Little Big Man
Donald Trump being poked in the eye is a thoroughly enjoyable experience, I have to admit, not least because the man is such an unlikeable bully.
But I'm not sure if the right person do put Trump in his place is the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, whose recent intervention was all about feeding his own monstrous ego, if you ask me.
Especially as Bercow has been perfectly happy to extend the hand of friendship in the past to other 'controversial' visitors to the House of Commons including China's President Xi and the Emir of Kuwait.
Banning Trump from addressing the Westminster Parliament hardly seems the way forward to me because it's playing his own game; surely it's better to challenge the new President to explain his bizarre policies and behaviour outside of his normal comfort zone.
After all while Donald Trump won the presidential election race fair and square, 3 million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton across all 52 states and we would be foolish to allow the understandable anti-Trump sentiment to develop into an anti-American one.
In any event I enjoyed this sketch by John Crace in The Guardian which takes a pot shot at a whole variety of targets including Diane Abbott who apparently managed to 'rise from her death bed' to cheer the Speaker's words.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/06/where-can-trump-go-if-hes-barred-from-the-commons-theres-always-nigels
Where can Trump go if the Commons bars him? There's always Nigel's ...
By John Crace - The Guardian
Theresa May thought the EU meeting in Malta would be top of parliament’s agenda. She reckoned without John Bercow
The itinerary for Donald Trump’s visit has just been rewritten. Monday: arrive at Heathrow, economy class. Get taxi to Premier Inn in Euston. Spend afternoon shopping at Harrods. Have a not-so-Happy Meal with Theresa May at McDonald’s. Tuesday: two hour guided tour of London, taking in views of Buckingham Palace and Houses of Parliament. Lunch with Nigel Farage and his French au pair at a pub in Chelsea. Watch them get pissed before taking them to see Brexit: the Musical. Wednesday: Stay indoors and tweet about BAD PEOPLE!TV dinner with Piers Morgan to watch repeats of The Apprentice USA. Thursday: Check waxwork likeness at Madame Tussauds. Go home.
This wasn’t quite what the prime minister envisaged when she let the US president caress her hand at the White House 10 days ago. Then, the idea of inviting the Donald for a full state visit had seemed like a masterstroke of diplomacy. A chance to make May look like a player on the global stage at a time when EU leaders were giving her the cold shoulder. It hadn’t been easy explaining to the president just what an honour she was offering, but once she had showed him some old photos of the gold carriage, he had wanted to talk of little else. Even if his priapism was a little off-putting. And now his dreams and hers were in tatters.
It had all looked to be business as usual when the prime minister went to the house to make a statement about the informal European council meeting in Malta the previous weekend. Theresa had had to skirt over the fact that she had been pretty much ignored by everyone – Angela Merkel had only spoken to her for a couple of minutes as they queued for the toilet – but she was getting used to creating her own FAKE NEWS! Maybe the president’s narcissism was contagious. Her advisers had managed to rewrite her 20 minutes in Valletta as a personal triumph, and who was she to disagree?
Theresa May thought the EU meeting in Malta would be top of parliament’s agenda. She reckoned without John Bercow
The itinerary for Donald Trump’s visit has just been rewritten. Monday: arrive at Heathrow, economy class. Get taxi to Premier Inn in Euston. Spend afternoon shopping at Harrods. Have a not-so-Happy Meal with Theresa May at McDonald’s. Tuesday: two hour guided tour of London, taking in views of Buckingham Palace and Houses of Parliament. Lunch with Nigel Farage and his French au pair at a pub in Chelsea. Watch them get pissed before taking them to see Brexit: the Musical. Wednesday: Stay indoors and tweet about BAD PEOPLE!TV dinner with Piers Morgan to watch repeats of The Apprentice USA. Thursday: Check waxwork likeness at Madame Tussauds. Go home.
This wasn’t quite what the prime minister envisaged when she let the US president caress her hand at the White House 10 days ago. Then, the idea of inviting the Donald for a full state visit had seemed like a masterstroke of diplomacy. A chance to make May look like a player on the global stage at a time when EU leaders were giving her the cold shoulder. It hadn’t been easy explaining to the president just what an honour she was offering, but once she had showed him some old photos of the gold carriage, he had wanted to talk of little else. Even if his priapism was a little off-putting. And now his dreams and hers were in tatters.
It had all looked to be business as usual when the prime minister went to the house to make a statement about the informal European council meeting in Malta the previous weekend. Theresa had had to skirt over the fact that she had been pretty much ignored by everyone – Angela Merkel had only spoken to her for a couple of minutes as they queued for the toilet – but she was getting used to creating her own FAKE NEWS! Maybe the president’s narcissism was contagious. Her advisers had managed to rewrite her 20 minutes in Valletta as a personal triumph, and who was she to disagree?
