British members of parliament on Monday lined up to pour scorn on a “racist and sexist” US president who they said should not be allowed to come to Britain for a state visit because of the risk it would embarrass the queen.
US President Donald Trump was compared to a “petulant child” and had his intelligence questioned by MPs during a three-hour debate triggered after more than 1.8 million people signed a petition urging British Prime Minister Theresa May to cancel her invitation.
So many politicians packed into Westminster Hall for the debate that they had to have their speeches limited to five minutes each.
Scottish National Party MP Alex Salmond said he was unsure over whether to be appalled by the morality of the invitation or astonished by its stupidity.
“As an example of fawning subservience, the prime minister holding hands [with Trump] would be difficult to match,” the former Scottish first minister said. “To do it in the name of shared values was stomach-churning. What exactly are the shared values that this house, this country would hope to have?”
Labour MP Paul Flynn said that only two US presidents had been accorded a state visit to Britain in more than half a century and it was “completely unprecedented” that Trump had been issued his within seven days of his presidency.
Flynn — who started the debate because he is on the petitions committee — said Trump would hardly be silenced by the invitation being rescinded, accusing him of a “ceaseless incontinence of free speech.”
Asked by Caroline Lucas, coleader of the Green Party, if Trump’s views on climate science should also be taken into account, Flynn responded that the president had shown “cavernous depths of scientific ignorance” on the issue.
They were speaking as thousands of demonstrators descended on Parliament Square to protest against the visit, chanting and waving placards reading: “No to racism; no to Trump.”
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott addressed the crowds, as did Lucas — who emerged from the debate to describe Trump as a “bully and a bigot.”
Inside the chamber, Flynn was criticized by Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg when he quoted the Observer’s Andrew Rawnsley, who has described the visit as the government “pimping out the queen for Donald Trump.”
Rees-Mogg responded that it was out of order “to refer to pimping out our sovereign,” adding that no one had complained when Emperor Hirohito came on a state visit to the UK, who he said was responsible for “the Rape of Nanking.”
Rees-Mogg was one of a number of Tories to defend the president and May for issuing a state visit.
MP Nigel Evans warned against sneering at the 61 million Americans who voted for Trump, describing them as “the forgotten people.”
MP Adam Holloway said that while Trump’s travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries was absurd, it was “rather refreshing” to see a politician actually do what they had promised.
MP Edward Leigh told colleagues that he was going to make a “difficult argument” and then claimed that Trump’s racism and misogyny had been overstated.
“Which one of us has not made some ridiculous sexual comment at some point in his past,” he said, prompting an angry response from female MPs.
A number of female MPs stood up to complain of Trump’s sexism, with Labour MP Paula Sherriff quoting his infamous “grab her by the pussy” comment, which she said was sexual assault.
Labour MP Naz Shah said she had once urged Trump to come to her constituency to share a curry and meet a Muslim chief superintendent, headteacher, health workers and so on.
“But to do so now that he is president will only reinforce his actions, his divisive racist and sexist messages. This flies in the face of everything we stand for. We cannot support what he is doing,” she said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not