VILE ABUSE FOR TRUMP THE PANTO VILLAIN

Perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention but I am pretty sure that this lot were not here three months ago. On that occasion, London was hosting not just one ‘bigot’ but dozens. In fact, all told, the 2018 Commonwealth summit honoured no less than 37 world leaders who choose to criminalise homosexuality in their countries. I certainly remember them all getting a full state welcome and dinner at Buckingham palace. The funny thing is, I just can’t recall the protests. Nor did I see the placards a month earlier when a leader who bans women from voting in general elections – and only let them drive cars this year – was a guest of honour in the City of London.

aside from a handful of protestors outside Downing street, there was no street march against Crown prince Mohammed of saudi arabia.

Maybe everyone was washing their hair that day.

Yesterday, however, thousands did manage to find the time to hit the streets to hurl various forms of abuse – some of it cogent, much of it unprintable and lot of it simply adolescent – at our most important ally.

I imagine most women, most gays and most members of any ethnic minority would much prefer to live in Donald Trump’s Usa than most nations on earth. Yesterday, however, he was cast as the pantomime enemy of almost every cause on the political spectrum from centre-Left grievances all the way out to the communists (who certainly deserved the award for the most elaborate banner yesterday – a magnificent old-fashioned specimen beautifully embroidered with Lenin and Marx).

Whatever your issue – Brexit, climate change, feminism, palestine, capitalism, gay and transgender rights – Donald Trump was the problem and guilty as charged. so roll up, folks, and signal your virtues.

TWO separate demonstrations and an inflatable effigy of Mr Trump formed the main opposition to the american president in central London, culminating in a Trafalgar square rally yesterday evening.

among those on the stage at the foot of Nelson’s Column was the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, in full Trump-bashing mode. ‘Oh, Jeremy Corbyn,’ they chanted. The transatlantic alliance would certainly be a very special relationship indeed if it was ever left in the hands of Messrs Trump and Corbyn.

The blow-up baby Trump attracted most attention. We had been promised a giant blimp flying over parliament. In the event, we got a balloon – 20ft long and 10ft wide; the sort of thing you might find promoting a car dealership – which rose about as high as Big Ben’s knee. aviation rules meant it could not go any higher.

The organisers, dressed in overalls with ‘Trump Babysitter’ on the back, seemed very pleased with it all. One of them, Max Wakefield, 30, told me that the plan was to take the thing up to scotland this weekend as Mr Trump relaxes at his ayrshire golf resort.

a modest crowd of a few hundred gathered taking photos, but, after all the hype, the stunt seemed somewhat underwhelming. ‘ Utterly pathetic pointless graceless,’ tweeted the Conservative Mp, sir Nicholas soames. The sight of the glorified orange beach ball floating alongside the mighty, brooding statue of sir Nicholas’s grandfather, sir Winston Churchill, was surely a new low for parliament square.

The organisers had originally been denied permission to fly their balloon by the Greater London authority. however, when the Mayor of London, sadiq Khan, caught a whiff of some right- on publicity points, he had waded in and overruled his own staff. Let Baby Trump fly, he decreed. regardless of the insult to ordinary Us citizens – I got in to a cab just as it was vacated by an american family who found it highly offensive – it will have sent a pretty toxic message to middle america when it aired on last night’s news bulletins. No one could deny the rights of ordinary people to make whatever sort of protest they might choose within the bounds of the law. however, the fact that this one was formally endorsed by the elected leader of a world city – a latter-day incarnation of Dick Whittington no less – will have appalled many.

rather more striking than the balloon was the prevalence of obscenities. I am not sure what the law says about banner headlines proclaiming the F-word and the C-word in public places – and in front of children – but they were deemed entirely acceptable yesterday. The organisers had even commissioned rolls of police-style yellow tape imprinted with ‘F*** OFF’ which was being liberally applied to everything. Under the circumstances, the ubiquitous stickers saying ‘Bollocks To Brexit, Bollocks To Trump’ seemed pretty innocuous.

as ‘Baby Trump’ was being deflated (the helium extracted with a leafblower), the first of the main marches was lining up outside the headquarters of the BBC on portland place. This had been billed as primarily a women’s demonstration. Many placards had picked up on Trump’s deplorable remarks about ‘grabbing women by the p****’ during a private conversation, secretly recorded in 2005. ‘The p**** Grabs Back’ declared many.

SOME 10,000 protestors (they were crossing the start line at a rate of 360 per minute for about 25 minutes) set off for parliament square, joined half way along the route by a separate ‘soho Drag Queen’ demonstration. In among the usual ‘Dump Trump’ stuff were a number of obscenities, plus a banner proclaiming: ‘I had Cancer and You’re Worse.’

Two hours later, a larger demonstration lined up in the same spot. here was a coalition of trade unions, student bodies, remainers, family gatherings and far-Left pressure groups. The anthropology department of University College, London had brought a large female effigy held aloft and accompanied by a platoon of women dressed in red capes (a nod to the television drama, The handmaid’s Tale) along with one of the day’s more erudite messages: ‘Matriarchy Not patriarchy.’

In the front row, I found the former Labour leader ed Milliband. I asked him if it was not a tad inconsistent – hypocritical even – to demonise Mr Trump but not protest against a catalogue of notably more illiberal world leaders. ‘We rightly expect a higher standard of our leading democracies,’ he explained. ‘and Trump’s behaviour really does represent a significant departure from what we expect.’

It took 90 minutes for this march to cross the start line, stop-starting at a rate of 240 marchers per minute. Many more were waiting in Trafalgar square. all in all, these protests certainly amounted to tens of thousands, if not the six-figure numbers predicted by the organisers.

so will we see them all the next time an unelected dictator – a ruler with none of Mr Trump’s democratic legitimacy – arrives in town from asia or africa or Latin america? Don’t hold your breath.

Mr Trump is in a league of his own. Whether any of this will make any difference to our prospects of a post-Brexit trade deal is unclear. But if we do get one, we will have the Queen to thank, not an unfunny helium-filled prank.