Oh, Donald Trump. You used to be as harmless as Simon Cowell—a snarky business mogul and reality TV star that everybody loved to hate. Now people just hate you. Well, there are people who actually like you, but they’re all the kind of people the rest of us would rather not be around. Now it seems you’ve even made some enemies across the pond.
On Monday, the UK Parliament debated a petition calling for Mr. Trump to be banned from entering the country. The petition cites Trump’s controversial views on Muslims and immigration, calling it “hate speech.” As CNN reports, the debate is unlikely to result in any action—but it’s an interesting opportunity for UK lawmakers to air their views on America’s most controversial presidential candidate.
It all started when Scottish freelance journalist Suzanne Kelly launched a petition last month. It called for the blocking Trump from British shores. The petition received 574,000 signatures, well over the 100,000 needed to be debated by Parliament.
“People often say that the public are apathetic about politics,” said Parliament member Tulip Siddiq. “This online petition signed by nearly 600,000 people shows that when people feel a sense of justice, when people feel that we need to stop a poisonous, corrosive man (from) entering our country, they will act in good conscience.”
She continued, “But this is not any man we’re talking about. This is a man who is extremely high profile, involved in the American show business industry for years and years, a man who is interviewing for the most important job in the world. His words are not comical. His words are not funny. His words are poisonous. They risk inflaming tension between vulnerable communities.”
By contrast, member Philip Davies said he thought Trump’s approach was smart.
“In the race to become the next president, he’s been gaining support with a political manner that can be described as blunt directness,” said Davies. “He is definitely straight-talking, and as a Yorkshireman I certainly applaud him for that, too. In fact, I think in this country we could do with rather less political correctness and much more straight-talking across the board, and I think many of our constituents would agree.”
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