Values? What values?

It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that our fabled shared values have now vanished in a putrid puff of Trumpian ignorance and arrogance.

It is time to start thinking seriously about our values.

It is also time to think seriously about Donald Tump’s values.

Because when Keir Starmer congratulated Trump on his election victory last November, he said this: ‘As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.’

Was that a simple statement of fact, or a pious hope, rooted in unreality and denial?

Barely a month after Trump moved back into the White House, it is now impossible to avoid the conclusion that these fabled shared values have vanished in a putrid puff of Trumpian ignorance and arrogance.