Trump Royal Invite - Tories Unravelling

The inability of Theresa May and her Government of less than highly talented minions has, in all too short a time, developed a reputation for dithering over decision making, only to then make a decision which proves very quickly not to have been sufficiently well thought through. A superb example has been provided by the invitation extended to Combover Crybaby Donald Trump to make a state visit to the UK later this year.

Who gave out the invite to stay here?

This was covered comprehensively by the right-leaning press: The Donald would get to play on the Royals’ own private golf course! He might even get to swap off-colour jokes with Phil! He would get to ride with Brenda in a horse-drawn carriage! There would be flag waving and people cheering! Only after the horror of Trump’s intolerant bigotry was revealed with the “Muslim travel ban” did anyone stop and think.

It might have been her ...

What if this were not a mere aberration? What if Trump’s foreign policy, his attitude to people who are not white, and his inability to see sense and back down were not only not to vary in the passing months, but manifest themselves in yet more ill-thought-through and intolerant acts? Our not at all unelected Prime Minister was having none of it. But then came The Petition, and with it the first cracks in the Government wall.

... or maybe it was him ...

Graham Guest’s petition simply proposed to “Prevent Donald Trump from making a State Visit to the United Kingdom … Donald Trump should be allowed to enter the UK in his capacity as head of the US Government, but he should not be invited to make an official State Visit because it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen”. This was started at the weekend. It now has more than one and a quarter million signatories.

The first sign that the Government was uneasy about their having invited an authoritarian tyrant to break bread with Her Maj came with the parcel-passing. Will Henryson was certain he had the chain of command right: “Ok…those signing the petition: The Queen extended an invitation to Trump at the request of the Government. The Government didn’t invite him”. Well, up to a point, Lord Copper. Effectively they did invite him.

... now that nobody wants to be associated with him

And the Government would be the ones who asked Buckingham Palace to somehow downgrade or postpone the visit. In any case, by noon today the buck-passing was well and truly on, as Jack Blanchard of the Mirror observed: “Theresa May's official spokesman says the Foreign Office, not Number 10, ‘holds the pen’ when drawing up invitations for state visits”. Theresa says A Big Bozza Did It And Ran Away!

But then Downing Street decided that it was time to ‘fess up. “To be clear, the Prime Minister extended an invitation on behalf of the Queen - and she was very happy to do so”. The Queen’s loyal subjects might appreciate that rather more if Her Majesty’s Government would follow its own rules - and the promises made on its petitions website - and debate Graham Guest’s petition, which long ago passed the 100,000 debate threshold.

Theresa May, her ministers, and their motley convocation of hangers-on, are clearly frit of confronting this subject. There will be protests later today, one of which will take place outside the Downing Street gates. Perhaps that will concentrate their minds a little.

The Royal visit invitation was given out with insufficient haste. It should be put on hold until the present dispensation in the White House takes its heads from out its backsides.