The Machine Stops

I recently bought a copy of EM Forster’s The Machine Stops. A short story, barely 12,000 words, written in 1909, and yet it reads like a prophecy – not of some distant dystopia, but of the past fifteen years of British decline. I highly recommend it as a read – unsettlingly prescient and far more relevant than it has any right to be.

Forster describes a world where people live in isolated pods, sustained by an all-encompassing, omnipotent Machine. Everything – their needs, their communications, their very thoughts – is mediated through it. Nobody questions it, nobody challenges it, and when it starts to break down, they simply hope it will sort itself out. Sound familiar?

The UK, once a country that built things, invented things, and shaped the world, now resembles Forster’s Machine-dependent society. The government, the institutions, the public services – all slowly breaking down while people either pretend not to notice or mumble vaguely about how someone, somewhere, ought to do something. It started with austerity, the great hollowing-out. Schools, hospitals, councils – cut to the bone. “We must tighten our belts,” they said, as if running a country were akin to a household budget and not, say, an economic system requiring investment to function. We were assured it was necessary, prudent, the only way forward. Fast forward a decade and the NHS is gasping, councils are going bankrupt, and entire industries are now reliant on food banks to sustain their workers.

Then came Brexit – the great act of national self-harm, wrapped in the language of liberation. “Take back control,” they cried, as they set fire to trade deals, choked supply chains, and threw up border checks that made even the simplest transaction a bureaucratic nightmare. Like Forster’s citizens, the Brexiteers were certain they were free – even as the Machine tightened its grip. Everything that followed – the economic stagnation, the worker shortages, the crumbling international reputation – was brushed off as “teething problems” or, even more laughably, blamed on Remainers for not believing hard enough.

Forster’s Machine ultimately collapses because no one remembers how to fix it. The people, long stripped of autonomy, simply sit in their pods, waiting for someone else to solve the problem. And that, perhaps, is the biggest parallel of all. Britain is broken, but the response is inertia. A nation that once led the Industrial Revolution now accepts rolling infrastructure failures as a fact of life. Trains don’t run, ambulances don’t turn up, everything is falling apart – but we just shrug and carry on.

Of course, the difference is that Forster’s world was pure fiction. Ours isn’t. The Machine isn’t stopping – it’s grinding on, ever more dysfunctional, ever more detached from reality, while those in charge pretend nothing is wrong. And if we don’t snap out of it soon, we’ll end up just like Forster’s doomed society – bewildered, powerless, and crushed beneath the weight of our own negligence.

Zelensky - Trump

It takes a special kind of hubris to publicly dress down a wartime leader whose country is fighting for its survival, but Trump and his new pet, JD Vance, have managed it in spectacular fashion. The Oval Office showdown with Zelensky wasn’t just an exercise in diplomatic incompetence – it was a calculated humiliation, a thinly veiled message to Putin that his man in Washington is ready to play ball.

Zelensky, a man who has spent the last three years leading his nation against an unprovoked invasion, was essentially summoned to the White House for a berating. Not a strategic discussion, not a private warning – a public dressing-down designed for maximum humiliation. Vance, a man whose foreign policy expertise extends no further than his ability to parrot MAGA talking points, had the gall to tell Zelensky that the war must be ended through diplomacy.

What kind of diplomacy? That was Zelensky’s entirely reasonable question. And for this, he was accused of being disrespectful. This, coming from the same Trump who only days ago labelled Zelensky a dictator and has a 4% popularity – an utterly absurd comparison that does nothing but parrot Kremlin propaganda. Disrespectful to whom, exactly? To an administration that, in just a few months, has already started making excuses for Putin? To a man who, in his first term, tried to blackmail Ukraine by withholding military aid in a bid to dig up dirt on his political opponent? To a government that has openly toyed with the idea of cutting off support entirely, while feeding Russian propaganda lines about Ukraine’s so-called intransigence? There was only one distator in that room, and the long shadow of another.

What is leading to WWIII is not Ukraine, as Vance suggested, but Trump throwing NATO under the bus - it's the existence of NATO that has averted WWIII to date. But here’s the real twist: JD Vance himself once compared Trump’s movement to Hitler’s rise. Back in 2016, before he realised that his path to power required full MAGA servitude, he warned about Trump’s demagoguery and the danger of a strongman cult. Yet here he is, Trump’s lapdog-in-chief, standing beside him as he shames a democratic leader who has risked everything to protect his country.

Vance’s transformation from principled critic to Trump’s obsequious errand boy is one of the most shameless political conversions in modern history. This is a man who once viewed Trump as a threat to democracy, yet now stands beside him spouting Kremlin-approved talking points. And all while performing the political gymnastics required to pretend he still has a shred of integrity. The reality is, he doesn’t. He traded that in the moment he realised that kissing Trump’s boots was his ticket to power.

The performance in the Oval Office was not about foreign policy. It was about subjugation. Zelensky was meant to play the role of the grateful servant, nodding along as Trump and Vance lectured him on diplomacy – meaning, of course, that he should surrender Ukrainian land to Putin in exchange for Trump’s good graces. When he failed to comply, they attacked him for being ungrateful. The irony is staggering: the same Trump who held Ukraine’s military aid hostage in 2019 is now moaning that Zelensky hasn’t been grovelling enough for US support.

