From Brexit to Trump, the country seems more divided than ever before
OPINION PIECE
From ugly scenes during the protests against Trump to the divisive issue of Brexit, it is a stark reminder we have to do better in bridging what has become a increasingly vicious divide between left and right.
 |
| Scuffles broke out between supporters of the President and his visit to London and anti Trump protesters in London on the 4th June |
It is clear that Trump is not a popular President with the
British people, especially in London. This has not been helped by his many
comments on the city such as repeating the falsehood of there being 'no go
zones' in London due to Islamist gangs as well as his tweets on the London
Mayor Sadiq Khan, comments on the late Princess Diana, his retweet of Britain First
as well as his conduct in general. This is reinforced by the poll conducted by
YouGov depicting the Presidents approval rating among Britons as just 21%
compared to Obama's 72%. As a result of his controversial views, from wanting
to ban people from Muslim countries from visiting the United States, to his
views on women and abortion, his visit this week for the 75th anniversary of
the D-Day landings has been denounced by many UK politicians and journalists.
The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn declined the invitation to the State Banquet
and spoke at the anti Trump protests but according to Trump went on to request
a private meeting with him which the President refused. Mr Corbyn’s shadow foreign
secretary, Emily Thornberry reinforced the labour parties opposition to the
visit by stating that not only was a state visit an honour that President Trump
did not deserve but also went on to accuse him of being a 'racist' a 'bully' and a 'sexual
predator'.
However many conservative politicians have pointed to the importance of a 'strong relationship with the United States' with Justice secretary David Guake stating that 'if a State visit is a way of improving our relationship with the US that is what we should do' pointing to the importance of the US contributions to NATO and a possible trade deal post Brexit. Trumps visit so went mostly without incident, the only slight cause for damage control being when Donald Trump claimed that the 'NHS would be on the table' in negotiations for a trade deal.
In fact the biggest incidents so far on Trumps state visit have been on the streets of London between protesters. With the Presidents history and his controversial policies and low approval rating in the UK it was always to be expected for him to be met with passionate and angry protesters but what transpired yesterday was a shameful reminder of how divided this country really is from Brexit to Trump. This was displayed with the hostile chants of 'Nazi scum', and physical violence on some occasions against those professing support for the US President as well as provocative behaviour by some on the pro Trump side, taunting the protesters and looking for a reaction.
With more and more videos emerging of clashes between pro and anti Trump protesters with those supporting the President barricaded into a pub by the police at one point, it begs the question, surely we are better than this. Protesters should not see those welcoming Trump as automatic racists, misogynists as well as the grossly misused and overused accusation of 'fascist' and 'Nazi' but people with their own reasons to support him. There is nothing wrong with challenging why that is and standing up against racism but gathering round the small groups of people supporting Trump to hurl insults and, in some cases, even physical violence, is abhorrent and against British values of tolerance and freedom of speech and political opinion. This is a dangerous way of thinking and only adds to the divide between pro and anti Trump factions that is on a far larger scale in the States. However this sort of divide and belittling of each side of the political spectrum is not limited to the issue of Trump and has been manifesting itself in the UK for a while with both sides of the Brexit debate as well as through party politics. The demonising of each side since the Brexit referendum and Jeremy Corbyns election as leader of the labour party, has certainly increased. It is worrying that it feels more than ever, that how you vote in a referendum or an election can define you in the eyes of other people.
The European Elections in May only reinforced how divided we still are as during the campaign we saw the milk shaking of the Brexit party leader Nigel Farage as well as other campaigners and the chucking of water and accusations of traitor for prominent remain campaigner Femi Oluwele when he attended a Brexit party rally in hopes of changing peoples minds. These childish actions, rather than debating each others views and attempting to persuade one another seem to be becoming more common as we saw this week during the Trump visit.
Despite the British public having a clear majority of their opposition to President Trump these actions continued and escalated from the milk shaking and childish behaviour we saw in the European elections to the physical harassment and endangering the safety of the minority of supporters for the US President to the point of being barricaded in a Pub by police for protection. We have to be better than this and take the approach of respecting other peoples opinions and attempting to change them through dialogue and common ground instead of milk-shaking, threats and insults on all sides of these debates which only deepen the divide and anger we are seeing in this country.
