The problem with Trump America’s obsession with free speech is that they don’t believe in it. The problem with their warning that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” is that right now, it is the US that faces civilisational erasure, or certainly the erasure of the civilisation much of the world assumed the US to be, and the US for decades has told the world it was.
These twin problems came together in last week’s news that football fans hoping to follow their countries’ teams to the World Cup this summer may have to supply “their social media for the last five years”. Why? I have genuinely been trying to think of a good reason.
There are only two that strike me as plausible. The first is that the administration does not actually want the influx of fans from all over the world, and this – alongside simultaneously timed obscene ticket pricing – is a way of pushing those who can’t quite make up their minds whether to go, not to bother. But that clashes fundamentally with the broader World Cup messaging from Trump that it is going to be the bigliest, the best, and the best attended tournament in history.
That just leaves the second possibility… that critics of Trump’s America, and above all of Trump himself, need to be aware that any such criticism past or present makes them unwelcome aliens, and the Department of Homeland Security, which filed this proposal, would have the power to prevent entry based on historic social media posts.
If that is the basis on which judgement about entry is made, I fear border officials will find enough in my social media of the last five hours, let alone five years, to put me in the “first plane back” category. I have not exactly hidden my views about Trump, but that we are even having the discussion – will past tweets in support of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris be a reason for keeping you out of the US? – comprehensively exposes the utter hypocrisy of their claims to be the great defenders of free speech.
This is the America of JD Vance who said Europe’s lack of belief in free speech was a bigger threat than Putin’s Russia; of Elon Musk whose response to a fine for breaches of Europe’s Digital Services Act was to condemn “EU Stasi commissars” and proclaim that “the EU should be abolished”; of Trump himself who uses lawfare in an attempt to rob or shut down newspapers, and is inserting himself into the battle for ownership of Warner Bros in the hope he can emasculate CNN, which refuses to act as a cheerleader for lies and disinformation, corruption and cruelty, and the destruction of a liberal democratic world order.
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There was another element to the DHS plan, now out for consultation, which felt even more at odds with what we have understood modern America to be… that we might also have to provide phone numbers and email addresses used over the last five and 10 years respectively, and more information about family members. That feels a lot more Stasi commissar than anything Europe has done. It is certainly not American civilisation as we have known and (mainly) loved it.
Add in the normalisation of lying, the contagion of corruption and grift, the abuse of non-sycophant-media, the extreme politicisation of justice, the punishment of the arts and universities, the use of bullying and intimidation in foreign policy, the contempt for international law, the withdrawal from international institutions, and it feels to me that, for all the problems we face, American civilisation is at far greater risk than ours right now.
So, as Shakespeare might put it, “To go or not to go? That is the question.” And, as ever, there is a Shakespeare quote to provide the answer: “Doubt is a thief that often makes us fear to tread where we might have won.” I read from that the Great Man telling me that if I don’t go, the consequence may be that Scotland will not win the World Cup, which otherwise they might have done. I am not sure I can have that on my conscience for the rest of my life. Anyone got a burner phone they don’t need?
You have to take the wins where you can… no, this is not an announcement that my secret plot to get Brexit undone is heading inexorably towards triumph; nor indeed that the recent wave of interventions from victims of press harassment and intrusion are leading to the government re-opening the issues that were supposed to be dealt with by Sir Brian Leveson. Sadly, neither of those things are true.
It is to say though that when the government published its national youth strategy last week, prominent within it was the promise that 500,000 young people will have access to a trusted adult outside their home over the next decade. Alongside that they committed £15m to train youth workers, volunteers and others already supporting young people.
What’s more, my spies in Whitehall tell me that this was at least in part because of the campaigning work by the Lost Boys Taskforce, three of whose members met culture secretary Lisa Nandy and sports minister Stephanie Peacock to press the case for a Trusted Adult Guarantee. Though I was thrilled when the news was announced, I wasn’t totally surprised, because both ministers really engaged with what we were talking about, and absolutely got the need.
I noticed on the wall behind Lisa Nandy’s desk a framed photo of her predecessor Tessa Jowell, a mentor to Lisa, and one of my closest friends in politics, who sadly died in 2018.
One of Tessa’s finest achievements was her work on Sure Start, a programme to help children under five, especially in disadvantaged communities, shamefully a victim of the Cameron-Osborne austerity programme.
The trusted adult programme would have been right up Tessa’s street, because like Sure Start, it isn’t about parachuting in outsiders to hector people about how to live their lives; it is about strengthening the web of networks already holding communities together, and above all about deeply personal, human relationships.
Lisa got a fair bit of stick on the Leveson front last week, not least from me, but deserves thanks for this one. Tessa would have been proud of her.
There were inevitably a few lost boys, and lost men, in Pentonville prison, where I was playing my bagpipes at a special Christmas “Music in the Ville” event. And before anyone makes any jokes about “haven’t they suffered enough already?” they absolutely loved it, clapping along to Scotland the Brave, dancing to jigs and reels, and when I finished giving me the loudest cheer I’ve had since delivering the Brexit speech Keir Starmer ought to, on our recent Rest Is Politics tour.
But the real stars of the show were the dozen or so prisoners, and one female prison officer, who sang – including in some cases their own compositions – rapped, recited their own poems, and generally put on a brilliant show. Inevitably some of the poems and the rap songs were about their experiences in prison, and those that led them there; their regrets, guilt, anger, hopes and fears, and the intensity with which the non-performing prisoners listened was so powerful.
We all know music is a great healer. Yet I suspect its rehabilitative powers are hugely underestimated. So if you’re looking for a charity to support this Christmas, check out East London Metropolitan Opera, whose musicians run Music in the Ville.
A happy Christmas and peaceful New Year to all of you. See you in 2026.
