George Osborne warns Theresa May she must work closely with Donald Trump to curb his disastrous ideas
Ex-Chancellor says the president-elect captured a cry for help by voters and turned it into an angry movement of change
GEORGE Osborne today calls on Theresa May to strike swift deals with Donald Trump to preserve the world's "prosperity, security and peace".
Writing for The Sun, the former Chancellor warns that the US President-elect's campaign pledges to erect trade barriers and destroy international alliances would decimate people's lives.
It is ordinary workers who will "end up being the real losers from an age of unreason".
So it's crucial that Britain holds Trump as close as possible to curb his disastrous ideas, Mr Osborne argues.
Having witnessed the earthquake election play out in New York, Mr Osborne also declares Hillary Clinton's defeat the final nail in the coffin for the Clinton-Blair age of spin.
While her husband Bill was "fresh and exciting" 25 years ago, Mrs Clinton's same brand of careful soundbites and focus grouped messages made her look "tired and boring".
In contrast, Donald Trump "brilliantly captured" Americans' 21st Century fears and anxieties, as he declared: “I am your voice”.
The senior Tory also predicts the debate about whether to legalise marijuana that also played out across the US on Tuesday will come to Britain next.
Mr Osborne warns: "When Donald Trump says: 'what the hell have you got to lose?'; the answer is a lot".
From George Osborne, former Chancellor, in New York City
THERE'S a bumper sticker in America that says: Cheer Up, Only One of Them Can Win.
Waking up here in the US the day after the night before, there are certainly a lot of people who look like they need cheering up.
You shouldn't underestimate the shock delivered to the mainstream here by Donald Trump’s victory.
They cannot believe their country has elected a man that some consider a menace to the US Republic itself.
Already, I’ve had the jokey emails from friends here asking if they can apply to the Queen to rejoin the British Empire.
Make America Great Britain Again is one baseball cap I’ve seen. And that shock and disbelief is being felt in the centres of government around the world, from Downing Street to Beijing to Mexico City.
Prepare for a long period of uncertainty as we wonder whether the things we took for granted all our lives - the security of NATO, the US cheerleading for the global free market, the united front against Russia - still hold.
But watching the election here in America this week has also reminded me not to underestimate some other powerful forces that led Donald Trump from being the complete outsider and maverick, all the way to the White House.
First, there was the sheer, visceral unpopularity of Hillary Clinton.
Read the British newspapers, watch the BBC, and you just won’t get it.
A lot of people hate her. They think she’s corrupt and dishonest, and epitomises a system that is stacked against them.
I don't think that's particular fair, but she was the worst possible candidate to articulate the cry for change that you hear across America.
I was at college when Bill Clinton burst onto the political scene twenty five years ago, and he was fresh and exciting.
A quarter of a century later, Hilary Clinton was tired and boring.
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The New Democrat/New Labour phenomenon - take the focus group message, turn it into a carefully crafted sound bite, and pump it out on every channel - swept all before it in both our countries.
Back in the 1990s, when I was writing speeches for then Tory leader William Hague, we predicted that this form of politics would "lead from fascination and admiration to disillusionment and contempt".
It took much longer than we bargained for, but now it has ended up in an exhausted heap of contempt, and given us Jeremy Corbyn at home and Donald Trump abroad.
My second observation is: don't underestimate the appeal when Donald Trump says “I am your voice”.
In all the thousands of hours of election interviews, debates and controversy, it was the single most powerful thing Donald Trump said to America’s forgotten working class - or at least, the white members of it.
Trump brilliantly captured the insecurity that so many feel in this country, and turned their cry for help into an angry movement of change.
Insecurity about their standards of living today, as the incomes failed to grow in the long almost decade-long shadow of the financial crash.
Insecurity about the future, as new technology from automated check-outs to self-driving cars to computer artificial intelligence looks like making whole categories of jobs redundant in the next ten years.
Insecurity about the pace of change in our society, as old identities are undermined by immigration and new social mores.
It’s not all a one-way street.
A number of US States voted on Tuesday to legalise marijuana for medicinal use and permit assisted dying -I’m sceptical about both, but expect both debates to come to Britain.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Brexit tapped into that insecurity about modern world. So too, in a different way, did Donald Trump.
Now Britain will leave the EU, and Donald Trump will be the President.
It’s in all our interests that we make a success of both.
The question is whether the scapegoats of popular nationalism – big business, the compromises of international alliances, free-trade agreements - are really to blame for people’s insecurities.
Will erecting trade barriers, attacking business, breaking alliances and building metaphorical walls really make those good, working people who are so anxious about their future better off?
Or will those good, working people end up being the real losers from an age of unreason?
The American people have made their decision; as the British people did this summer.
It’s now our job to make sure that, as we give voice to those who feel left-behind and forgotten, we make things better for them not worse.
We have to give people a bigger stake in capitalism not destroy it.
We should reach out and offer to work closely with the new President of our oldest ally. He sees himself as a deal-maker, so let's make some deals.
For when Donald Trump says: “what the hell have you got to lose?”; the answer is a lot: prosperity, security and peace.
* A donation has been made to The Welcome community centre in Cheshire for this article