You have to feel really sorry for people in London. There they were, depressed and hungover, out of the World Cup, home to what’s quite possibly the world’s most dysfunctional government, heading out of the EU despite voting heavily to remain and without even the prospect of an independence referendum to offer a modicum of hope. You wouldn’t think that it could possibly get any worse, and then the very next day Donald Trump comes to visit.
Football didn’t come home, but Donald Trump did, and incredibly the British government managed to find someone who hadn’t resigned to go and greet him. It was Liam Fox who turned up to greet the Giant Orange Baby Balloon when it came down to earth at Stansted airport, which is a bit like Dracula’s coffin arriving in Whitby and being greeted by Nick Cotton from Eastenders wearing a set of plastic fangs. Or to give him his proper title, the Disgraced Former Defence Secretary Dr Nick Cotton. Still, it was quite appropriate that the British Government met the world’s leading serial fantasist with a serial fantasist of its own.
The US Embassy has issued some ridiculous scaremongering advice to American citizens to hide away for the duration. As someone who’s planning to marry a US citizen, and who is also planning to attend the anti-Trump demonstrations in Glasgow and Edinburgh tomorrow and Saturday, I know the difference between Americans in general and Donald Trump in particular. So does everyone else in Scotland. The Americans that I meet, and I meet a lot of them, can’t wait to tell me just how much they despise their president and are immensely relieved to discover that Scotland hated Donald Trump before it was fashionable. Americans have nothing to fear in Scotland. This country welcomes everyone to our country who isn’t a cheeto coloured bigot who separates children from their parents in order to score some cheap political points.
Some have questioned the point of protesting against Trump, because it’s not like seeing a protest in Glasgow, Edinburgh, or anywhere else is likely to make him change his mind. However changing Trump’s mind is not what these protests are about. Everyone attending knows that they have as much chance of changing Trump’s mind about his misogyny, his racism, his undermining of democracy, as they do of changing Theresa May’s mind by calling her a robot. The reason for protesting against Trump’s visit is because if you don’t protest, if you’re not vocal about your feelings, then those in power take your silence as consent. Silence is complicity.
Trump’s mind might not be capable of being changed, changing your mind means having the capacity to distinguish between fact and fiction and as far as Trump is concerned the truth is whatever was the most recent thing to come out of his lying mouth. However Trump’s feelings are quite certainly capable of being hurt. This is, after all, a man who for almost 30 years has nursed a grudge against US journalist Graydon Carter because Carter wrote in an article in Spy magazine that Trump had tiny hands. All these years later, and Trump still keeps giving that notion a much smaller than average thumbs down.
When dealing with a narcissist like Trump, it’s impossible to engage with him using logic and reason because he is not motivated by logic or reason. The only thing that motivates Trump is his own extremely bigly and extremely thin skinned ego. He said just before arriving in the UK that he thinks that people in Britain like him. Trump has said in several previous interviews that he loves Scotland, the country where his mother was born. That’s all the more reason to show him that Scotland doesn’t love him back. Scotland rejects his politics of hatred.
Trump has also said he was “fine” with the protests against him. That’s fine as in, “OK I’m fine. OK! Look I said I’m fine! Can you not just drop it! I’m fine. OK? I don’t even care. Don’t even care. I’m fine. Why are you still going on about this I said I am fine. Right? OK. Fine. Totally fine.”
There are those who say that it’s hypocritical to protest against Trump, but not to show the same degree of anger against the likes of Erdogan of Turkey or other human rights violators who visit the UK. And to be fair there are a lot of human rights violators who are invited to the UK by the British Government. The British Government’s idea of international diplomacy is to calculate how many weapons it can sell, and it’s not too fussed about those weapons being used against innocent people. However the difference is that Erdogan or some random Middle Eastern dictator doesn’t strut the world stage posing as the “leader of the Free World”. The reason that there are more protests against Trump is that higher standards are expected of a democracy, and higher standards are expected of the world’s most powerful democracy. If you claim to be the leader of the Free World then the Free World is going to hold you to account, because in the Free World leaders are accountable or the term Free World has no meaning at all.
