On 20 January, Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the US Congress, is going to address both Houses of Parliament. This, I gather, is unprecedented. The 'honour' is being awarded to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence.
I object to this.
Johnson has enabled Donald Trump.
He has done all he can to prevent opposition to Trump's actions, including by suspending the sitting of Congress for weeks on end, and by preventing a new Democrat member from taking her seat.
He is guilty, through his actions, of disabling the checks and balances on US Presidential power in the USA at a time when a President has openly sought to abuse those powers in an unprecedented way. His actions have directly paved the way for fascism to take power in the USA.
Johnson, then, is not worthy of this honour. He should, instead, be barred from the UK for having enabled abuse that has led to the establishment of a dictatorship in the USA, and the suspension of the hollow form of democracy it already possessed. There is nothing about what he is doing that makes him worthy of any form of recognition at all, but plenty justifies condemnation of his actions.
So, I have a simple question. Did we invite Hitler's equivalent to the role of Speaker in the Reichstag to enjoy such an honour? I don't think so.
Nor have we afforded such a privilege to Putin's equivalent office holder.
Or Xi's, come to that.
It's not our habit to reward those who hold power, either by force or by subverting the choices of the people they represent. So why are we rewarding Mike Johnson when the denial of political freedom is all he is about?
This might be an occasion to ask your MP what they think the Speaker is doing, with the undoubted approval of the government. Why is it that they want to celebrate the rise of fascist power in a state that has always claimed to be the bastion of democracy? And what do they think comes next?
Taking further action
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This smiling goon – often seen smiling approvingly when Trump is throwing his weight around in Congress – is a most unwelcome and unworthy character. He will however be in good company with Lindsay Hoyle – the worst speaker of the house I have ever seen.
Once more then, the VK – Vassal Kingdom – is vacillating to the thug power of the U.S.
It is really bad because I’m sure it just works as validation for these miscreants – it encourages them. This is not diplomacy – this is joining a gang.
Much to agree with
House representatives are not diplomats. Is what Marco Rubio alluded to last week. The things that he said 10 years ago, he did so as an elected representative and was speaking for his state. Now he speaks differently because he says that he is a diplomat. That is what Marco Rubio says. What does Mike Johnson say. Is he a diplomat or does he only speak for his district? Or does he have other powers. Or does Trump have all the powers since he is president. Mike Johnson has never been clear and so it is not clear to me. And as some European diplomats said 3 years ago, “Who is Mike Johnson”. We still don’t know! He is anonymous to everything other than saying YES to Trump.
Very good – we are certainly now a VK (Vassall Kingdom) in all kinds of different ways. Certainly feels like karma after the audacity and cruelty of the British Empire!
I’ve sent an email to my MP expressing worry, and suggesting that MPs and peers should be addressing him, not the other way round, and asking (slightly tongue-in-cheek) if MPs and peers might gather to stage a protest, and see if the police will try to arrest them all.
Once again Carol Cadwalladr has highlighted how compromised our government is. Mike Johnson addressing parliament is another example of this new vassal state.
https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/peter-thiels-new-model-army
Of all the things Farage criticises Labour for, selling us out to big tech, and Trump, isn’t one of them. Strange that, isn’t it.
Cadwalladr points to the unbelievable truth that our government is handing over our state to the US military industrial complex – in its modern guise of data extractive corporations – particularly Palantir.
It has two major contracts or ‘partnerships’ – one with the NHS and the new one with the Ministry of Defence. All personnel and corporate data will be ‘stored’ and ‘analysed’ by Palantir – who will then have effective control over these sprawling institutions and we individual minions.
Peter Thiel – one of the ‘techbros’ behind Palantir – doesn’t believe in ‘government’ – he has said he wants democracy to be superseded by a world run by a network of corporations.
I always thought that the US would offer Starmer a few scraps on the tariff front to keep us apart from Europe but didn’t anticipate how far he would go to keep the relationship ‘special’.
Again, don’t want to look for conspiracies where non exist, but having recently read how Gough Whitlam was deposed in Australia – it is not beyond belief that our security services and CIA could have had a role in the Labour Together faction defenestrating Corbyn and installing Starmer
Richard must be right in urging us to pressure our MP’s – but it seems the die is cast. Maybe a large demonstration outside Westminster Hall would also be appropriate
Carole is right.
