The news was dominated by the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol, but there were two snippets from the States.
One showed how the American public had reacted to their president’s decision to wall himself inside a big fence (he likes putting up barriers, doesn’t he?):
I can’t get over this. Protesters in DC have turned Trump’s disgusting White House fence into this 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/b83DSVMIMf
The other shows how the American authorities respond to police officers who attack members of the public.
Released without bail. Released without bail. Released without bail. Released without bail. Released without bail.
They threw that man down on the ground, pleaded not guilty, and then walked out to a crowd who cheered them on. https://t.co/YWpG7aYzFZ
— Twilight Sparkle (@yourcompanionAI) June 6, 2020
I hope people in the United States have aken note, and realised that the system they have created has been perverted against them.
No longer government of the people, by the people and for the people, it is government by the elite, against the people, and terrorising the people.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Doom: While Donald Trump tells Davos nothing is wrong, the habitat of Australian species – like kangaroos – has been destroyed in fire. Do the flames have to be spreading up Pennsylvania Avenue before he’ll admit the facts?
If the UK enters a trade deal with Donald Trump, won’t it be joining an ‘axis of doom’ with one of the world’s principle climate crisis deniers?
That’s the message from his speech at Davos, where the US president made clear that he was not planning to change his country’s high-carbon economy.
The man who has absolute power to dominate, transform and control the lives of most people in the world decried climate protesters for demanding “absolute power to dominate, transform and control every aspect of our lives.”
That’s a bit hypocritical, isn’t it?
Oh, he said he’d sign up to an initiative to plant, restore and conserve a trillion trees – but hasn’t he noticed how all the trees seem to be catching fire, in the Amazon and Australia?
Climate crisis icon Greta Thunberg has – and she was at Davos where Mr Trump’s speech failed to impress her.
“Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fuelling the flames by the hour, and we are telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else,” she said.
“You say: ‘We won’t let you down. Don’t be so pessimistic.’ And then, silence.”
And she asked: “What will you tell your children was the reason to fail and leave them facing… climate chaos that you knowingly brought upon them? That it seemed so bad for the economy that we decided to resign the idea of securing future living conditions without even trying?”
The trouble is, she has been saying this for more than a year and those in power haven’t lifted a finger; in other words, she’s right about them.
And history may view such people with extreme prejudice – as UK TV presenter Chris Packham made clear in a speech to TV executives at the annual Bafta television lecture.
He wasn’t afraid to name names, either. He said future generations may come to regard Mr Trump, Vladimir Putin, Jair Bolsonaro and Scott Morrison in a similar way as current generations see Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot, because by then they could have caused the deaths of millions of people.
But while the leaders pay nothing more than lip-service to action on climate change, UK prime minister Boris Johnson is inching closer to a trade deal with Mr Trump – one that, we’re told, will bind him into policies that deny the danger.
Already he has failed to seize opportunities to make a real difference.
Will he bottle it again – and sell us all down the river just so he can have a few American dollars?
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Victims of racism and misogyny: Donald Trump has told these four Congresswomen to “go back” to the countries from which they came; they are all US citizens.
Has anybody else been watching the ongoing soap opera of Donald Trump, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib (together with other US Democratic Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley), and the Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu with the same astonished bemusement as This Writer?
I mean, how can anybody justify this out-and-out racism from the leaders of two supposedly democratic countries?
You’ll remember it started when Mr Trump decided to publish racist tweets about the four ladies (three of whom were born in the US and one was naturalised after coming to that country as a child), suggesting they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”.
Unless he was referring to “totally broken and crime infested places” in the United States, that’s stark racism, right there.
The when Ms Omar and Ms Tlaib were preparing to visit Israel, he put pressure on Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to block them from being allowed entry to that country. The first Muslim women elected to Congress, they were going to visit the occupied Palestinian territories, most notably the West Bank.
Ms Omar responded to the ban by saying it was an “affront” for Mr Netanyahu to give in to pressure from Mr Trump. Others have strongly criticised the US president for influencing a foreign leader against his own political opponents.
“Trump’s Muslim ban is what Israel is implementing, this time against two duly elected Members of Congress,” said Ms Omar.
“Sadly, this is not a surprise given the public positions of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has consistently resisted peace efforts, restricted the freedom of movement of Palestinians, limited public knowledge of the brutal realities of the occupation and aligned himself with Islamophobes like Donald Trump.”
