marching against trump…

They reckon a quarter of a million people were in London yesterday in protest against virtually everything the US president stands for and says (and there were lots of other marches around the country, including Bristol). The protesters were happy, peaceful, dignified, colourful, noisy… and DETERMINED to demonstrate to Mr Trump and the world (as if he would take any notice!) that the UK does NOT love him.
Indeed, we don’t!

Inevitably, today’s newspapers are all about Trump. I suspect that most will convey a similar message to our Guardian newspaper, so (perhaps for the benefit of my American friends?) here are just a couple of brief extracts to give you a flavour:

“The British government did its absolute best – given that the streets of the cities were full of protesters – to lay on a glittering welcome for Mr Trump this week. Blenheim, Sandhurst, Chequers, Windsor – you don’t get much more in the way of British establishment red carpet than that. But this reckoned without the Trump character and, more sinisterly, the Trump political project. The president undermined Mrs May before he even left America. He bullied and lied at the Nato summit in Brussels. He then gave an explosive and deliberately destabilising interview to Rupert Murdoch’s ‘Sun’ on the very day of his arrival in Britain…
This guaranteed that Friday’s press conference at Chequers would be purgatorial for Mrs May and maybe even a little chastening for the president and his team. And so it proved, in spite of what had clearly been the private reading of the diplomatic equivalent of the Riot Act to Mr Trump. But it was not just the rudeness that mattered – though rudeness does matter, a lot, both in personal and in public things. It was the political impact and consequence. That unmistakable consequence is that Mr Trump’s America can no longer be regarded with certainty as a reliable ally for European nations committed to the defence of liberal democracy. That is an epochal change for Britain and for Europe…
A president who supported the Atlantic alliance, the stability of Europe and liberal democratic values – in short, every other US president of the postwar era… would have tried to help, would have seen the EU-UK problem as one that needed solving, and would have used his influence to get America’s European allies to find a shared way forward after Brexit. Such a president would have been doing the right thing. But Mr Trump is not such a president. He is not our ally. He is hostile to our interests and values. He may even, if this goes on, become a material threat…
This week he deliberately inflamed the politics of Europe and of Britain” (Guardian Editorial 14 July).

“This was a far cry from Bill Clinton strolling through Hyde Park during his presidential swansong or Barack Obama dropping in on a primary school in Newport. For Trump, making his first visit to the UK as president, there was no park and no school, no 10 Downing Street, no Houses of Parliament and no Buckingham Palace. Nor was this the state visit that May had promised when she dashed to Washington shortly after Trump took office. The tens of thousands of people marching in the streets of London might have had something to do with it” (David Smith, The Guardian).

Rest assured American friends, there’s never been such UK press comment (and there will have been other similar comments in other newspapers today, I assure you) about ANY president in my entire lifetime!

In order to avoid a transport nightmare on the day itself, I’d travelled up to London the night before and stayed over in Bromley – thanks to my good friend Becki’s kind hospitality. It meant that I was able to get into central London quite early (and seeing the ‘baby trump’ inflatable in Parliament Square as a bonus!). I relaxed over coffee on the Southbank and the sun was shining… so I decided to make my way slowly across town to Portland Place (immediately adjacent the BBC’s Broadcasting House). Initially, I’d planned to take part in the main march (from Portland Place to Trafalgar Square - which was due to start at 2pm) but ended up walking with the Women’s March (Portland Place to Parliament Square – starting at noon) because, when I first arrived just after 11am, there were already crowds gathering. By an absolute fluke, I also met up with my great friends Diane and Steve Eyre, and so we were able to march together (what a very special bonus that was!).

Predictably (I’ve been on a fair few demonstrations in the past, so I know!), I didn’t actually need to have made my own placard – there were literally hundreds provided at street corner pick-ups. But, I’m glad I did… it was MY statement (although I could have added lots of other adjectives describing my opinion of Mr Trump!)… and it provoked lots of positive comment and endorsement.

 

Of course, we all knew that Trump was avoiding London like the plague… but it didn’t matter. Was it worth making the journey to the UK capital for a few hours “just to take part in a political demonstration” that was unlikely(!) to bring a change of heart to this so-called leader of the western world? Yes, absolutely. And, whatsmore, I felt that I was also there representing dozens of family members and friends who weren’t able to make the trip (one of the bonuses of retirement)… and, indeed, in solidarity with my friends from the USA.

Small voices against the extremes of political power… a token gesture? Well, maybe. But actually, I think it wasn’t just a message for Mr Trump… it was message to politicians/political parties throughout the world and, IN PARTICULAR, a message to our own politicians and parties here in the UK.