Make no mistake – this is about setting the stage for America’s full retreat from Ukraine, the green light that Putin has been waiting for. Trump has long admired strongmen, and if anyone was grinning from ear to ear watching that Oval Office spectacle, it was Vladimir Putin himself. He got exactly what he wanted: a fractured West, an emboldened Russia, and a US administration willing to undermine its own allies to serve domestic political theatre.

What This Means for Europe

• This Oval Office humiliation of Zelensky is a flashing red warning light for Europe. 
• Trump’s return means the US can no longer be trusted to uphold NATO’s security. 
• If Ukraine is thrown under the bus, how long before NATO itself is next? 
• A Weakened Ukraine Strengthens Russia – If Trump and Vance cut off support, Putin will drag out the war, knowing Ukraine will be forced to surrender territory. 
• The Baltic states, Moldova, even Poland – they’re all watching this unfold with growing alarm.
• Europe’s Defence is Now Its Own Problem – Macron has long argued for a European defence policy, and if Trump abandons Ukraine, that urgency will only grow. 
• But the reality is, Europe is not ready to defend itself without US support. 
• NATO’s Existential Crisis – Trump has already threatened to let Russia do what it wants to NATO members who don’t “pay enough.” If Ukraine is abandoned, it sets a precedent: NATO protection is no longer guaranteed. 
• Energy Security at Risk – A stronger Russia means renewed attempts to undermine European energy independence. If Trump cozies up to the Kremlin, expect attempts to reverse Europe’s shift away from Russian gas. 
• A Gift to the European Far Right – Le Pen, AfD, and Orbán will use this moment to push for dropping Ukraine support and aligning with Trump’s isolationism. Another Kremlin win.

Starmer now faces a huge decision. He wants to fund defence spending by raiding International Aid, but that won’t cut it. If Britain is serious about defence and security, then massive borrowing is unavoidable – and that means ditching the Tory-imposed fiscal straitjacket. The UK’s foreign aid budget is £10 billion a year, while Starmer wants to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP – an increase of about £20 billion a year. Even scrapping aid wouldn’t be enough. And cutting aid to fund defence is a false economy anyway – it creates instability, leading to higher security risks later. It's the time to borrown big.

• Acknowledge reality – The UK cannot meet modern defence challenges without borrowing tens of billions. 
• Ditch the arbitrary fiscal rules – Invest in security the way successful economies invest in infrastructure and industry. 
• Use borrowing strategically – Long-term bonds at low interest rates should fund defence modernisation. 
• Boost UK defence production – Investing in arms manufacturing creates jobs and offsets borrowing costs. 
• Strengthen European defence ties – If Trump guts NATO, the UK must work closely with France, Germany, and the EU.

The choice is clear. If Starmer sticks to Tory economic orthodoxy, he’ll end up making marginal, ineffective tweaks while the world grows more dangerous. Either he embraces borrowing to secure Britain’s defences, or he presides over a military decline at the worst possible time. Should the King's State Visit invitation be withdrawn from Trump? Definitely.

Trump is in power. Putin is watching. Putin is laughing. Europe is vulnerable. Now is not the time for timid economic caution – it’s time for action.

What does Putin have on Trump? Probably nothing so tawdry as sex tapes. More likely, evidence of Russian interference in American elections and casting doubt on Trump's legitimacy. To Trump's ego, that would be anathema. It's telling that Associated Press were not invited to the press conference, but TASS, the Russian news agency, was.

And what of China? Could Xi step in and provide a security blanket in return for minerals? Not impossible as America stands back from the world stage. In reality, Ukraine needs Western support for its security, and China knows it. A Beijing-brokered deal would come with too many strings, too little real protection, and too much geopolitical risk. Xi won’t stick his neck out for Ukraine - unless it’s on China’s terms, for China’s benefit, and at minimal cost.

And we have ......Farage..... Farage’s blind allegiance to Trump may have seemed like a winning strategy until now, but it’s a ticking time bomb for his electoral chances in the UK. Trump’s antics, from cosying up to Putin to humiliating Zelensky, are out of step with the British electorate. Farage’s unwavering support for him could well alienate voters who see Ukraine’s struggle as a fight for democracy. And when Trump inevitably drops him faster than a dodgy NFT scheme, Farage will be left floundering, his political career resembling one of his ill-fated fishing trips – a lot of bluster, not much to show for it, and a strong whiff of something unpleasant lingering in the air. Hitching his wagon to a sinking ship might just torpedo his long-cherished ambitions of making Reform a major force in British politics. Or at least it would, if Reform was anything more than a glorified pub rant with a logo.

Let's be clear, this isn't about putting boots on the ground in Ukraine (although rumours abound that British special forces are already there, but the government wouldn't admit it if they were), but arming Ukraine and being prepared for if Ukraine falls, as a NATO ally could be next.