Mr Netanyahu’s decision has harmed Israel’s position among US politicians, with staunch Israel support and minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, calling it a sign of “weakness, not strength”, and saying it would “only hurt the US-Israeli relationship and support for Israel in America”.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi added that it was “beneath the dignity of the great State of Israel”. She said Mr Trump’s interference was “a sign of ignorance and disrespect, and beneath the dignity of the office of the president”.
2020 Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders said, “It is disgusting that a bigot like Trump is attacking Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar in this way. Opposing Netanyahu’s policies is not ‘hating the Jewish people.’ We must stand together against those who promote hatred and racism in Israel, Palestine, the US and everywhere.”
And yet Mr Trump seems to be hugely popular with a certain slab off the American people – popularity that has no rational explanation and that has been lampooned rather brutally but effectively in the following video:
Perhaps this is the way forward?
After Nick Clegg had the satirical song treatment with Sorry, which turned his apology for the Liberal Democrats’ decision to ditch their policy to cancel student tuition fees and support tripling them instead, in order to go into the disastrous coalition government with the Conservatives, he disappeared from public view and is now in charge of censoring left-wing political websites combating ‘fake news’ on Facebook.
It’s true that right-wing politicians hate the ridicule of the mob.
But will it work on Mr Trump?
Let’s be honest. Based on our experience of the last few years, he’d probably claim it was adulation.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
The opprobrium is all over the Internet – not least from Russia.
Here’s what President Putin has to say about the premature air strikes ordered by Donald Trump and enacted by the US military and his lackeys Theresa May in the UK and Emmanuel Macron in France:
“On April 14, the United States, supported by its allies, launched an airstrike against military and civilian targets in the Syrian Arab Republic.”
BREAKING: Civilian casualties are being reported in Damascus as at least 2 residential areas have been struck by the US-led force's missiles. At least 4 dead in one of the strikes. pic.twitter.com/nCjcMZUrKQ
Those of us who’ve actually been in a war know there’s no such thing as ‘precision strikes’. Only fire, fury and death. My heart is with the terrified Syrian families tonight. This is a craven and cynical act by US, UK and French governments. Shame on them all. #SyriaStrikes
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) April 14, 2018
“Just as one year ago, when the Shayrat Airbase in Syria came under attack, the US used as a pretext a staged chemical attack against civilians, this time in Douma, a Damascus suburb. Having visited the site of the would-be chemical attack, Russian military experts did not find any traces of chlorine or any other toxic agent. Not a single local resident was able to confirm that a chemical attack had actually taken place.
“The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons dispatched its experts to Syria in order to investigate all the circumstances. However, in a sign of cynical disdain, a group of Western countries decided to take military action without waiting for the results of the investigation.”
This is accurate, it grieves me to report:
In case you missed it: In response to media queries, the Spokesperson for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirms that the #OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team is on its way to #Syria and will start its work as of Saturday 14 April 2018. pic.twitter.com/IZUIpg2DsZ
This was the tweet from the OPCW on Thursday, they were to begin the fact finding mission today but after the bombing of the alleged chemical weapons sites overnight I am not sure where this leaves the fact finding mission now? https://t.co/qy4LdnKoHS
Why have May, Trump and Macron destroyed the chemical weapon plants that would have provided evidence for the OPCW, who a today carrying out their investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons byAssad? There was no "urgency," since UK was not threatened
Why the desperation for airstrikes, in any case? A former head of the UK armed forces was interviewed by Sky News – but isn’t it convenient that he was cut off when he started straying from the officially-approved story?
MUST WATCH: Former head of British Armed Forces gets cut off by Sky when he goes off-script on Syria! pic.twitter.com/zy7FRWbWQ5
“Through its actions, the US makes the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Syria even worse and brings suffering to civilians. In fact, the US panders to the terrorists who have been tormenting the Syrian people for seven years, leading to a wave of refugees fleeing this country and the region.”
Yes – half a million dead and 10 million displaced. Many have become refugees, but Theresa May didn’t want them in the UK!
Government: “We were all moved by the terrible suffering caused to people in Syria by bombs”
You voted against bringing 3,000 lone Syrian refugee children into the UK. You arm Saudi who have created the largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen. You did nothing when CW were used on Gaza. You don’t care about Middle Eastern lives, you absolute hypocrite. https://t.co/tfVlTkQ7YE
Dear those who support bombing innocent civilians in Syria. Are you also the people who would welcome those families & children as refugees to your countries? #DontBombSyria
“Russia will convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the aggressive actions by the US and its allies.”
