Trump-hating celebs must be crazy to quit the US for Starmer’s miserable Britain

There’s no bigger sign of Trump Derangement Syndrome than flouncing off to a country that’s now poorer than any American state

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Ever since Donald Trump’s victory, it’s been fascinating to read about all the horrified Hollywood celebrities queuing up to flee the US. Take, for example, Sharon Stone. The star of Basic Instinct has publicly denounced Trump for “running for office on a platform of hate and oppression”. In fact, she finds him so unspeakably frightful, she has said she’s “considering a house in Italy”.
Italy? In that case, I hope she enjoys living under the rule of Giorgia Meloni: a leader who is routinely described by opponents as “far-Right”, “populist”, “anti-abortion” and “anti-immigrant”. What a nice change that will make.
Then there’s Eva Longoria, the former star of Desperate Housewives. She insists that her loathing of Trump (“a convicted criminal who spews so much hate”) isn’t the reason she’s left the US. Earlier this month, though, she told a magazine that she pities ordinary Americans, because they’re “going to be stuck in this dystopian country”. Among the reasons that she gave for her disenchantment were “the homelessness”, and “the taxes”.
In light of this, it’s interesting to read that she now divides her time between Spain and Mexico. The former, under its current socialist government, has far higher taxes than the US. And the latter has more homeless people (14million) than any other country on the planet. Indeed, it has more than 20 times as many as the US.
Perhaps most intriguing, however, are the celebrities who are fleeing to a certain other country. This week, it was reported that Ellen DeGeneres, the chat show host, and her wife Portia de Rossi, the actress, have decided to “get the hell out” of the US – and move to none other than Sir Keir Starmer’s Britain.
Can this really be true? I don’t mean to talk our country down. But I’m struggling to get my head round the idea that anyone could be in such a strop about the result of an election that they would choose to swap the richest country on Earth for a country that is now poorer than Mississippi, the poorest American state. It feels as if they aren’t so much punishing Trump as punishing themselves.
Of course, given that DeGeneres, according to Forbes, has a net worth of around £360m, I suppose they won’t have to worry about the wretched state of our hospitals, schools, public transport and indeed pretty much everything else. Then again, they might come to resent being forced to pay ever-growing taxes in order to fund these ever-deteriorating services.
What makes me fear for the couple most of all, though, is their reported choice of location. It’s the Cotswolds. Have they by any chance bought a farm? If so, I hope they aren’t already regretting it.
Still, there is one aspect of life in Starmer’s Britain that needn’t trouble them. Being Hollywood celebrities, they presumably hold all the correct liberal opinions. So at least they won’t have to worry about the police knocking on their door.
Is anyone you know a “dark empath”? If so, beware. According to psychologists, this is a highly dangerous personality type. As the Guardian recently warned its readers, a “dark empath” is “someone who appears to be caring and sensitive, but who is actually using those skills to further their own agenda”.
But hang on just a minute. Doesn’t that perfectly describe the average modern Left-wing activist?
After all, such activists endlessly preach about “compassion”, “empathy” and “kindness”. Yet at the same time they seem to take tremendous relish in abusing or intimidating others. Look at the Left-wing men who profess to be fighting for trans rights, while bawling insults at any woman who dares defy them. Or the supposed anti-racists who go on pro-Palestinian marches while waving swastika placards. It’s almost as if they’re using “compassion” as a cover for their hatred.
Anyway, it’s good to have this useful new term. We used to think Left-wing activists were merely misguided. Now we learn that they may be suffering from a serious psychological disorder.
Perhaps, out of pity, we should be nicer to them. Or at least pretend to be nicer, to make ourselves look good.
Jolyon Maugham KC – the revered anti-Brexit campaigner, champion of gender ideology, and all-round paragon of progressive virtue – has demanded that the British Museum do more to emphasise our country’s shameful role in the slave trade. This is a characteristically noble thought. All the same, I can’t help feeling that, in recent years, we’ve already learnt rather a lot about slavery. Purely for the sake of variety, I wonder whether there’s some other injustice the British Museum could highlight.
I know. How about an exhibition on animal cruelty?
Unlike slavery, which was abolished in Britain almost 200 years ago, animal cruelty remains a sickening feature of our society. Over Christmas 2019, for example, some delirious maniac boasted on Twitter that he’d just run out into his garden in London, clad in his wife’s satin kimono, and used a baseball bat to club a fox to death.
Sadly, the name of this unhinged freak escapes me. But, like the righteous Mr Maugham, I believe that the British Museum has a duty to raise public awareness of historic barbarity. Let’s hope that its board is listening.
Way of the World is a twice-weekly satirical look at the headlines aiming to mock the absurdities of the modern world. It is published at 7am every Tuesday and Saturday
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