Necessity is the mother of invention, the old saying has it, and we’re currently seeing that fact play out internationally and geopolitically. Countries are deciding in growing numbers that the status quo poorly served them and so one by one they’re abandoning it in favour of self-interest, behaving in ways long since left behind.
In that pithy manner unique to internet users, this trend has been summed up as “you can just do things”. Countries and leaders are perceived as just doing things when they see long-standing, critical problems that have typically been left unaddressed, and decide to implement obvious, but long-neglected solutions. The efficacy of those solutions is not guaranteed, but the decision to act is widely understood as being preferable to inaction.
A couple of examples. This week, Poland changed the law so as to temporarily suspend the right to apply for asylum for migrants arriving in the country via its eastern border with Belarus. This comes following years of pressure on that front, and a shifting make-up of the migrant population that’s mostly seen the women and children disappear, replaced by large groups of men that are frequently violent.
Indeed, last year a Polish soldier was killed after he was stabbed with a makeshift spear, a knife tied to the end of a stick, as he attempted to stop a group of these migrants trying to force their way across the border. Many more soldiers and border guards have been injured on the border since the crisis broke out in 2021, which has progressively led to the implementation of harsher measures.
That does not mean Poland has left its humanity behind; exemptions will still be made for genuinely vulnerable people, such as unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, and those in need of specialist healthcare. But nevertheless it has acknowledged that special circumstances require special solutions – and acknowledged by no less than Brussels’ man in the east, Donald Tusk and his centrist coalition. It was a popular move, the initial vote backed by an overwhelming majority of MPs.
Or turn to the show stealing the global spotlight: the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to “make America great again”. As we know, and to our great horror, tariffs are playing a large part in this, as Trump understands them to be a way not only to bring in revenue, but a means to return industry to the US. As the president said yesterday when discussing the upcoming pharmaceuticals tariff, “We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back.
“We don’t make anything here in terms of drugs, medical drugs, different types of drugs that you need, medicines,” he said.
This sense that it’s high time that manufacturing and industry (especially essential manufacturing and industry such as pharmaceuticals represent) return to your own shores is inextricably linked to the growing instability of the global theatre. The US is attempting to de-escalate with Russia because it has its sights fixed firmly on its perceived closest competitor, China, which as everyone knows is the world’s factory. The US cannot currently compete on that front, and whether he’s implementing the right measures or not, Trump acknowledges that and is attempting to address it. His first term and its tariff strategy didn’t provide conclusive evidence either way.
In a similarly bold vein, though, he’s apparently decided that Greenland is in America’s strategic interests and has shifted his speech to reflect that. He said this week that his administration must “let them know that we need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it”.
“We have to have the land because it’s not possible to properly defend a large section of this Earth — not just the US — without it. So we have to have it, and I think we will have it,” he said. A radical departure from the status quo of late, it must be said. The US Vice President and Second Lady are due to visit Greenland today, keeping the pressure on, despite international pleas. They are unashamedly acting in what they perceive to be their national interest.
There are more examples that could be cited, but the basic point is this: there are issues that have been worsening across the board for some time now, whether it be the strain continuous mass immigration is putting on national infrastructure and cohesion, or whether it be ongoing de-industrialisation, despite the frailties of global supply chains and partnerships being laid bare by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Some countries are acknowledging those realities and acting accordingly, whether or not it’s popular and whether or not those measures will ultimately be successful in preserving stability and security.
This dramatic new landscape only makes political paralysis and stagnation all the more puzzling, and we unfortunate citizens of these isles have both of those in abundance.
To wit, X was abuzz last night, as were headlines, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s proclamation that “Ninja swords will be banned by this summer”.
“When we promise action we take it,” he wrote, and was absolutely ratioed for it. Because banning yet another type of blade is going to do nothing for Britain’s surging knife crime, and everyone knows it. This is demonstrable, given that the UK government has already banned multiple forms of knife.
Just last September, the British government banned “zombie knives” and machetes, which was apparently so ineffective that Keir Starmer posted in January this year that “Knife crime is at epidemic levels and is ruining lives across Britain”. Of course, the obvious solution – looking at who’s carrying out these crimes and the suitability of the punishment they receive – might raise some uncomfortable questions, so better just to ban a form of blade that next to nobody in the UK owns.
Or to take domestic matters, just under a week out from what one economic pundit has dubbed potentially “the worst day in Irish economic history since September 29 2008 and December 2010 (when bailout happened)”, the Dáil is still squabbling over speaking rights, the opposition having gritted their teeth and found a hill worth dying on, at long last. This is not to excuse Government, or their most valuable partner, Michael Lowry, who summed up precisely how enjoyable he finds the whole spectacle with his salute to Paul Murphy TD.
I cannot help but think that, inglorious as these proceedings currently appear, in the weeks and months after April 2, when Trump’s tariffs take effect – and the later, dread day when a pharmaceutical tariff is slapped on – the Leinster House circus will take on a positively incendiary appearance.
None of this should be read as a recommendation that a commitment to moral conduct and humanitarian impulse be abandoned in favour of purely cold, calculating self-preservation, but it absolutely is an exhortation to be a hell of a lot more vigilant, and a hell of a lot more decisive, than we’re currently being. Despite Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe’s insistence on Prime Time last night:
“The Minister for Finance has said he is ‘extremely concerned’ about the potential impact of proposed United States tariffs on pharmaceutical exports, warning they could deliver a major blow to Ireland’s economy.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time programme, Paschal Donohoe said the Government is preparing for ‘real and significant’ difficulties if US President Donald Trump follows through on threats to impose tariffs on drug imports, including those from Ireland.”
One cannot help but feel that it is akin to shifting deck chairs around on the Titanic at this stage, and that the conduct of ministers and TDs belie their professions of vigilance. If they were serious, we might expect to see similarly drastic measures to those being taken by bullish members of the international community. That could take a variety of forms, but the fact that business is proceeding as usual, if not worse than usual, implies that the severity of the situation has very much not hit home yet.