That is an astonishingly restrained response.
It is possible that Mr Putin expects public opinion to bear against the Western leaders who ordered the air strikes and – apparently – killed more innocent people. There’s certainly no shortage of disapproval! Here’s a representative sample:
We will not forgive or forget your illegal #SyriaStrikes Theresa May. You've bypassed democracy to drag the UK into a potentially catastrophic war. No debate, no vote, nothing. You've left us no choice but to oust you from power at the soonest opportunity. Despicable.
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) April 14, 2018
No democratic endorsement, no parliamentary debate or vote, no public support for this attack https://t.co/fjwLK2cTkG
Dear @theresa_may how many lives do you imagine you've saved tonight? A ballpark figure will do. Asking for a friend.
— Keith Ordinary Guy #NHSLove (@KeithCameron5) April 14, 2018
May: 'I didn't consult Parliament because I believed it was the right thing thing to do'. The authentic voice of autocrats throughout the ages. #bbcnews#SyriaStrikes
Astonishing ! Vince Cable #bbcnews opines that not consulting Parliament is *water under the bridge now* NO Vince it ISN'T ! It's a demonstration of pure unfettered CONTEMPT ! https://t.co/0jM8YA7bIX
I am not a pacifist. I do expect to be told what the EVIDENCE is. I expect Parliament to carefully scrutinise that evidence & vote on its accuracy & authenticity before taking military action. Was that seriously too much to ask of this Government with Parliament back next week?
The way she cynically bypasses parliament to do whatever she wants should send shivers down your spine.
This time the consequences have fallen on people in a faraway land, the next time the consequences of her absolute disdain for parliamentary democracy could fall on you.
UK Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has rightly savaged Mrs May’s “legally questionable” decision in which she “trailed after Donald Trump”.
He said: “Bombs won’t save lives or bring about peace,” adding that the strikes risked further escalation of the conflict in Syria and – crucially – “makes real accountability for war crimes and use of chemical weapons less, not more likely.
“Britain should be playing a leadership role to bring about a ceasefire in the conflict, not taking instructions from Washington and putting British military personnel in harm’s way.
“The Government should do whatever possible to push Russia and the United States to agree to an independent UN-led investigation of last weekend’s horrific chemical weapons attack so that those responsible can be held to account.”
He said: “Theresa May should have sought parliamentary approval, not trailed after Donald Trump.”
We are left with one burning question:
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Syria: At the time of writing (2.43am, April 14), explosions have apparently taken place outside Damascus, where chemical weapons facilities are believed to be located.
Here it is, then:
BREAKING: Pres. Trump orders strikes on Syrian targets following last week's suspected chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria. pic.twitter.com/lTNEvJvyf9
You heard him – Donald Trump has dragged France and the United Kingdom into pointless air strikes against targets in Syria that are believed to manufacture chemical weapons.
There was no vote in the US Congress, just as there has been no vote in the UK’s Parliament. These strikes have no democratic legitimacy at all.
And the British public don’t want them:
With an attack on Syria looking imminent, YouGov reveals only 22% of Brits would support missile attacks on the Syrian military – almost twice as many (43%) are opposed https://t.co/Fsa01RCi4tpic.twitter.com/Yy9QxSSBR1
It's always important to to remember that all those politicians who are calling for deadly retaliation against Syria know that when the war escalates; it won't be their children put in harms way when we need to put boots on the ground. #Syriawar
— John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith) (@Harryslaststand) April 12, 2018
You'd have to be the worst kind of simpleton to believe that this latest push for war in Syria comes from a humanitarian desire to save Arab lives.#NotInMyNamepic.twitter.com/bu0All2ynP
How on earth can @theresa_may justify skipping Parliament to go to war, on the say so of grotesquely inept fools like Johnson & Grayling? The most serious decision a PM can make is taking a country to war, but doing that without Parliament agreeing is job ending. #NoWarToriesOut
The same people that were happy to let Syrian refugees drown in the sea are suddenly very keen on going to war with Syria. Their sympathy extends to bombs, but not boats, or beds. Make of that what you will.#NoWarWithSyria
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) April 13, 2018
We can fund another war in the Middle East but we can’t afford to feed some of the most vulnerable schoolchildren in the country.#NotInMyNameTheresaMay
Israel is mowing down unarmed protesters & journalists in Palestine. Saudi Arabia is bombing & starving the people of Yemen. The UK government keep selling weapons to Israel & Saudi Arabia. But suddenly the British political establishment want to bomb Syria to save Arab lives? 🤔
Jeremy Corbyn has been the voice of reason in this – as with so many other issues lately. He demanded that Parliament should have a chance to debate any proposed military action – especially as it risks a huge escalation of conflict in the Middle East:
It is vital that parliament has the chance to debate and decide in advance on any government proposals to support a new US-led military intervention in Syria, which risks a dangerous escalation of the conflict.
