Quite so. And (@Richard_Kirk) Brenda was probably privately in favour of leaving, so while she is no doubt privately repulsed by Trump I wouldn’t break out the hugs just yet. If we have a state visit, she will shake his hand and host him to dinner just like all the other various weirdoes, creeps and criminals she’s hosted in the name of diplomatic relations over the years because - duty.
May sucks up to Trump for the same reasons all British Prime Ministers do. The US is our “special friend” who will really love us and help us if only we prove how much we love them. Somehow we just always fall short and he never really seems to care about us as much as we care about him but surely, this time it will be different…
Is this Wikipedia?, I’m sorry I must have got lost.
I certainly understood it that way.
Trump may not have. It is, I suppose, possible that he meant that he wouldn’t come until we poor benighted Brits, living under the squalid rule of extremist Muslims as we apparently are, were finally freed from both ISIS and the jackbooted oppression of the EU and spontaneously realised the true majesty and glory of Trump.
Or he might have been suggesting that he wouldn’t come until the UK government engaged in a sufficiently massive propaganda campaign to brainwash us all into loving Trump (note for Americans - while we do have a TV show called Room 101 - or did, is it still on? - it is not quite what Orwell had in mind).
Equally, I suppose he might just have meant that he would only come when hell had frozen over.
The thing Trump seems never to have grasped is that powerful people should not simply spout off the first thing that comes to mind.
People are inclined to take you literally - at least at first. You can end up losing an Archbishop that way.
Granted, it’s clear now that whatever Trump says, you have to wait a few days to see what, if anything, he actually meant/would like you now to think he meant. And then a few days more to see if he changes his mind again.
For those who don’t read Private Eye, Brenda = HRH.
I have heard this ‘was probably privately in favour of leaving’ claim. The Brexit mob also circulated a “what have Europe ever done for us” quote, claiming it came from her. It is supposed to be obvious that the Queen wants us out of Europe, as being in Europe somehow makes her position weaker. I don’t see this as obvious at all. In the beginning, she may have seen joining the Common Market as a snub to the British Commonwealth. That must have been awkward at the time. But not now, surely.
Anyway, that lout can’t insist we all cheer him like good North Koreans, so with luck he will never come, and we will never know whether the Queen would have met him officially or not.
Exactly, it’s implied strongly that he’d like assurances that his welcome there will be entirely friendly and he’d see no angry protests.
Implying something over the phone and “he will only visit the United Kingdom if the residents of that country are legally barred from protesting his visit” are completely different things. The latter is a lie.
Yes, as always the Queen has done a bang up job of taking no position. Which is exactly what she is supposed to do.
Any speculation about what her personal views may be is just that.
I tend to suspect she may be inclined towards Leave, if only out of a desire to see Britain take more of a role and interest in the Commonwealth. I don’t think it’s any secret that she has always felt that Britain’s interest should have been in cementing and improving relations in the Commonwealth as a sort of replacement for the Empire. An association with us voted in as chair rather than imposing ourselves by violence.
Happily, I suspect we will never know one way or the other.
I just felt you were reading a bit too much into it the other way and wanted to suggest a note of caution before you run the gauntlet of the Guards and her close protection team.
Many Britons, including his closest personal friends, are certain that Chuck is fundamentally incapable of doing that and think he should step aside for William when Elizabeth dies.
When you put it as clearly as that, I disagree. I initially thought Corey was really stretching it, but now I think those two statements are functionally equivalent. There is no way that I can conceive of that would “promise a warm welcome” without physically/legally/illegally preventing protests. Perhaps a secret visit? No, that’s not very warm.
You can see it that way. I’d say it is an acceptable logical conclusion drawn from the first statement stated strongly for rhetorical effect. (Potay-to, potah-to? Maybe )
I suppose it depends how strongly one assumes Trump meant his position of wanting a friendly welcome.
I mean if it’s a case of “Hi, Donald, how about a state visit in October?” “Hmm, Theresa, baby, I don’t know. I don’t really want to turn up if everyone’s going to boo and throw stuff. Doesn’t look Presidential, ya know? Let’s put a pin in it?”
Fair enough.
If the response is “Hmm, you know I’d love to. I love England and all your cute little houses and the Queen, my God, she’s awesome - but I gather there are all these losers who want to throw stuff and wave signs, and your fake news media keeps having a go at me. I can’t have that. Sort that out and I’ll be there in a flash.”
Not so good.
Given that all we know/have been told is that whatever Trump said exactly, it prompted May to say ‘such treatment was simply the way the British press operate, and there wasn’t much she could do’, I think we can legitimately infer that it was more the latter than the former.
As for a noted polemicist polemicizing, hey ho…unlike most, he has a basis for his argument and has at least linked to the source so people can read it and make up their own mind.
About the warmest reception he’s going to get is by arriving at 5AM on Christmas Day. It’s about the only time that London would be distracted enough to avoid large protests.
