Activist urges UK ‘de-Yankification’ to escape Trump’s influence

The migration activist Zoe Gardner has called for the UK to ‘de-Yankify’ itself to achieve independence from the parasitic influence of the Trump and the US:

We need urgent DEYANKIFICATION in the UK to end our dependence on the Fascistic Trump regime!@UKStopTrump pic.twitter.com/UCAWXeSn66

— Zoe Gardner (@ZoeJardiniere) January 10, 2026

DEYANKIFICATION needed to escape Trump

As detailed on her website:

Zoe Gardner is an independent researcher, campaigner and commentator on UK immigration and asylum policy.

She has previously held research, policy and communications roles at the Stop Trump Coalition, the European Network on Statelessness, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Asylum Aid, the Race Equality Foundation, and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.

In January 2025, Gardner said the following as a spokesperson for the Stop Trump Coalition:

In the coming weeks, we are likely to witness appalling attacks on migrants and minorities in America – just as we saw with the racist ‘Muslim ban’ in the opening days of the first Trump administration in 2017.

It is essential that there is a broad, democratic coalition which can bring together the opposition to Trumpism – and to the new far right here in the UK.

A year later, we can all see that Gardner was 100% spot on, with murderous agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) descending on US cities to harass minority groups.

As we’ve seen in the past week, while the harassment always begins with a minority group, it never stops there:

X is trying to hide this video that PROVES Ice murdered Rennee Good in cold blood.

Download it, repost it.

Flood the algorithm pic.twitter.com/7fYf9Ow0l3

— The Left Bible (@theleftbible) January 8, 2026

It’s that simple. https://t.co/Jjtwd8DbAR

— Turnbull (@cturnbull1968) January 9, 2026

What an absolutely mental tweet in response to ICE murdering a mother of three children. What a fucking unhinged individual. pic.twitter.com/HHMbUzG41e

— Scott Patterson (@R_o_M) January 8, 2026

‘So what are we going to do?’

Speaking on LBC, Gardner has now said:

The last 25 years, and certainly this government has been very much following the same track, we have put ourselves into a position where we’re entirely dependent on the United States. We are essentially a vassal state. We can’t criticise them, especially not when it’s somebody so unreliable and so pig-headed and so maniacal in the White House. We have absolutely nothing to say.

We can’t stand up to him.

We have put ourselves in a situation where we are no longer meaningfully an independent country able to act – to defend ourselves – to defend our interests in Ukraine – to stand up for the rule of law – even to combat the spread, the systematic production of child sexual abuse imagery on X. Our government pretending that this is a matter for Ofcom. It’s clearly a criminal matter, but they won’t go after the big tech oligarchs from the United States. Why? Because they are too afraid of Donald Trump.

So, what are we going to do?

How are we going to achieve independence?

As we reported, the government has been facing off against Elon Musk because he’s facilitated the creation of revenge porn and Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on his website. Politicians like Nigel Farage, meanwhile, have argued that it would be unthinkable to ban X/Twitter, even if it is producing illegal images of children:

Lets have it right Nigel – if any other online platform was generating sexually explicit images of children and women, you'd want it restricted, but this one is MAGA endorsed and pays you thousands to post on it. Honestly, this man would sell his granny for a tenner. https://t.co/uUarYpflow

— Oliver Ryan MP (@OliverRyanUK) January 9, 2026

Britain/ Europe needs to develop its own social media platforms under democratic control.

We are literally enriching a hostile fascist who is the wealthiest man on earth.

Obviously this is stupid. https://t.co/O0Nee1kIQn

— JimmyTheGiant (@jimthegiant) January 10, 2026

Farage has form when it comes to sucking up to the Yanks, with Zack Polanski having recently called him and Kemi Badenoch out for wanting to emulate the murderous ICE:

Our politics is heading increasingly in a dangerous direction.

We must, and will, resist. pic.twitter.com/Ib8yZhVrhC

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) January 8, 2026

‘It’s pathetic’

The other guest alongside Gardner was Ian Birrell, a British journalist and former speech writer for David Cameron. Possibly this will surprise you given his history with Cameron, but Birrell was also in line with Gardner’s thinking:

We’re so dependent militarily on America, so much of our military kit comes from America. It’s dependent on them, and we can only use it with their say. We’ve got to build it up urgently. We need to do it in a way which detaches us from the United States.

The British government's response to Maduro's abduction has been pathetic and demeaning, underlining our nation's lapdog status to a nation run by a rogue president who is undermining the rule of law. Utterly humiliating.

— Ian Birrell (@ianbirrell) January 6, 2026

Even host Iain Dale seemed to be in agreement that Britain is in a grim place when it comes to independence:

But there’s no recognition of that, is there?

Birrell responded:

None at all. It’s pathetic.

Corpocracy

Later in the interview, Gardner said:

We just recently signed a huge Ministry of Defense bill contract with Palantir, another one of these U.S. oligarch surveillance tech companies. This is enmeshing us closer within this dysfunctional U.S. regime and enmeshing our security, the British public security, in with a regime that we simply cannot depend on.

In response to Dale saying “there must have been some competitive tender for that”, Birrell explained “there wasn’t with that one, actually”.

As we reported the other day, a Palantir co-founder recently said the following:

The UK Ministry of Defence signed a £240 million contract with Palantir last month. https://t.co/51ArogysfA

— Ross Greer (@Ross_Greer) January 6, 2026

How does siphoning taxpayer money to Yank tech reactionaries benefit the average British voter?

It’s the question that more and more people are asking.

Featured image via Nicholas Raymond (Flickr)