An Open Letter to the President-elect of the USA

Dear Mr Trump

I do not expect that you will ever see, let alone read, this letter from an interested observer in the United Kingdom, but that has not stopped me from writing it.

Congratulations upon your election as the 45^th President of the United States of America. Your victory was a truly extraordinary one, contrary to the expectations of pundits and pollsters. You will stand on the shoulders of some truly great predecessors such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, all of whom had either been military or political leaders before they took office. You alone come from neither of these backgrounds, a disadvantage perhaps but on the other hand allowing you to bring a fresh perspective to the task that lies before you.

Yes Minister was pretty spot on about Europe all those years ago. Watch 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkpS-yBj7gY and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvYuoWyk8iU

And the scriptwriters, Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay, are still quite sharp. Read this:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/aug/07/yes-minister-brexit-eu-jonathan-lynn-sir-humphrey

Since I posted this, Sir Anthony Jay died, so perhaps this was the last piece he wrote.

Leaders of Britain, what did you do?

Leaders of Britain, what did you do

When the EU referendum was lost and won?
Oh that your counsel had been honest and true.
Leaders of Britain, what have you done?

Welcome to Number 10

So it is early 2016, and you are a very senior minister in David Cameron’s Conservative administration. You are not one for groupings and cabals within your party, but without being a Machiavellian figure you have an astute grasp of strategy and tactics. The EU referendum campaign is about to begin. You expect the result to be close, with the balance of probability being towards Remain. This expectation of closeness is mirrored in your own thinking. Doctrinally, you lean towards euroscepticism, but your natural instincts are always cautious ones. You can see the potential long-term benefits of becoming independent from the EU, but you are concerned about the shorter-term economic damage (which could become long-term damage) caused by Brexit, to say nothing of the potential danger of a break-up of the United Kingdom.