Mark Carney beat Trumpism with decency. Starmer should take note
29 April 2025, 14:45 | Updated: 29 April 2025, 14:51
Mark Carney’s remarkable victory is good news not just for Canada but also for us in the UK.
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It shows that there is an alternative to appeasing Trump - an alternative that relies on courage, decency, and truth.
Here in the UK, we might not be facing the same territorial threat from Trump’s ambitions. Trump has stated no lust for his empire to include our treasured isles, but we face an existential threat from Trump that is equally as grave.
Trump threatens all that we value as a society. He has declared global war on the rule of law; human rights, decency, democracy and most cruelly, the vulnerable. We need to be under no illusion as to what is at stake.
The far right flourishes in fear. Carney has shown that it is possible to turn the tide by taking a stand. Trump may not have been on the ballot paper, but it was Carney’s opposition to everything he stood for that secured his victory.
While the government here tries to face both ways, appeasing Washington in the hope of a better trade deal while standing firm with Europe on Ukraine, Carney’s more ambitious alternative is aligned morally and ethically and has turned near certain electoral defeat into victory in just three months.
Carney’s nationalism is not the nationalism of the right; it is the nationalism that includes everyone, as Carney said in his acceptance speech, ‘everyone who calls Canada home.’
Imagine if our government were to throw that warm embrace around all its citizens. Instead of focusing on the ‘other’, the pitiless refugee risking their life to reach our shores. Imagine if, in the face of Trump, there was a call for unity and courage. A call to rally around all that is decent, compassionate, and true. An equivalent to the three Canadian values that Carney put at the heart of last night’s speech: ‘humility, ambition and unity.’
Starmer’s call for a coalition of the willing cannot just extend to defence. It must be more ambitious and extend to all that we value. The cost of appeasing Washington in the dubious hope of a better tariff deal may offer short-term respite, but how long will that last, and what else do we lose in the long term?
We are already watching truth and political trust disintegrate before our eyes. Urgent action is needed to protect our delicate democracy from the onslaught of online disinformation and hate. But no action robust enough to protect our digital space, like banning or properly sanctioning the platforms that peddle and profit from hate, can be taken while we need to keep Trump and his techbro’s sweet.
The consequences for democracy, our children’s psychological health, and societal cohesion may not be immediately quantifiable in financial terms, but their consequences absolutely constitute an existential threat to this nation.
Carney’s approach also offers Labour a surer route to ensuring a vital second term in office. With Farage’s tanks parked firmly on its lawn, trying to see off the far right with bits of red meat like today’s announcement on migrant sex offenders, or its decision to re-arm by slashing aid, is not going to be enough. Labour needs to lead with the values that have historically lain at its heart, for they are the unwavering values that most of us still admire and aspire to. What’s more, they provide a fast anchor in the face of a fickle and reactive news agenda.
Ultimately, though, what Carney’s success offers us is hope. It shows that even in an age of hate, division, and digital disinformation, core human values like courage, honesty, and compassion still have electoral appeal and can deliver victory at the ballot box.
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Jennifer Nadel is CEO of the cross-party think tank, Compassion in Politics and Director of Compassionate Politics at Stanford University’s Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.
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