This week, every democrat, Europhile and anti-authoritarian could breathe a sigh of relief when Hungarians resoundingly rejected Viktor Orban after 16 years in office. Peter Magyar’s victory marks a defeat for Putin and Trump, who saw Orban as their useful puppet. It’s also a setback for far right leaders across Europe, who, together with Orban, have long hindered and blocked much needed reform in EU policy. Let’s hope that this will become a turning point for Hungary, the EU and the wider world.
Meanwhile important developments in the UK have passed almost unnoticed in Europe. Yet they reveal a disturbing trend: a government increasingly hostile to civil liberties, democratic accountability and Scotland’s right to choose its own future.
Scotland and Westminster: Two Different Political Cultures
Recent weeks have seen an extraordinary escalation in global crises, with the US-Israeli aggression on Iran and its dire economic repercussions. This was compounded by President Trump’s remarks that celebrated violence, threatened “civilizational erasure” and war crimes of all sorts, all the while offending and threatening allies, journalists and even the Pope. This further military and rhetorical escalation signals surely a point of no return that should advise everyone in a position of authority to distance themselves from the words and actions of a US President who is clearly unfit for his role.
In the face of all this, once again, Scotland’s response has been more democratic, more aligned with Europe and more principled than Westminster’s: Scottish First Minister John Swinney has repeatedly condemned the aggression on Iran as illegal and called on the UK government to stand up to Trump’s genocidal rhetoric. Keir Starmer, instead, has adopted an ambivalent approach, distancing himself publicly from the war while offering practical complicity, including UK military support through British bases. Not that it helped, anyway.
Such ambivalence in matters of foreign politics has come to characterise this Labour government. Yet one of the few convictions that they show no ambivalence about is that, like the Tories before them, they will deny Scots the right to choose their own future. When challenged over this a few days ago, UK Health secretary and aspiring Starmer successor Wes Streeting bluntly ruled out a referendum, no matter how Scots will vote in their Parliamentary elections. Scots already had a vote, he insisted. Scottish actor and director Alan Cumming commented: “just another example of refusal to engage in democracy.” Quite.
Civil Liberties and the Courts
Another story has barely been reported in Europe. On 13 February the UK High Court ruled that the government’s decision to classify the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was unlawful, vindicating what we predicted in our newsletter last September.
We wrote then: “The proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation is, in our view, an indefensible abuse of power, and indeed the UK government was widely condemned by a vast front of civil society organizations for attacking the right to protest and suppressing dissent in the very land that produced the Magna Carta.”
Yet, despite this ruling, the UK government has decided to appeal and pursue further repression of civil dissent. Once again we saw images of elderly peaceful demonstrators being taken away by the police in central London, amidst more than 500 new arrests by last Saturday.
Police remove a protester at a demonstration against the ban on Palestine Action, in Trafalgar Square, central London, on 11/4/2026 Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
The deep Crisis of the British State
This illiberal approach is not confined to the Palestinian issue but goes to the core of the government’s modus operandi. As recently revealed, Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney orchestrated spying on journalists from the Sunday Times and Guardian. The same McSweeney was forced to resign last February for having advised Starmer’s disastrous appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, despite knowing of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. This was followed a few days later by the consecutive arrests by the British police of Mandelson and of the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor over their links to Epstein.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested for his links to Jeffrey Epstein on 19/2/2026 Credit: REUTERS/Phil Noble
Naturally, the Epstein saga’s horror demands we stand with the women who suffered abuse and exploitation, and whose experiences deserve compassion, dignity and justice.
Yet instead of focusing on offering justice to Epstein’s victims and keeping its distance from a US administration that has ostensibly tried to obstruct the course of justice to downplay Trump’s own close association with Epstein, the UK government chose to accept Trump’s invitation and will send the king to the US at the end of April. What’s more, the royal palace has let it be known the king will not meet with representatives of survivors of the Epstein network of abuse.
The potential image of the king offering Trump the royal hand in this context exposes the dire state of the UK’s governance. Something must clearly be rotten in the state of Great Britain, to express it in Shakespearian terms.
Why the May Elections Matter
The consequences are visible in public opinion. Starmer’s net approval rating in Scotland has sunk to –59% and even the Scottish Labour leader has publicly distanced himself from the prime minister, calling for his resignation.
Adding to the embarrassment, in another piece of news that didn’t find space in Europe, Starmer’s government was forced into a U-turn on its initial plan to postpone democratic elections in 30 English councils this May, after legal pushback deemed it antidemocratic, which was condemned by all opposition parties, from left to right.
That is why the elections on 7 May matter so much, not only those for the Parliaments of Scotland and Wales, but also those in many localities across England, which may well be disastrous enough for the government to spell its end.
We therefore stand in solidarity with all voters in Scotland and across the British nations who will take their opportunity to seize a different and better future to this illiberal dystopia. As Hungarian voters demonstrated last weekend, even when it seems impossible, things can change when citizens come together and vote.
Young Hungarians in the streets of Budapest to celebrate the defeat of Viktor Orban in front of the Parliament building in Budapest on 12/4/2026. Credit: FERENC ISZA/AFP
With their message of hope resonating strongly across Europe, pay attention to our next newsletters which will contain exciting announcements.In European solidarity,
EfS team