Noise needs to be amde.
An organisation called Foxglove has been sounding the alarm for years. The Liverpool NHS trust says Palantir is not fit for purpose (their purpose, anyway; I’m sure it’s working for Thiel), doctors are speaking up, but no one in government is listening. There has been no tender process, just a back-room deal, and when has something like that worked out? If they don’t want it to be scrutinised, then it isn’t any good. Starmer has looked into his Palantir, but is he Saruman, seeking his own means to power, or is he Denethor, hopelessly believing there is nothing he can do in the face of such forces? I suspect he thinks he is the former and doesn’t see that he is the latter. Our entire political system has ensured there is no Aragorn to save us, so it will have to come down to us Hobbits.
Many health authorities are objecting to Palantir: what they are doing is worse than existing systems.
Why invite an American that is part of the “political gang” that is threatening to take over part of Denmark?
Johnson like Hoyle is a “made-man” he is there because of his kneeling position: “yess massa”, Johnson – Trump & Hoyle-Starmer-Trump.
MPs and Lords could show backbone by………….not attending. A half empty hall sends a message wrt those not attending and a message wrt the curs that do.
I note Sir Edward Davey refused to meet with Donald Trump last year in keeping with his personal tradition from his Post Office Minister days of avoiding people he wouldn’t like to meet. I’m thinking of writing to my MP to ask him not to attend when Donald Trump’s representative comes to London. The Houses of Parliament need emptying out anyway.
Every MP and peer who attends that farce is complicit in an attack on democracy and should be told so in no uncertain terms. Not that they will care.
(Unless they attend to stage a protest, turn their backs or heckle).
If not now, when?
Speaker Hoyle gets worse by the day.
Agreed
Or perhaps throw their shoes at him.
The best thing is for them to stay away while the public protest outside Parliament and in Downi g Street.
I wasn’t aware of this, so is Lindsay Hoyle calling this protocol and saying he has to do it lest he cause offence? Was the then-speaker invited for the 200th anniversary in 1976? Some reporting in Politico recently suggests that ingratiating themselves with Trump has got most foreign leaders precisely nowhere.
Your conclusion is spot on.
Perhaps we should all write to Speaker Hoyle and ask for an invitation to address both Houses of Parliament, and explain why we are a better choice than Mr Johnson. We could recommend some others for consideration. It could become a weekly or monthly event – called “The End of British Democracy Memorial Lecture.”
We should congratulate Speaker Hoyle on his success in lowering the status of the “Mother” of Parliaments, to that of a very distant wicked stepmother of authoritarian fascist dictatorships.
I miss Bety Boothroyd.
Richard, I can’t help feeling that this whole spectacle would be easier to understand if we remembered a small constitutional irony. Before American independence, the colonies were told they were “virtually represented” in Parliament through existing English constituencies. That fiction was one of the sparks of the Revolution.
So if the former colonies have anything they wish to communicate to Westminster in 2026, the proper channel already exists: they can make use of their historic “virtual representation” like everyone else. There’s no obvious need to give their Speaker a platform that ordinary British citizens could never dream of receiving.
Instead, we’re rolling out Westminster Hall for a man who has spent the last few years undermining his own legislature, enabling the concentration of executive power, and helping to weaken what remained of democratic accountability in the US. Meanwhile, people here can barely get five minutes of their MP’s time, and even then only after navigating switchboards, forms and waiting lists. Yet Mike Johnson gets the full ceremonial treatment.
The symbolism is hard to ignore. The public are told to queue, to book appointments, to wait their turn. But when someone who has actively weakened democratic institutions abroad wants to speak, the doors swing open. It’s as if the Mother of Parliaments has decided that the best way to mark 250 years of American independence is to pretend the colonies never left — and to honour the Speaker of a legislature that no longer functions as one.
If this is diplomacy, it’s diplomacy of the most lopsided kind. And if it’s symbolism, it’s the wrong symbol entirely.
Much to agree with