Let us also not forget the main purpose of Mr Trumps visit, as the current President to represent the United States in honouring all allied soldiers who fought and fell on D-Day 75 years ago on the 6th June 1944. It is worth remembering that those men fought and died to defeat a real Fascist in Adolf Hitler's Germany so that these people could have freedom of speech and a right to protest. I think it is shameful that in a week that should be focusing on those heroes we are flooded on social media with such scenes of intolerance from both sides and clashes between those who support and oppose the current President of the United States. Fortunately the day itself went without incident with many of the leaders of the world coming together to remember those who died defending those freedoms we so cherish. Hopefully it can be a reminder to the country that we are stronger together and we are and can be better than what we saw during the week.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WATCH: vicious far-left “anti-racist” thugs beat to the ground an elderly British Trump supporter. <a href="https://t.co/w50FnG1JVW">https://t.co/w50FnG1JVW</a></p>— Maajid - (Mājid) [maːʤɪd] ماجد (@MaajidNawaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1136031099744849922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’ve never found our country, across all sides and all opinions, more depressing. We are in a sorry state. <a href="https://t.co/oOwJ403aef">pic.twitter.com/oOwJ403aef</a></p>— Jake Humphrey (@mrjakehumphrey) <a href="https://twitter.com/mrjakehumphrey/status/1135955485562195968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/04/trump-supporters-barricaded-pub-clashes-break-protest-9803420/
In fact the biggest incidents so far on Trumps state visit have been on the streets of London between protesters. With the Presidents history and his controversial policies and low approval rating in the UK it was always to be expected for him to be met with passionate and angry protesters but what transpired yesterday was a shameful reminder of how divided this country really is from Brexit to Trump. This was displayed with the hostile chants of 'Nazi scum', and physical violence on some occasions against those professing support for the US President as well as provocative behaviour by some on the pro Trump side, taunting the protesters and looking for a reaction.
With more and more videos emerging of clashes between pro and anti Trump protesters with those supporting the President barricaded into a pub by the police at one point, it begs the question, surely we are better than this. Protesters should not see those welcoming Trump as automatic racists, misogynists as well as the grossly misused and overused accusation of 'fascist' and 'Nazi' but people with their own reasons to support him. There is nothing wrong with challenging why that is and standing up against racism but gathering round the small groups of people supporting Trump to hurl insults and, in some cases, even physical violence, is abhorrent and against British values of tolerance and freedom of speech and political opinion. This is a dangerous way of thinking and only adds to the divide between pro and anti Trump factions that is on a far larger scale in the States. However this sort of divide and belittling of each side of the political spectrum is not limited to the issue of Trump and has been manifesting itself in the UK for a while with both sides of the Brexit debate as well as through party politics. The demonising of each side since the Brexit referendum and Jeremy Corbyns election as leader of the labour party, has certainly increased. It is worrying that it feels more than ever, that how you vote in a referendum or an election can define you in the eyes of other people.
The 3 incidents in the clashes between pro and anti Trump
supporters show the intense amount of anger in our politics at the moment and
much of this is justified anger , but we must respect the line between being passionate
and belittling, try and cut out as much abuse and stigma in politics and accept
but challenge peoples views when they differ to our own. We must use the ugly
scenes of the 4th June as a wake up call to be better, and encourage others to
be better when it comes to opposing views on a passionate topic. President
Trumps election and the Brexit referendum result were other stark reminders
that calling voters of one side stupid, branding around the word 'fascist' to
support of anyone remotely right wing and refusing to engage in a civilised way
with them does not work as well as damaging as was Brexiteers accusing peoples
vote campaigners of being 'traitors'.
The European Elections in May only reinforced how divided we still are as during the campaign we saw the milk shaking of the Brexit party leader Nigel Farage as well as other campaigners and the chucking of water and accusations of traitor for prominent remain campaigner Femi Oluwele when he attended a Brexit party rally in hopes of changing peoples minds. These childish actions, rather than debating each others views and attempting to persuade one another seem to be becoming more common as we saw this week during the Trump visit.
Despite the British public having a clear majority of their opposition to President Trump these actions continued and escalated from the milk shaking and childish behaviour we saw in the European elections to the physical harassment and endangering the safety of the minority of supporters for the US President to the point of being barricaded in a Pub by police for protection. We have to be better than this and take the approach of respecting other peoples opinions and attempting to change them through dialogue and common ground instead of milk-shaking, threats and insults on all sides of these debates which only deepen the divide and anger we are seeing in this country.
Let us also not forget the main purpose of Mr Trumps visit, as the current President to represent the United States in honouring all allied soldiers who fought and fell on D-Day 75 years ago on the 6th June 1944. It is worth remembering that those men fought and died to defeat a real Fascist in Adolf Hitler's Germany so that these people could have freedom of speech and a right to protest. I think it is shameful that in a week that should be focusing on those heroes we are flooded on social media with such scenes of intolerance from both sides and clashes between those who support and oppose the current President of the United States. Fortunately the day itself went without incident with many of the leaders of the world coming together to remember those who died defending those freedoms we so cherish. Hopefully it can be a reminder to the country that we are stronger together and we are and can be better than what we saw during the week.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WATCH: vicious far-left “anti-racist” thugs beat to the ground an elderly British Trump supporter. <a href="https://t.co/w50FnG1JVW">https://t.co/w50FnG1JVW</a></p>— Maajid - (Mājid) [maːʤɪd] ماجد (@MaajidNawaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1136031099744849922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’ve never found our country, across all sides and all opinions, more depressing. We are in a sorry state. <a href="https://t.co/oOwJ403aef">pic.twitter.com/oOwJ403aef</a></p>— Jake Humphrey (@mrjakehumphrey) <a href="https://twitter.com/mrjakehumphrey/status/1135955485562195968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/04/trump-supporters-barricaded-pub-clashes-break-protest-9803420/
By Robbie Luzi
Written 7th June 2019
Comments
Post a Comment