Readers might recall that I proposed a government petition a few weeks ago to oppose Trump's planned state visit to the UK.
I have just got this email:
That, apparently, is democracy in action. We can't ask parliament to consider something of importance for fear of upsetting the powers that be.
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Why am I not surprised
Trump has played starmer for the complete mug that he is
and he got an £800 million tax break for his tech buddies and donors
Maybe Starmer is looking for a backhander or a plum Job for his soon to be happening retirement from politics
Can we raise a petition along the lines of “In the light of recent events, the Government should review the guidelines for the issuing and revoking of invitations for state visits”? 😉
Try it….
Petition created… just needs sponsors now…
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/724217/sponsors/new?token=QiggmqSHFQgtsoehZBoB
Signed
Tried to sign the amended petition. It says it’s being checked and to try again in a few days. Hmm …
I’ll sign it.
Can’t sign it yet.
It’s still being “checked”. Probably waiting for the Big Blue Murder Tent… 🙂
Hello Richard.
‘We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petitions standards’.
I can’t remember the exact wording but Noam Chomsky said something along the lines of, control and set the frame of reference of allowable debate, then encourage lively, even heated, debate within that frame.
Petitions, the media, and maybe politics in general in the U.K., is deliberately shackled in this way.
Agreed
Democracy eh?
But like there literally was a petition about Trump’s state visit on the government website in his first term? What has changed I wonder…
https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/171928
Starmer
Starmer claims his father was a toolmaker, whereas his father owned a toolmaking factory – I read this yesterday
“it was the Carpenters, not the toolmakers, who sang ‘it’s only just begun'”.
Starmer and 1.8 million signatures first time round. I wonder how many a new petition will garner, now that the true depravity of the current POTUS is revealed? KimSJ’s petition is “being checked” – we can start forming a disorderly queue to sign it now!
Tried to sign the petition and was met with
20 people have already supported this petition. No more people can sign this petition until it has been approved.
We need to check it meets the petition standards before we publish it.
Please try again in a few days.
I’m sorry your petition didn’t go ahead, Richard. I googled for petitions about withdrawing the invitation for Trump to visit UK and the King yesterday. I think I signed 3 different petitions, and there were loads more that I didn’t have time to sign. Anyway, here’s a link for anyone who wants to sign multiple petitions!
https://www.google.com/search?q=Withdraw+invitation+to+Trump+to+visit+UK+and+the+King
Thanks
I’ve asked my MP for explanation of what has changed since 2017. Maybe, if everybody reading this blog did the same, our MPs would get the message!
I don’t understand why the petition is not allowed, we are not asking Parliament to do anything that is not in its power.
The next option is to get most people to ignore the State Visit. That would really piss Trump off if their are no crowds.
I hate to say it, but maybe Musk has a point about freedom of speech in the UK!
Thanks
I imagine for a state visit we’ll have to provide Trump with at least basic police protection and I doubt if King Charles could refuse to meet him. But the rest of us can certainly ignore him. I already leave the room whenever Trump appears on the TV; maybe if lots of us switched him off, the TV companies would get the message?
Why can’t king Charles refuse to meet him. Trump has proved that you can just ignore the law so why should we be bound by rules of etiquette and diplomacy?
We can still make him welcome though. I wonder if that Scottish lady still has her sign? Trumps a… Something that rhymes with Trump.
She’s dead…..
Off topic
I’d like to watch John Christensen and Nick Shaxson’s documentary “The finance curse”
Do you know where I can find it?
Netflix?
The Finance Curse is a book but there was a film called “The Spider’s Web”. I went to a screening of it in Southampton with the producers doing a talk after it. It’s available on Netflix and is well worth a watch.
If you’ve not read it, the book is well worth reading
With respect, Richard, we CAN oppose Trump’s visit to the UK, we just cannot do it by asking parliament to debate the issue. We can write to the king and explain why he should withdraw his invitation, we can raise the issue via social media and letters to MSM, we can physically protest if he arrives and if he visits a royal residence. All the old ways of opposing a stupid government decision, plus a few.
Agreed
Nowadays, that is what the Met (no doubt under direction from the Home Secretary) call “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”, and would merit a violent raid, forced entry and multiple arrests.
Maybe even writing to the King (via the foreign owned Royal Mail) is included in the definition?
If I had a list of “felony” convictions as long as Trump’s I wouldn’t be allowed into the USA, and here in the UK we’ve been stopping our own citizens at our borders just for the crime of independent journalism.
