- Green with envy… - 19th January 2026
- Speaking truth unto power… - 16th January 2026
- I predict a riot - 15th January 2026
During 23 years with BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW), and 42 years in journalism (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), political stories have always been central, but here our Editor Phil Parry looks at how the REAL issue is often missed, and the Greenland saga is a prime example.
In my experience politicians rarely knowingly tell a barefaced LIE because they know they may be caught out, but they often don’t tell the WHOLE truth, or give supposed facts that are provably false.
A case in point is the Greenland story.
Donald Trump claims he needs it for national security reasons to protect the USA from an aggressive Russia and China, with the MAGA machine stepping into gear.
Mr Trump has even threatened to impose tariffs on countries that do not “go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security”, which has increased pressure on European allies who have opposed his effort to take it over.
In response yesterday the leaders of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK warned in a joint statement that Mr Trump’s plan risked a “dangerous downward spiral”.
Earlier, Mr Trump’s special envoy to Greenland had said a deal for Washington to own the island “should and will be made”, but there has also been a US congressional delegation which visited Copenhagen in a show of support for Denmark and Greenland.
Jeff Landry said he planned to visit Greenland in March and that the US president “is serious” about acquiring it.
Katie Miller, wife to the President’s influential adviser Stephen Miller, posted a map of Greenland overlaid with the star-spangled banner and a caption reading: ‘SOON’, and a day later, Mr Miller himself also weighed in.
During an interview with CNN he said that “For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States”.
The security concern may, on the face of it, appear plausible because Greenland is on the way to Russia and China (if you go in one direction), but is in fact WRONG.
Under the terms of an agreement signed with Denmark in 1951, America may in effect station as many troops as it likes on the island.
After the cold war America shrank what had been a substantial deployment to what is now fewer than 200 troops at a single base on the island’s north-west, used for space surveillance and early-warning radar, these paltry numbers, though, could easily be ramped up.
Broader security worries seem overdone, too, because Greenland (a self-governing part of Denmark) also sits under NATO’s security umbrella.
“There’s not really a security case for a NATO (of which America is a member) mission in Greenlandic waters”, says Andreas Østhagen, an Arctic specialist at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI) in Oslo.
Evidence is scant, as well, supporting Mr Trump’s contentious announcement that the island’s seas are “covered with Russian and Chinese ships”, and the Danes have largely seen off Chinese interest in investing in Greenland.
Experts say the more pressing Arctic issues actually lie elsewhere, especially around Alaska – which is, of course, part of America so wouldn’t need to be invaded at all!
The signs are that even Mr Trump may be aware of this inconsistency, because he appears to be backing away from a full-blown invasion, perhaps as voter support for one is only at around four per cent.
Annoying things like FACTS don’t usually deter him, but all we can do is point them out!
Phil’s memories of his extraordinary award-winning career in journalism (including political stories like these) as he was gripped by the incurable disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Tomorrow – a new media venture announces that it is ‘part-funded by Welsh Government’, but The Eye have shown that the man behind it is a ‘comedian’ and failed media executive, who had made sick ‘jokes’ about a murdering gunman, used bad language to abuse prominent politicians on social media, was placed under police investigation, tried to finish off this website, and been officially reprimanded.
