WHITE HOUSE, HERE I COME!
Chancellor ‘fool’s paradise’ condemns of populism that elected President as Fallon issues new Putin alert
PHILIP Hammond launched a thinly-veiled attack on Donald Trump yesterday, saying populism was a ‘fool’s paradise’.
Although he did not mention the incoming US President by name, the Chancellor said there were no easy options for governments around the world in the face of mounting discontent.
Mr Trump, who will be sworn in today in Washington DC, swept to power on a tidal wave of populist support, partly rooted in criticism of globalisation and free trade.
It came as another Cabinet minister, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, also issued a coded attack on the new President over his stance on Russia.
Speaking yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Hammond admitted that vast swathes of the population had become ‘disillusioned’.
‘Of course, it is possible to mask the effects of change in the short term,’ the Chancellor said. ‘But politicians who take the populist route will find it a very short road.
‘There is no sustainable future for a developed economy in protectionism, subsidy, and high debt.’
He added: ‘That means facing up to the fact that we have some hard graft ahead. Populism is a fool’s paradise.’
On the eve of Mr Trump’s inauguration, Sir Michael flew into Kiev, Ukraine, to reassure the nervous ally as it fights Russian aggression in the region. He said the UK was sending a ‘clear message’ that its support for the country would not falter.
In an apparent swipe at the incoming President, he said: ‘The values of freedom and democracy cannot be traded. Britain is stepping up on the global stage and standing firm with our Ukrainian friends.’ His comments follow No 10 panic after the presidentelect proposed dropping economic sanctions against Vladimir Putin in return for nuclear arms reductions. Currently, sanctions will only be lifted if Russia pulls its troops out of Ukraine and ends its support for local rebels.
Critics slammed Mr Trump for suggesting Ukraine’s independence could be ‘traded’ for a deal on the reduction of nuclear weapons.
But Sir Michael made clear that Britain would not sacrifice Ukraine’s sovereignty – setting the UK on a collision course with the new US leader.
Announcing British troops would continue training Ukrainian counterparts for another year, he added: ‘The UK is sending a clear message that we are committed to defending democracy across the world and support Ukraine’s sovereignty, independ-waves ence and territorial integrity.’ Ukraine has been fighting pro-Moscow rebels and Russian troops in the east of the country in a three-year conflict which has left nearly 10,000 dead.
The UK Government’s greatest fear is that the president-elect will develop a close relationship with Mr Putin, a former KGB spy, when he enters the White House.
Such a relationship could shake up the world order and risk leaving Britain out in the cold.
These fears were heightened when Mr Trump suggested in an interview with former Cabinet minister Michael Gove this week that he could do a deal with Putin, even if the Russian leader refuses to back down on Ukraine. His comments sent shock-
‘We are committed to defending democracy’ ‘Cope with the pace of change’
across the Foreign Office and Britain’s allies, who fear an emboldened Putin could launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In his wide-ranging speech in Davos the Chancellor also said technology posed a threat to the workforce – with skilled and unskilled employees facing losing their jobs to machines.
It is thought that the rise of the robots puts administrative, clerical and production staff most under threat. Some even claim that entire professions, such as accountancy, could be pushed to the brink of extinction as developments in computers make the roles redundant.
Mr Hammond said: ‘Over the coming years our economy and our social structures will have to cope not only with the impacts of globalisation but also with the quickening pace of technological change.
‘On the positive side, many of the new disruptive technologies are being developed in the UK.
‘We will be investing over £8billion of public money ... annually by the end of the decade, ensuring that what is invented in the UK and discovered in the UK gets developed and commercialised in the UK, and, yes please, ultimately taxed in the UK.
‘But that won’t in itself protect us from the impact of first unskilled and then skilled workers finding their jobs disappearing. Indeed, looking at the relative speed of development of recent advances, for example in computerised medical diagnostics on the one hand and driverless vehicles on the other, it could well be the case that it is skilled workers that face the earliest challenge to their jobs.’
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney previously said 15million Britons could be put out of work by robots.
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