Blustering Mr President
What will be the impact of a Donald Trump presidency on the United States and the rest of the world?
One can condemn the Israeli Government’s actions in relation to the illegal settlements without anger and hostility towards Jewish people; thus, protesting about the medieval justice system of Saudi Arabia doesn’t mean that one condemns the religion of Islam.
My colleagues and I had a bit of a discussion about what we would do if the new President of the USA visited our Parliament. I copped out, stating that, as Deputy Presiding Officer, it would be the Presiding Officer who would have to exercise the diplomacy.
The thought bothers me, though – I certainly have no desire to meet that man, and would not voluntarily attend any event at which he was present.
If he does visit Scotland, I may well have a difficult, diplomatic, decision to make.
Of course, for the likes of our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, such a choice is not always an option.
The relationship between the United States and Scotland is longstanding and many faceted – family, culture, business, and our First Minister’s actions must reflect that. I thought Nicola’s comment, just following the US election, summed it up rather well when she said:
“...I believe that it is important for all politicians, at this moment in our history, to stand up and be counted on important principles of tolerance, respect and diversity. I will not shy away from doing that. I hope that Donald Trump builds an administration that is founded on those principles. If he does that, we can continue to ensure that the close relationship gets even closer in future.” I hope so too. I hope that President Trump does rein back and undergo some kind of ‘Damascene conversion’ in relation to his views about women, his behaviour towards disability, and his intolerance to those not of his culture.
I hope that if he is visiting Scotland, and I do have to meet him, then I don’t feel I need to raise human-rights issues with him like I would with the Chinese Ambassador regarding Tibet, or an Indonesian delegation about the atrocities in West Papua.
I hope that President Trump, who likes to talk about his Hebridean roots, taks tent of Scotland’s national bard, and considers:
“O wad some pow’r the giftie gie us, to see oursels as others see us”.