from behind his spleen. Nigel himself has been acting as a sort of court jester for the movement, bounding between GB News monologues and US cable appearances, doing his best impression of a minor character from Succession who thinks he’s Logan Roy. It’s craven, embarrassing stuff.
The Conservatives? They’re only marginally less degrading. Badenoch has barely dared say a word about Trump’s increasingly erratic behaviour, let alone his open support for Russia, the rolling back of civil rights, or his plan to torch NATO from the inside out. Instead, the Tories have adopted the familiar posture of all centre-right cowards: don’t upset the big man, maybe he’ll go easy on us.
And Labour? Don’t get me started. For a party that bangs on about international solidarity, they’ve gone very quiet on the issue of Trump’s authoritarian slide. Even after his administration imposed a 10% global tariff on UK goods – in effect punishing British exporters for the crime of not being American – the reaction has been… underwhelming. And when JD “Maybe it’s Maybelline” Vance decided to start his little crusade accusing the UK of suppressing free speech (while simultaneously cracking down on protest rights at home), the response from the Prime Minister, while admittedly there, was milquetoast at best.
This is appeasement. Plain and simple. Dressed up as pragmatism, perhaps, but appeasement all the same.
And here’s the real danger with appeasement – it never works. Not with narcissists. Not with autocrats. And certainly not with a man who tried to overturn an election, incited a coup, dreams of annexing Canada, invading Greenland, seizing the Panama Canal, and generally causing as much chaos as one orange-tinted man can muster.
Say ‘No’ Without Flinching
The UK is already paying the price. Trump’s trade war, restarted in full, means British consumers are going to pay more for basics. His hostility to NATO threatens our security. His attacks on climate action, minority rights, the freedom of the press, and the rule of law will ripple globally. This isn’t just an American problem. It’s a democratic one.
Which is why Carney’s win matters so much. Because he didn’t just say “No”, he did so without flinching.
He rejected the conspiracy culture. He refused to play the grievance game. And he stood up to an opponent who was, quite literally, campaigning as Trump’s Canadian mouthpiece. And it worked. Let that sink in for a moment.
A measured, technocratic, intelligent adult – the kind of person Farage sneers at between sips of lukewarm bitter – just beat a right-wing populist by telling the truth and refusing to dance for the mob. In 2025. We need to learn from this. Fast.
Because be under no illusion on this – Trump is coming. Not just for America, but for everyone. His vision of the world is one in which alliances are transactional, power is hoarded, and “truth” is whatever gets the loudest cheer. He is not just anti-globalist. He is anti-democratic. And he is surrounding himself with people who share that view.
Steve Bannon may be disgraced, but his playbook lives on. JD Vance is now in the White House. Elon Musk is cheerleading from the sidelines. RFK Jr is in the Cabinet, busily overseeing healthcare policy in the US like it’s his personal anti-vax podcast. These aren’t fringe characters anymore. They are the Government.
And if Britain’s major political parties think they can afford to stay neutral, or silent, or vaguely non-committal while the most powerful country on Earth falls into authoritarianism, they are deluded.
There is Appetite for Grown-Up Politics
Silence is complicity, and in this case, it’s a strategic error too. Because there is appetite for a fight. There is appetite for truth. There is appetite – clearly – for grown-up politics. If Carney can stand up and win, so can others, but this can only happen if they’re willing to stop cowering and start talking like adults again.
That means calling Trump what he is. A dangerous demagogue. A narcissist. A man who should never again be allowed near a nuclear code, let alone a G7 summit. It means standing up for allies, not hiding from them. It means backing global democracy, not hiding behind the sofa when the orange man tweets.
It also means having the courage to act. To build alliances that don’t depend on Washington. To invest in European cooperation. To speak up for refugees, minorities, LGBTQ+ rights – not just when it’s easy, but when it’s right. There is a path forward, but it doesn’t start with appeasement, it starts with a spine.
And right now, the only parties in the UK even faintly resembling vertebrates are the Lib Dems and the Greens. Neither of them is forming a Government any time soon, granted, but both at least have the basic political courage to call a fascist threat what it is. They’re not hiding behind platitudes. They’re not waiting to see what the focus group thinks. They’re not playing diplomatic Twister with a man who’s openly threatened allies, dismantled rights, and wants to turn global politics into a WWE match.
Everyone else? Time to pick a side.
Because this isn’t just about foreign policy anymore, it’s about the kind of country we want to be. Do we want to be a nation that bows its head every time an authoritarian raises his voice? That lets tariffs slide, that shrugs off conspiracy theories from JD Vance, that whispers when it should roar?
The world is watching, and history will remember. Not just what we said – but whether we had the guts to say it when it counted.
This is the big problem with Labour - i.e. Starmer - no-one knows what he stands for. He may have worthy ideals but he's not a conviction politician, he's a manager. If only he could lay down some principles, shout them from the roof tops, and stick to them, he would gain some much-needed kudos. Some people wouldn't like them, but a lot more probably would, and at least he'd gain some respect. I.e leadership, putting your money where your mouth is rather than just following the wind, hoping it's blowing in the right direction.