Congratulations on an expert-packed issue dissecting Trump’s foreign policy in all its raw, power-fanged menace. I would add two things that drive Trump’s style: his life-long experience as a deal-junkie property boss and 14 seasons as a reality TV star. New York’s property jackal pit taught Trump never to stand still or shut up. It was one glitzy tower or casino after another: buy, extract value, tell the media it’s the biggest deal ever, and repeat. Later, The Apprentice taught him how to maximise audience interest and drive up ratings through surprise firings and the orchestrated humiliation of contestants.
When he abducts Nicolás Maduro or carries out extrajudicial strikes, Trump is not trying to distract from his poll numbers, he’s trying to drive them up – just like his old TV ratings. He’s also pursuing his property playbook: make your enemies look like schmucks, take their land and money, and show everyone that you are the Biggest Don. Those around Trump may have doctrines; he has plays. He’s also in a hurry, with the midterm elections calling and age catching up. We should expect big surprises soon – on Greenland, Cuba and Nato. We all live in Trump’s reality show.
Robert Dear, Enfield, London
Power plays
Your special issue was full of sharp insights into what the Venezuelan invasion means and what might come next. I was particularly impressed by the articles by Tom McTague, John Bew, Lawrence Freedman and Bruno Maçães (it’s good to see him back), and the interview with Fiona Hill – but they were just the best of a universally meaty feast.
Hill mentions Canada a lot in her interview. I was born in Canada and retain an interest in what is going on there. Mark Carney’s government is showing how to go about dealing with Trump. A sharp analysis of the problem – overreliance on an unreliable US as a trading partner – then a detailed strategy on how to reduce that reliance and give Canadians more control of their destiny. This includes overcoming the barriers to interprovincial trade, building up more domestic production and finding new trading partners. This is all set out in very clear communications to the public, so it understands the journey the country is on, understands it won’t be easy, but can see the long-term destination and the benefits it will bring. And the Canadian public is responding to this with its own actions: stopping travel to the US and boycotting American products. Maybe our government could take a lesson or two in how to assert our own sovereignty?
Stephen Lismore, Chesterfield
Thank you for an enthralling selection of well-written and informed perspectives on recent, and potential future, geopolitical manoeuvres. This “Special Crisis Issue” reminded me that 2026 is the Chinese Year of the Fire Horse, signposting progress but also potential chaos if energy is unwisely channelled, and therefore requiring great wisdom to navigate a path. Sadly, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom seem largely incompatible with positions of power; ego trumps humility. The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful. In 2026, there is a huge and likely impactful opportunity for someone to step up: is anyone powerful, wise and brave enough?
Julian Blagg, Cambridge
There were too many articles on Venezuela covering same ground. More space should have been freed up for other international and domestic affairs – I don’t know what, but I needed some respite!
Dermot Dolan, London E17
Welcome back
Wonderful to have Helen Lewis writing for the New Statesman again (The Diary, 9 January). Who wouldn’t pay to watch Trump debagged in a game of Strip Grok!
Sally Litherland, Salisbury
A shame how he carries on
With regard to Pippa Bailey’s column (Out of the Ordinary, 9 January), I have long thought Russell Brand was channelling his inner Rasputin. And in one instance he has surpassed “Russia’s greatest love machine”: he, unlike the Russian mystic, has performed the act of baptism – albeit in the penguin pool of a Florida zoo – though whether he was qualified to do so is unclear. Ra-ra-Rasputin, indeed.
Tom Stubbs, Surbiton
The cost of waiting
As a 60-year-old man who was diagnosed at nearly 56 with incurable, stage-four metastatic prostate cancer, I was intrigued by Dr Phil Whitaker’s comments regarding cancer screening (Health Matters, 9 January). I am convinced that, had I been routinely screened at age 50, there would have been a good chance of detecting the cancer before it had spread to my bones, rendering it incurable. As I understand it, a prostatectomy or radiotherapy would likely have resolved the issue, and I would not currently be contemplating my premature demise as I approach the end of my final (excluding clinical trials) treatment option. I am certain that many others are in a similar position. I am sure that those of us who might have been saved from incurable disease through early detection would not regard this outcome as one of screening’s “slim benefits”. Daniel Burkey, Ossett, West Yorkshire
Home truths
After reading about Finn McRedmond’s unappetising lunch experience – and the alternative, “a perfectly good Pret across the road” (Silver Spoon, 9 January), getting up ten minutes earlier to make a sandwich and grab a piece of fruit on the way out never felt so appealing.
Les Bright (aged 74 and 2/3), Exeter
Ale tales
I often take my old friend, the New Statesman, to my local for a pint (Beers and Sandwiches, 9 January). It was there that I read your invitation to recommend a pub. The Greyhound, outside the tiny hamlet of Llantrisant in the lower Usk Valley, is a proper country inn. It caters equally for locals, farmers, travellers from far and wide, children, dogs, the shoot and a boules team. Open fires, an old-fashioned top bar, a wide selection of beers, wholesome food, music nights, rooms if needed… While other pubs are closing, its owner, Kelly, is ensuring the Greyhound is bucking the trend. Our community is very fortunate.
Sandy Blair, Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf
Let me say first that I welcome Beers and Sandwiches as a new column. Very few would disagree with your listing of what makes a good country pub, but you have left out one vital component: the regulars.
In my distant youth, I visited one of our nearby pubs on a bicycle outing with a friend. It was lunchtime. In the corner sat three old men, who eyed us suspiciously in silence. I determined then that one day I would be one of those grumpy old men in the corner. It wasn’t a great pub, though, partly because of those locals.
My favourite pub, deep in the Marches, meets all your criteria. Ever-changing real ales, fresh and reasonably priced. There are also a dozen local ciders, and a range of lagers and keg beers. It has the fire and stone floors; customers’ dogs are known by name to the other customers and staff. But it’s the locals who are the joy. Diverse and idiosyncratic, yet wholly welcoming.
Although my mate and I only manage to get there once a month – on motorbikes, so we can only manage one pint – we are greeted by name. We are invited to special events: birthday celebrations, fundraisers for local charities and music from ageing regulars. Best of all is Rum Day: one summer afternoon devoted to the sugar spirit. It’s a simple joy, and largely – as the day goes on – unfocused. It has to be a locals’ festival because it’s impossible to partake and drive.
The problem with a column like this is that it can lead to the ruin of great places by diluting their delights with newcomers. So I’m not going to tell you where to find this corner of heaven – just leave a few clues. It’s five miles or so from an English cathedral city, about the same distance to the most explicit Sheela-na-gig in the Marches, and alongside the road to our finest summer literary festival. That’s enough. John Young, Coed y Mynach, Sir Fynwy (Monmouthshire)
Can I recommend The Crown Inn, Stockport? It’s a 200-year-old pub beneath the viaduct, which means the view from the beer garden is superb. Excellent beers and traditional snacks, plus real fires in winter.
Alan Gent, Cheshire
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk
We reserve the right to edit letters
[Further reading: The housing market has already crashed]
Content from our partners
Related
This article appears in the 14 Jan 2026 issue of the New Statesman, Battle for power
Join the debate
Subscribe here to comment