David Levy – The Structure of the New Order – Mar 2026

The instability of our alliances have come into sharp focus recently, with the challenge laid at the door of all countries by the rhetoric and actions of the President of the United States, Donald Trump. All previous conventions of communication and inter-country diplomacy have been discarded for bullying and the “our way or the highway” policies of his administration.

Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, has taken this challenge byTrump as a wake- up call, and he is planning accordingly. Meanwhile, our Prime Minister hopes for the old status quo. I believe he needs to wake up and see life as it is, and not as he would wish it to be. Therefore, he should stop talking about the “special relationship”. It doesn’t exist as far as Donald Trump’s administration is concerned.

All speeches made by Trump and his team berate Europe as being fat and lazy. All Trump believes is that the US won the war.

Of course, I could go on and on. The fact is, we need to wise up and see the opportunities to forge fresh alliances founded on mutual profit and growth, focused on specific issues with various governments.

On the home front, it is time for fresh thinking on old and existing problems, with a strong emphasis placed on solutions, not sticking plasters. In particular, I have in mind our right to pure water and fresh air, and healthy food that is produced in a way that causes no harm. I would include national defence too. We must be a core member of NATO.

It is still my contention that we are governed by the Civil Service, and that this monolith is unable to react to problems which occur due to poor planning, notably in food production and water management.

The idea of reconstructing the civil service to create a new “super agency” is, at its heart, faulty. Where would the staff come from? The answer is, of course, from old failed departments and agencies – just like the “new super agency” that gave us the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). It took years to get the staff, and then it has failed to deliver on the mandate that set it up.

We need new thinking that places more power in local hands.

We need to be able to remove from office those who fail to serve the public properly. And, in the case of the providers of essential national services, such as the water companies where some owners have “asset stripped” the company, we need to remove those owners and replace them with new ones who believe in delivering sound standards of public service before any entitlement to private benefit from their ownership. In other words, the payment of dividends directly linked to the delivery of a sound service so that, if the service is poor, there is absolutely no dividend. And we also must be strong, and make sure that Parliament insists that government, the civil service and the regulators deliver this. That is what democracy is about.

The timing is now.