We protest against Trump precisely because the USA is the world’s most powerful democracy. If president of the USA trashes democratic values and undermines the social and political order in other democracies, as Trump does, then that poses a direct and immediate danger to the those of us in Scotland, the rest of the UK, and the rest of Europe that the likes of Erdogan doesn’t pose. Protesting against Trump isn’t virtue signalling, it’s self-interest. It’s self-defence.
Protesting against Trump’s visit is also a protest against a British government which is spitting in the face of the UK’s European partners in order to prostitute the UK to a racist buffoon who cages children and separates toddlers from their parents. We protest against Trump because we have a British government which likewise demonises migrants and separates families due to racist and unjust immigration laws. We protest against Trump because the British Government, because Liam Fox who met Trump at the airport, are taking the UK out of the EU in order to transform the UK into a cut-rate version of Trump’s America. We protest against Trump because we don’t want Trump’s America here.
Protests are taking place across Scotland. The largest will be tomorrow in George Square in Glasgow from 5pm, and outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh at noon on Saturday, with a march to the Meadows. Scotland is divided on many things. We’re divided on the constitutional question, divided on the political parties we support, the fitba teams we cheer for, but let’s show that we are united in our condemnation of the vile politics of Donald Trump.
You wanted t-shirts, you’ve got t-shirts. For the best part of the past two years I’ve had readers of this blog asking me for Wee Ginger t-shirts and now, finally, I’ve got some organised. The long awaited Wee Ginger t-shirts are now on sale. Only they’re not ginger, they’re white, but you get the drift. On the centre front each has the logo pictured above, designed by the very talented Chris Cairns and tarted up a wee bit by the equally talented Greg Moodie, who was never averse to a spot of tarting.
The t-shirts are currently being manufactured in a super secret cybernat underground lair, and will be ready for posting out by the end of next week, but you can order yours now to avoid the rush. Cos I have a wedding to pay for. Not that I’m attempting emotional blackmail or anything, but you know, if it helps.
Badges with the same logo will be available soon.
T-shirts cost £12 each, P&P to Scotland, Wales, England, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man is £5 per t-shirt. P&P to other destinations will be more expensive. £8 to Europe, £10 to the rest of the world. P&P for orders of two or three t-shirts is £5 for the UK, £10 for Europe, £12 the rest of the world.
The t-shirts are available in small (to fit chest 34/36), medium (38/40), large (42/44), XL (46/48), and XXL (50/52). Please state which size you require with your order. Sizes are “to fit”, the actual garment is somewhat larger.
The Gaelic map of Scotland is also available, the cost is £15 plus £7 P&P within the UK. Please note P&P outwith the UK is more expensive. P&P to Europe is £10, P&P to the rest of the world is £15. If you require multiple copies of the map, you only need pay once for P&P, up to 3 copies of the map which is the maximum that can fit in one postal tube.
Copies of my books are still available too. Contact me for details.
You can order your t-shirt, books, or map by making a Paypal payment to me. Go to Paypal.com and send your payment to the email address weegingerbook@yahoo.com. Alternatively you can use the Paypal donate button at the bottom of this page, which can also be used if you don’t have a Paypal account. Just enter the appropiate amount. Please ensure you give the address to which you’d like the t-shirts or maps posted.
If you prefer not to use Paypal or have problems making a payment that way, you can also purchase a t-shirt by cheque or by bank transfer. Please contact me at weegingerbook@yahoo.com for details.
Wee Ginger Donations & Speaking engagements
You can help to support this blog with a Paypal donation. Please log into Paypal.com and send a payment to the email address weegingerbook@yahoo.com. Or alternatively click the donate button. If you don’t have a Paypal account, just select “donate with card” after clicking the button.
If you have trouble using the button, or you prefer not to use Paypal, you can donate or purchase a t-shirt or map by making a payment directly into my bank account, or by sending a cheque or postal order. If you’d like to donate by one of these methods, please email me at weegingerbook@yahoo.com and I will send the necessary information. Please also use this email address if you would like the dug and me to come along to your local group for a talk.
Many thanks.