But Theresa May was determined – absolutely adamant – that this was a chance to show her utter weakness.
I know she thinks it will be a display of strength, but Mr Corbyn had it right when he said she was sitting by the phone, “waiting for instructions” to do whatever Donald Trump told her.
Because the way to show a violent, brutal despot who uses military force whenever he wants how democracy works is to use military force whenever you want. pic.twitter.com/oS4R1uVNus
So the plan has been to link Russia into the Syrian chemical attack, using the dubious connection of a chemical attack here in the UK, to which Russia has not been successfully linked?
That is miserably weak.
It comes after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad invited UN chemical weapons inspectors – the now-ubiquitous Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – to investigate the attack that triggered the current hostilities, in Douma. They were due to arrive today (April 14).
Russia has warned that western military strikes would risk triggering a much larger war.
Is this what Trump, May and possibly even Macron want?
Interestingly, the French president spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin only yesterday. Both agreed to aid the OPCW inspectors in Syria wherever possible, and to ensure their foreign and defence ministers stayed in close contact, to prevent the situation from escalating.
France’s contribution to the air strikes must seem a betrayal. How will that affect the wider international situation?
UPDATE 3.10am: According to the US military, all planned airstrikes have been carried out and no further action is currently being contemplated.
The bad news is that the United States did not notify Russia of its attacks.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
“Just a reminder of the liklihood of a robust response from our Foreign Secretary to the incontinent tantrum of the President of the United States,” according to cartoonist Martin Rowson.
Weakling UK prime minister Theresa May has still not responded to US President Donald Trump’s decision to retweet hate messages by far-right organisation Britain First.
So Mr Trump has attacked comments by a Downing Street spokesperson who said simply that it was “wrong” to have retweeted the misleading, extremist messages.
The message from Downing Street was: “British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents – decency, tolerance and respect.”
Here’s Mr Trump’s response:
.@Theresa_May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!
This is a clear endorsement of the hate message put forward in the Britain First tweets.
Mr Trump is urging Mrs May to consider all Muslims in the UK to be potential terrorists and to launch a racist policy against them.
This is utterly unacceptable from a foreign leader. He is trying to divide members of the UK community from the rest of us and accusing them of conspiring against the majority in a way that simply isn’t true, except in a tiny minority of cases. He knows next to nothing about the situation – clearly, as he is getting his information from far-right propaganda-peddlers.
And he is trying hard to make it worse. One has to question his motives, attempting to destabilise the UK at a time when this country’s domestic political situation is already highly-charged.
But still Theresa May remains silent, leaving it to her Downing Street spokespeople – and the public – to comment.
You have a mass shooting every single day in your country, your murder rate is many times that of the UK, your healthcare system is a disgrace, you can’t pass anything through a congress that you control. I would focus on that. https://t.co/SNcqOZGvLQ
Dear Republican and Tory Supporters, Your President and Prime Minister are having a public spat on Twitter. Can we get rid of them both and put the adults back in charge please? Just stop voting for them, OK? Regards, The Adults https://t.co/9TXe83KV5C
Theresa May: your failure to denounce Donald Trump's inflammatory tweets about the UK is pure cowardice. If you can't defend this nation, step aside, call an election and let someone else have a chance.
