Tag Archives: donald trump

Let’s ban what we don’t like. Simples.

or Dealing liberally with the provocative polemic of Donald J Trump

Can you imagine watching the parliamentary debate about whether or not to ban Donald Trump from the UK?

The question is whether we should we be so intolerant as to bar the person (who could be the next American President) from entering our country on the grounds of him being intolerant. The irony reduces me to the sort of unvoiced wry smile that only British politics can achieve. Yes Minister, eat your heart out!

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 20 Comments

The painful dilemma at the heart of the US Republican party

To win the Republican nomination you need to be a very right wing. The Republican base who vote in primaries tend to be very right wing. The influence of the Tea Party has exacerbated this situation. So Donald Trump is doing very well in the GOP (“Grand Ol’ Party” = Republican party) polls for the 2016 Presidential nomination. The more he says that Muslims need to be tracked on a database, the border needs to be closed to them and a border wall needs to be built by Mexico, the more the Republican core adore him.

I’ve lost count of the number of times commentators have expected a “Howard Dean moment” to befall Trump. It’s not going to happen. He’s like Boris Johnson. The more he makes embarrassing comments, the more a certain constituency of people love him. He can talk himself out of any corner. – Even if he uses the verbal equivalent of a 12 bore shotgun.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 11 Comments

Lunchtime Debate: Actually, let Donald Trump come here

There’s a petition doing the rounds at the moment which, at the time of writing, has some 120,000 signatures, close to the threshold at which it will be considered to be debated in Parliament, calling on the Government to ban Donald Trump from entering the UK.

Trump has disgraced himself with his recent call for Muslims to be refused entry to the United States.

I get that people find his views repugnant. So do I. This, however, isn’t the first time Trump has said something outrageously prejudiced. It’s his stock-in-trade. Earlier this year, the Huffington Post compiled a list of the most offensive things he had said about women – you know, how we’re all gold digging, how breastfeeding is disgusting and, basically, just there for decoration.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 29 Comments

Tavish Scott on devolution, Donald Trump, liberalism and more

At the weekend, the Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Tavish Scott gave an interview to a group of Lib Dem bloggers meeting at the party HQ in Clifton Terrace for an ‘unconference’.

Devolution and independence referendum

I kicked off with one of the main issues in the news at the moment: should there be  a referendum on Scottish independence, and hence should the Liberal Democrats be supporting one?

Tavish was scathing about the idea of a referendum, calling it an SNP trick which the party shouldn’t go along with. His argument was that there is one pro-independence party and there is a vote coming …

Posted in Blogger Interviews and Scotland | Also tagged , and | 8 Comments
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