The Right Honourable, Sir Ed Davey, PC, Kt. FRSA, Leader of the Liberal Democrats and the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (above) has announced his decision not to attend the official banquet on the forthcoming state visit by President Trump this September.
Herewith the Independent’s report: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/donald-trump-ed-davey-state-banquet-boycott-king-charles-b2815271.html
British Gazette comment: Sir Ed’s decision is to be applauded and hopefully copied by any invitee who let us say does NOT have President Trump on their Christmas Card list!
This because an ad personam display of dissent/protest would backfire severely not only on the UK but also on the individual making it.
President Trump is NOT your typical politician!
One of his predecessors, President Harry Truman famously used the phrase, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” He meant one should leave a task to others if the pressures become too difficult.
The tasks which President Truman referred to were political pressures and active participation in “politics” generally.
You see politics is a coarse and harsh business. I will cite an example:
I was actively involved in UKIP in the “noughties”. UKIP posed a challenge to the UK’s Tories. The Tories knew that like every other political party UKIP was composed of factions. One of UKIP’s factions were people who could reasonably be described as “fundamentalist Christians”.
They are particularly keen on seeing Leviticus Ch. 18 Verse 22 complied with: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”
I was at the annual UKIP party conference held in Bristol, on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 October 2004. During the lunch break on Saturday, I was accosted by an elderly lady who was a particularity fervent enthusiast for bearing Christian Witness. Hers was a very much “Hellfire and Damnation” theology!
I was standing talking to a fellow “Kipper” (his name escapes me) when this lady came up to me and in fact invaded what would be called my personal space and with her index finger prodded me on the chest three times as she looked in what could only be described as absolute disgust and shouted: “You are a homosexual!” She then turned about and walked away.
My reaction was one of shock and surprise as I had absolutely no idea as to why this lady would have come to the conclusion that I was a homosexual. The fellow Kipper standing beside me whispered. “It could be the suit you’re wearing.”
The suit was a grey cloth with a pattern of stripes which included white, green and mauve. It was an unusual but high quality suit length that I had purchased from Bateman Ogden Cloth Merchants on Wakefield Road, Bradford and had it made up by my tailor, Ph. Godlove of Great George Street Leeds. The cloth was very “high end” but was being sold by the merchants at a large discount – which was why I bought it!
As it turned out, it was the next day the Sunday when it became clear that my grey suit with the mauve stripe was not the reason for the lady’s accusation but inevitably would have lent credence (in her mind) to the information source she had. This was report in a Tory “news-sheet” issued by the Tories in Leeds that the Branch Chairman of UIPK Leeds (Moi!) had been preparing to enter a civil partnership with his partner a Mr Alexander Wolstenholme some nine years his junior.
The Leeds Tories had picked this information from some form of a religious publication that could be described as fundamentalist/Bible believing Christian which was most likely the source that was my accuser’s source.
This because the Civil Partnership Act 2004 c. 33 that was due to receive the Royal assent on 18 November 2004 with commencement on 5 December 2005. The “news-sheet” went on to say that Mr Rogers and Mr Wolstenholme were due to have the ceremony at Leeds Registry Office on Valentine’s Day, Monday 14 February 2005! In othwer words, it was a “live” political issue.
That Sunday, UKIP’s then leader Roger Knapman had a word with me about this. Roger said that as far as he was concerned, the proposed civil partnership was “not a problem” [his words] but that it might be for some Kippers.
I assured Roger that it was not a problem for anybody – save my accuser – as the Tory claim was complete nonsense. I explained that I had been engaged to be married, not on Monday 14 February 2005 but on Thursday 14 February 1991, not to one Alexander Wolstenholme but to a Miss Alexandra Wolstenholme. That I was not married and still single was that my fiancée had been killed in a RTA on Sunday 10th January 1991 – a day that is always present in my memory.
As it was the mass media’s attention insofar as the UKIP conference was concerned was centered on Robert Kilroy-Silk who had recently joined UKIP amidst great fanfare.
Now of course this “fake news” is something that Mr Trump is very well aware of because he has suffered at the hands of those who like to issue such on many occasions.
However, Mr Trump takes these assaults on his character and good name to heart and more than that, seeks retribution upon those who produce such!
Such assaults however are the stuff of politics as the political activists who peddle such nonsense work on the old adage that; ……a lie gets half way around the world before the truth has got his pants/trousers on!
You may ask; why would the Tories put out such a fabrication that would so easily be debunked?
Because of the initial reaction that it produced! The aim was to cause outrage amongst UKIP’s fundamentalist Christians that the Chairman of Leeds branch was a homosexual and thus could be condemned as bigots by the Tories and of course the Lib Dems and Labour!
I therefore commend Sir Ed Davey and would encourage any other invitees who do not include Mr Trump on their Christmas card lists to similarly boycott such!
Be in no doubt, there will be NO empty chairs around the banqueting table for officials in the Royal Household will have a long list of safe substitutes!