Note that the tweet above is also a retweet – originally Mr Trump sent the message to the wrong Theresa May (from which we may draw our own conclusions about his state of mind):
Mrs May’s deputies, in Parliament, have done their best to cover for her, with Home Secretary Amber Rudd trying to answer an Urgent Question in the Commons – answering the kind of criticism no US president has ever received from Parliament in the past:
🇬🇧Donald Trump is facing unprecedented criticism in the Commons chamber today. MPs calling him “fascist”, “stupid”, spreading “evil” and “racist or incompetent or ignorant or all three” – remarks of a vehemence never heard before about a US president in the UK Parliament 🇬🇧
Ms Rudd said the Government will not tolerate any groups that spread hate by demonising other faiths or ethnicities – but refused to condemn the US President, saying the UK-US relationship is “vital” and MPs needed to focus on the “bigger picture”.
She would not accept calls to cancel the invitation for Mr Trump to make a state visit to the UK.
But – shockingly – she could not answer a simple question: Whether the UK government had asked for Mr Trump to take the offending tweets down.
Hang on a minute @LizMcInnes_MP asked @AmberRuddHR if anyone in the government has asked #Trump to take down a tweet inciting racial hatred in the UK and she didn't know? pic.twitter.com/R3CvMcYgCA
Liz McInnes asked the Home Sec if anyone in the British Govt has requested that Donald Trump’s tweets be taken down. Amber Rudd says she will check.. and get back to her. (Murmurs around the Chamber)
As part of the debate, Labour MP Khalid Mahmood made a very useful point, asking the Home Secretary if a Muslim would still be welcome in Britain if they had shared similarly inflammatory material to that posted by the US President.
Depressingly, Mr Trump’s retweets have revived the fortunes of Britain First, the far-right group that originally posted the messages. Deputy leader Jayda Fransen has been interviewed on both the BBC and Channel 4, providing a huge and harmful public platform for the minority organisation’s extremist views.
Just as Britain First looks to be fading into obscurity @realDonaldTrump brings them back to life. And then some.
As our broadcasters give an array of fascists and far-right cranks airtime, they've ensured that Donald Trump has succeeded in promoting bigotry and hatred. A slow handclap for the British media.
Meanwhile the condemnation continues to rack up. Here’s London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was criticised by Mr Trump over his response to terror attacks in the UK’s capital city:
President Trump has used Twitter to promote a vile, extremist group that exists solely to sow division and hatred in our country. It's increasingly clear that any official visit from President Trump to Britain would not be welcomed. https://t.co/rwJJ5saSAbpic.twitter.com/bus3kMWIfk
— Mayor of London (gov.uk/coronavirus) (@MayorofLondon) November 30, 2017
Theresa May has been desperate to build a close relationship with US President Donald Trump. His decision to show support for a UK-based hate group has put her in an extremely difficult position. She doesn’t want to comment – so we must demand it.
Donald Trump’s retweeting of hate messages by the far-right organisation Britain First has triggered a strong response from all sides of the UK’s political spectrum. But minority prime minister Theresa May has yet to offer any comment. Why?
Mr Trump retweeted messages by Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen, including one that purportedly showed violence by a Muslim – but actually didn’t. Ms Fransen then appeared to admit that her tweets were hate messages:
It should be remembered that murderer Thomas Mair named Britain First when he killed Jo Cox.
Her husband Brendan made his feelings about Mr Trump’s actions clear:
Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself.
He followed this message with a tweet thanking Americans who had contacted him to say Trump did not represent the rules and values of their country – and he is quite right to give recognition to that.
Trump's anti-Muslim retweets prompt backlash in Washington: 'The president is racist' https://t.co/7EVzyWWKJK
Prominent figures from all sides of British politics have come together to condemn Mr Trump’s actions. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn led the charge of condemnation:
I hope our Government will condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump. They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society.
#donaldtrump reading your tweets or the words that dribble out of the side of your mouth like a drunk's vomit sickens me as much as when as a teen I'd hear Hitler speak on the newsreels in 1930s Britain. https://t.co/aIbGoFTRHb
— John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith) (@Harryslaststand) November 29, 2017
So POTUS has endorsed the views of a vile, hate-filled racist organisation that hates me and people like me. He is wrong and I refuse to let it go and say nothing
I am a Jew I feel attacks on Muslims, like that sent by President Trump today, as if they were attacks on me All decent people must work together to stop these outrages
Tory Nadhim Zahawi has written to Mr Trump, expressing his own outrage, as follows:
He wrote: “The videos you have chosen to distribute to your 43.6 million Twitter followers seek to conflate all Muslims into one skewed and twisted stereotype in the hope of inciting religious hatred toward the Islamic community. Whether the videos are valid or not, the individuals within them do not represent the overwhelming majority of those who adhere to the many forms of the Islamic faith.”
