Re: Trump's 'state' visit
Getting back to the topic of Trump's State Visit - did anyone watch part or all of the Commons Debate about it, broadcast in full from Westminster Hall?
If so, what did you think?
I finally got round to watching the full debate last night and am struggling to see the point of having it - I suppose it allowed MPs with strong feelings to air their grievances but it didn't really serve any purpose, other than paying lip service to this idea that the public get to have their say via public petitions to the government.
None of the major Government bods, such as May & Boris, were there and there was no vote at the end of the debate. It had as much impact as the debates that rage on forums like this one. There seemed to be a majority of those present against Trump coming for a State Visit but the Deputy Foreign Secretary stood up at the end and confirmed the State Visit would go ahead anyway - which everyone knew was a foregone conclusion - they'd already announced this beforehand, so why debate it for 3 hours?
I had to agree with one of the speakers (an ardent Clinton supporter) who said that it was important to maintain good diplomatic relations with the USA, whatever we think of Trump.
He pointed out that if we cut Trump off completely, we have no chance of being any kind of moderating influence and we would just have to sit on the sidelines, watching the Trump/Putin love affair from afar. (I'm paraphrasing here - he didn't actually say those words!)
After listening to the whole shebang, I'm still of the same opinion as I was before.
Inviting him for the full Honour of a State Visit so soon was a mistake and we didn't need to do that but, once the invitation was issued, retracting it would cause grave offence and be an even bigger mistake.
We'll just have to grit our teeth and bear it.