The United States (US) President Donald Trump has been invited to the United Kingdom (UK) on a state visit later this year. But the invitation has been met with mass protests, criticism and discontent. So the questions to ask are, why are so many protesting against the visit and should it go ahead?
What has exactly happened?
Prime Minister Theresa May has invited Donald Trump to come to the UK on an official state visit. But the invitation has been met with widespread fury and anger, from across the board. Thousands have taken to the streets across the UK to protest against the invitation, in cities such as Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London, as reported in the Guardian newspaper.
In addition more than 1.5 million people have signed a petition, calling for the visit "to be abandoned" according to The Telegraph newspaper. Further on from this, the internet petition "quickly smashed" the 100,000 signatures needed to be considered for a debate in Parliament.
Why such outrage?
But the first question to ask is, why is there such a protest against Trump's scheduled visit? It is mainly down to the policies advocated by the Trump in the past few days. The President provoked "global outrage" as reported in the Express newspaper, by banning travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East and Africa. Critics of Trump have expressed concern that the ban is "Islamophobic" and "unfairly targets Muslim people".
Criticism within Parliament
Such a policy has also caused discontent within Parliament itself. Politicians from across the political spectrum have come together in "questioning May's decision" to go ahead with the state visit as stated in the Guardian newspaper. The Labour leader has called for the visit to be "postponed" while Trump's immigration ban was in place.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, said in an interview on Sky News that the invitation should be withdrawn and "should never have been made". Even Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Conservative party in Scotland, said that Trump should not be welcomed to Britain "while a cruel and divisive policy...is in place".
Standing firm
However, despite such criticism, Theresa May has stood firm. The Independent newspaper reported that May was "very happy" to extend the invitation to Trump, seen by many as an attempt to preserve the good relations between the countries. May stated that "the United States is a close ally of the United Kingdom" and "we have that special relationship between us".
Should the visit go ahead?
It seems a little hasty to make the invitation so early, given that the visit will not take place until later this year. Who knows what will happen between now and then. As the saying goes, 'a week is a long time in politics'. Whilst I do disagree with the initial decision to invite Trump amidst all that is going on, I do not think that you can retract the offer now.
It is too late and will probably cause more problems going forward. The fact that the UK needs all the friends that it can get what with Brexit, this may be playing on the Prime Minister's mind in that she needs the continued support of the US as a result.