He continued: “I fear that your actions today have put in jeopardy some of the hard work done by our state bodies, making it easier for terrorist groups to portray our countries as their enemies and stoking the flames of radicalisation further.”
And he wrote: “I… urge you to delete the retweets and do all you can in future to resist courses of action that play into the hands of those who seek to destroy us and our way of life.”
Some of our politicians have been less forthcoming with their vilification.
Here’s our pitiful excuse for a Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson. His tweet is followed by one from the Artist Taxi Driver, Mark McGowan, offering a possible reason for Mr Johnson’s reluctance to condemn Mr Trump:
And what of our absentee prime minister, Theresa May?
She is currently on a junket around some Middle East countries that are predominantly – if not entirely – Muslim. But she could not bring herself to say anything against Mr Trump’s behaviour.
Nor has she responded to calls for his invitation to visit the UK to be rescinded, in the light of this clearly unacceptable behaviour:
MPs are demanding Theresa May cancel Trump's state visit after he retweeted Britain First https://t.co/enplPpTJka
Perhaps Mrs May thinks that Mr Trump’s clear admiration for a hate group responsible for inciting people into acts of violence against their fellow UK citizens is none of our business.
Perhaps she thinks if she stays quiet about the issue, it will go away.
Perhaps we should make sure she is mistaken. Agreed?
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
The ‘special relationship’ between the US and the UK, as envisioned by political cartoonist Ben Jennings. My way is better, I think.
(But don’t think for a moment that I would put myself forward.)
The news has been full of nonsense about Donald Trump wanting Nigel Farage to be the UK’s ambassador to the United States, in return for whatever services Farage managed to deliver for the Trump presidential campaign.
We may conclude from this that Mr Trump wishes to hand out appointments as rewards for services delivered to him – personally – rather than to the best person for his country, or to request that they are made along those lines.
I disagree with this; it shows poor leadership – leadership by cronyism.
The best leadership is, of course, leadership by example. Let me provide an example of it, in support of the claim in the headline.
This Writer recently met and befriended a young lady who is a US citizen – the granddaughter of an acquaintance who lives here in Mid Wales. She is travelling around the world and stopped off to visit her grandma for a while.
As bad luck would have it, her grandma fell ill yesterday and was rushed to hospital in a town more than 30 miles away – unbeknownst to the American granddaughter.
Finding out later, the young lady was beside herself. She was terribly concerned for her grandma’s safety but had absolutely no way of travelling to the hospital to find out more (nobody here would tell her anything).
So I gave her a lift. It was a simple act of kindness that generated a huge amount of goodwill.
Now let’s get metaphorical. I’m the UK’s ambassador to the US; the granddaughter is the US. Are you with me so far?
As ambassador, I provided vital help to the US at a time of need. I don’t want any personal favours in return. As I mentioned before, the best leadership is leadership by example – I want the US to remember what I did and help someone else when they need it.
(From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs – but don’t tell the Americans who coined that phrase!)
Of course, because it was a UK representative that gave aid when the US needed it, the US is grateful, and it may be that the UK (the country, not the representative) receives preferential treatment from now on – the reputation of the country as a whole improves as a result of the actions of the ambassador.
So, from a simple act of goodwill, several very beneficial results follow – not just for the US and the UK, but hopefully for other countries as well.
Therefore I would be a better ambassador to the United States than a selfish toad like Nigel Farage.
His attitude can be judged from his behaviour as a Member of the European Parliament – get paid a fortune and do nothing.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Nigel Farage and his kind managed to persuade a tiny majority of voters (but only around a quarter of the UK population) to support leaving the EU, based on claims about the European Union’s past behaviour and about the assumed benefits of leaving.
But it seems history and fact were never Nigel’s strong points.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
This, from Another Angry Voice, seems a bitterly accurate representation of the US presidential race:
“It’s extraordinary that almost a quarter of Donald Trump supporters hate Hillary Clinton so much they’d rather have him trigger nuclear Armageddon than have her as their President!”
This Writer hesitates to think what’s going to end up in the White House.If the last six years have been rocky, the next four look set to be an avalanche.
Do you want Vox Political to cover a story? Use this form to tell us about it (but NOT to comment on the article above, please):
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. This includes scrolling or continued navigation. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
