Donald Trump's state visit symbolises all that is wrong with Britain

Watching the presidential circus roll into town has surely got to be another low to pile upon a mountain of pathetic political choices made by the PM throughout her occupancy of No 10. Pretending that the situation is normal with Trump, not once but twice, shows a lack of moral backbone, a barely hidden desperation and a misplaced allegiance to our supposed ally.

Despite the historical importance of our relationship with the US, it’s surely time to wake up, smell the cordite, and realise that with Trump, this relationship is so uneven and imbalanced it urgently needs counselling. The sycophantic praise for this anti-president from certain UK public figures is nauseating and raises the question of why they do not have the courage of their convictions to call him out. It symbolises all that is wrong with the Tories, with Westminster, with our wider politics in every sense.

First stop for Trump on his UK tour was with the royals. Wherever you stand on the monarchy, asking the Queen to welcome into her home someone who has neither the intelligence nor the manners to treat any woman with respect, let alone a head of state, is above and beyond. On this occasion she must have crossed her fingers behind her back and thought of England as the whole Trump clan invaded Buckingham Palace for selfies and photo ops. Camilla’s knowing wink to the camera was the only genuine moment amid the pomp and precious little circumstance.

Meanwhile, the full charm offensive of neo-liberal nonsense was already in full swing with US mbassador to the UK Woody Johnson informing the British people that America is ready and willing to reorganise our NHS post-Brexit, with a slew of privatisation and insurance plans that will feel like Christmas has come early for the likes of Nigel Farage. Watching the wolves circle is bad enough. Watching the UK Government feed the wolves is even worse. As Trump himself confirmed at his press conference, the NHS is “on the table” in any trade deal.

I listened to a hilariously disingenuous interpretation of the president’s visit on Radio 4 this week, when the chair of Republicans Overseas UK Sarah Elliott tried to argue that this trip was a purely diplomatic event, and that flying a baby blimp of a tangoed Trump was really quite hurtful and inappropriate given his valued and powerful position. How she can say that a man who spends his transatlantic journey tweeting schoolboy insults about London’s mayor Sadiq Khan, just days after wading in on Brexit with some backroom business banter, is on some diplomatic mission, is a bit rich – even for a Republican. It’s the emperor’s new clothes. Some like Khan (or negative force “Kahn” as Trump termed him) can see him for what he is – a misogynist, an Islamophobe and courter of all-round racist and sexist bigotry; others are blinded by his “say-it-like-it-is” rhetoric and insincere support for the “ordinary working people”.

And there are others with more dubious motives. If people don’t hear alarm bells when Esther McVey blames Sadiq Khan for Trump’s insults and “loser” comments, then they must have cotton wool stuffed in their ears. It’s like certain sections of the Tory party are blinded by the promise of their greed fulfilled – they must know that Trump is ready to shaft the UK, that the so-called special relationship is only special for Trump because he is holding all the cards, because the US will do way better out of post-Brexit deals than Britain. The US isn’t even pretending or attempting to hide their motives. But still Tories such as McVey and the ever-dubious Dr Liam Fox remain in their deluded state, unwilling to lift the blindfold from their eyes, salivating at the thought of personal and professional opportunities that might come their way. Never once in his entire career has Donald J Trump knowingly given a sucker an even break.

Apparently, as well as these one-sided trade talks, Trump and the UK Government are going to discuss climate change on this visit. Can it get any more ridiculous? This is a president who doesn’t believe the science behind our climate crisis, who thinks it isn’t happening, that it’s all just “fake news”! He’s got more in common with the blithering Ann Widdecombe, who wouldn’t know a Bunsen burner from a Petri dish, never mind a global crisis of catastrophic proportions. Fortunately for Widdecombe and the long list of elderly “dumb-downers” such Donald Trump, they will be long gone before the crisis of global warming is full blown, before their enthusiasm for wrecking the planet for financial gain has caught up with them.

Luckily for Scotland, Trump has not pencilled in any golfing for this trip. However, this hasn’t stopped comedian Janey Godley, who dusted off her infamous and straight-to-the-point placard and headed to London to “welcome” him. In fact, I caught sight of a proud Saltire in Parliament Square when baby Trump was being hoisted! Our nation can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Not for the first time, Scotland is looking on from the moral high ground, well that is everyone except the Scottish Tories who have been waffling on about respecting the office of the president.

No surprises there – they just do what they’re telt by Tory HQ. So Trump tells the Tories in London and then they tell their tartan outpost. All the other parties in Scotland have noted their disgust at Trump’s antics.

The Donald knows there is no love lost from his ancestral home, for all the Scottish blood running in his veins. I just wish that that fine, upstanding island woman Mary MacLeod hadn’t spared the metaphorical rod all these years ago because now we are all stuck with this very spoiled child of a president.