Starmer is acting as PM EXACTLY the same way he has always acted as leader of the Labour Party, as an authoritarian bully. The sooner he is forced to resign the better. Let’s face it, we have had plenty of practice at getting rid of PMs recently and he is far worse than May, Johnson, Truss or Sunak and we saw them off.
When he visited in his first term there was a big gathering of leaders at Blenheim Palace. There was a huge demo outside the gates and I was among them with my placard. They flew him in by helicopter as I am not sure he would have made it through…
however, we did give plenty of ministers, secretaries of state and VIPs a hard time!
You forget, we now have anti protest laws. 1. You’ll be arrested for just discussing organising a protest 2. Protestors will be stopped from getting to a location and instantly jailed if carrying a weapon such as a placard.
I wonder what the police reaction would be to a series of pre-publicised co-ordinated cathedral prayer meetings to stop the Trump state visit and petitioning the Almighty to cast down tyrants? (Luke 1.52, from the Magnificat) I suggest they are either held in cathedral crypts or cathedral chapter houses. At Canterbury Cathedral, they could gather for prayer round the shrine of Thomas a Beckett which offers interesting historical precedents for clashes between clerics and autocratic rulers.
If numbers grow then the prayer meetings could move to the naves and transepts.
When governments get cruel, we have to get creative, and when they get harsh, we can get humorous.
When they get ridiculous, then they should be subjected to ridicule.
Then, as church bells once played a role announcing invasions, if the visit went ahead, they could be sounded during the visit as a protest at the invasion of our territory by a land-grabbing fascist felon who has already threatened commonwealth and European allies.
So we would have police cells full of cathedral deans and canons and bellringers.
The prosecutions would be interesting.
I have a new name for our PM – he can be Sir Ten per Cent to celebrate the success of his surrender to Trump the Trade Tyrant from over the water.
Now that would be fun! I am 300 metres from Ely catherdral as I write this.
But, would they do it? Cathedral Deans do not upset the rich and powerful who give them funds for the roof restoration.
Something I learned from my days chairing a local “Churches Together in England” group organising public events and processions for Easter and Christmas. Never ask permission. If you think you are entitled to do it, then do it but let them know in advance that you have marshalls etc. If they want to stop you, fine, but make them do it legally and publicly.
Cathedrals are generally open (especially on Sundays). They usually have a Dean and a canon or two somewhere in the building, especially when they are open for Sunday worship. As I understand it, I do not YET need permission from the police to enter a church or a Cathedral, and pray, especially on Sunday in THIS country, but as a matter of courtesy, I am happy to give them notice that at the time of, say, evensong, I and I hope many others would on a given date be praying in the nations cathedrals, to stop the Trump state invasion and praying for the overthrow of all tyrannical governments.
Then if the police choose to
put a cordon round the cathedrals they can search everyone turning up for worship, and arrest those with copies of subversive literature (that would include anyone with a Bible, a copy of the Magnificat, the Sermon on the Mount or that contentious subversive publication, the Book of Common Prayer produced by the (later martyred) Thomas Cranmer in 1549.
If the police want, they can raid the cathedrals and arrest anyone who looks like they might be praying inside (kneeling, standing, sitting, hands raised, eyes closed or open, silent or vocal – they’d need to arrest everyone to be sure). Perhaps issue a public order notice prohibiting subversive silent prayer inside UK cathedrals on that day, or within a cordon of say, 200 yards?
The beauty of it is that it doesn’t need identifiable “leaders”. It doesn’t involve a “public nuisance” (lots of people attending church USED to be called a “revival” but it’s a bit more controversial nowadays). We just choose a day, a service such as evensong, then publicise it widely. The BBC could cover it for Songs of Praise…
I think George Fox would be quite pleased with the idea as long as no one asked him to take his hat off.
The aims would be to:
1. Generate publicity and resist attempts by tyrants and sons of toolmakers to intimidate peaceful protest.
2. Ridicule paramilitary and repressive “preventive” policing, using good humour and shame (which Jesus did quite often).
3. Educate the public about the authoritarian but very weak nature of our government.
4. Unite peaceful people of genuine goodwill in peaceful co-belligerency across traditional divides that those in power are seeking to exacerbate.
Finally, may I offer long life, good health, prosperity and freedom from tyranny to any representatives of the state actively surveilling the blog. I respect you, but you are not the ultimate authority in my life. We are many and you are few. You are beginning to look ridiculous AND sinister at the same time.
I like it.
I would turn up.
We cannot stop him visiting the UK. We can however demand drastic cuts in security during state visits because we can “no longer afford it.”