Why Joe Biden presidency will be good for Britain – Bill Carmichael

IT is 11 days after the US election and the three-ring circus that is American politics continues to fascinate and horrify in equal measure.

One thing that puzzles me is the length of time needed to count the votes. In the UK, election staff work through the night to deliver the majority of results before dawn following polling day, with only remote areas, such as the highlands and islands of Scotland taking a little longer.

In the US, they were counting for days, even in densely populated urban areas. OK, the numbers are far larger, with a record of more than 150 million voters casting a ballot, but surely it cannot be beyond the wit of a country like America to get the results in a bit quicker.

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The interminable delays have only increased the division and partisan bitterness that has characterised this election and looks likely to scar the US political scene for some years to come.

Supporters of President-elect Joe Biden urge Donald Trump to accept the outcome of last week's US election result.Supporters of President-elect Joe Biden urge Donald Trump to accept the outcome of last week's US election result.
Supporters of President-elect Joe Biden urge Donald Trump to accept the outcome of last week's US election result.

Donald Trump has refused to concede and has launched legal action to contest the result, inevitably leading to more uncertainty, endless court battles and the prospect of the sitting president being forcibly dragged out of the White House before Joe Biden’s inauguration in January.

If that happened it would be a major embarrassment for the West, but I wouldn’t put it past Trump on current form.

For what it is worth, I believe Trump should accept defeat with as much dignity as he can muster, and go away to lick his wounds on one of his golf courses, and allow Team Biden to begin a smooth and orderly transition.

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That would be the best result for America and the rest of the free world, which needs the stability and leadership a strong US can bring.

Joe Biden is President-elect of the United States - but what will his policies mean for Britain?Joe Biden is President-elect of the United States - but what will his policies mean for Britain?
Joe Biden is President-elect of the United States - but what will his policies mean for Britain?

Is there evidence of electoral fraud? Frankly I would be astonished in a country as large and divided as America if there wasn’t. But I doubt if the scale of the cheating would be enough to overturn the result.

Incidentally, news outlets, including the BBC, now invariably state that Trump alleges voter fraud “entirely without evidence”. That may be true, but I don’t recall the whole ridiculous “Russian collusion” hoax perpetrated by Democrats for four years after Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, being prefaced by news organisations with the words “entirely without evidence”. Apparently the rules are different for Trump.

Indeed, a big part of the problem today with Republicans refusing to accept the result in 2020 is that Democrats refused to accept the result in 2016. Democracy depends on the losers’ consent, and if you don’t have that the whole precious fabric starts to unravel.

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Here in the UK we need to turn our attention to what a Biden presidency will mean for Anglo-American relations. Much has been made of Biden’s Irish ancestry and his hostility to Brexit and the possibility of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

President Donald Trump has still to concede defeat to Joe Biden nearly 10 days after America went to the polls.President Donald Trump has still to concede defeat to Joe Biden nearly 10 days after America went to the polls.
President Donald Trump has still to concede defeat to Joe Biden nearly 10 days after America went to the polls.

But the UK has already left the EU, and by the time Biden takes office, the transition period will be over – deal or no deal. And with an 80-seat Conservative majority in the House of Commons there is nothing Biden or anybody else can do about that.

In fact I think that Biden and Boris Johnson will get on rather well. They are both died-in-the-wool centrists, both have been involved with the dirty business of party politics for many decades and I doubt you could slide a Rizla cigarette paper between the two in terms of economic and social policy.

And the whole point of a free trade deal between the US and a newly independent UK is that it is mutually beneficial – both the American and British people stand to gain hugely if one is agreed and I hope a pragmatic Biden administration will recognise that.

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These are difficult times, but at least the US election has given me the biggest belly laugh I have had since before lockdown.

I watched in incredulous wonder as prominent and devoted Remainers queued up in newspapers and on TV, radio and social media to express their complete outrage that the US President had refused to accept the election result.

What? The losers having a foot-stomping strop because a democratic vote didn’t go their way, and then making wild unsupported allegations that it was rigged and stolen, and refusing point blank to accept the will of the electorate?

It couldn’t happen here, could it? Not in a million years!

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