Do you look at the protestors as I do, and wonder how they have so much spare time on their hands?
Do they not have a school run to be on? A desk to be at? Who has the time or childcare to stand about on a weekday evening waggling a cardboard poster protesting a visit to the UK by Donald Trump?
Sadly enough, the answer is: all these people.
The shouting masses in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff — all of them willing to stand about shouting ‘No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA’, despite the fact none of these are likely to listen to people who are undoubtedly in need of a job, a shower or both.
Do they not have a school run to be on? A desk to be at? Who has the time or childcare to stand about on a weekday evening waggling a cardboard poster protesting a visit to the UK by Donald Trump?
Sadly enough, the answer is: all these people.
The shouting masses in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff — all of them willing to stand about shouting ‘No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA’, despite the fact none of these are likely to listen to people who are undoubtedly in need of a job, a shower or both.
For those too busy playing FIFA 14 to leave the safety of their mum's spare room where they still live, aged 34, - there is always an online petition to ‘Prevent Donald Trump from Making a State Visit to the UK’.
It is has attracted the support of more than 1.7 million idiots so far. Which is a pretty impressive Idiot Attraction Rate by anyone’s standard.
If there is one thing we need to learn about petitions, it’s that they are utterly pointless.
Do not ask me to sign one. Petitions are like masturbation: unproductive, although they do offer the desperate and lonely a brief twinge of pleasure.
It is has attracted the support of more than 1.7 million idiots so far. Which is a pretty impressive Idiot Attraction Rate by anyone’s standard.
If there is one thing we need to learn about petitions, it’s that they are utterly pointless.
Do not ask me to sign one. Petitions are like masturbation: unproductive, although they do offer the desperate and lonely a brief twinge of pleasure.
At one point more than 1,000 people a minute were clicking on this latest petition.
One thousand people a minute believed they could make a difference. By clicking on a link.
Further proof, if any were needed, that 30 per cent of the population is too thick to breed and should be castrated.
Three-hundred thousand people clicked on a petition to have me sacked from my last job.
They failed. A million people tried to keep Jeremy Clarkson installed in his. We failed too.
One thousand people a minute believed they could make a difference. By clicking on a link.
Further proof, if any were needed, that 30 per cent of the population is too thick to breed and should be castrated.
Three-hundred thousand people clicked on a petition to have me sacked from my last job.
They failed. A million people tried to keep Jeremy Clarkson installed in his. We failed too.
More than one and a half million people signed the petition to ban Donald Trump from the UK and instead he was elected as the 45th President of the United States and offered a state visit to see the Queen.
If you want a true picture of the type of person who can be found keyboard-clicking on petitions, go to the ‘Please Make the Pumpkin Spice Latte Vegan’ petition at Change.Org; it will tell you everything you need to know.
(Believe me. These people care about their Vegan Spice Latte with equal passion as they care about banning Trump.)
A Downing Street source has told the BBC that cancelling the trip would be a ‘populist gesture’ that would ‘undo everything’ achieved by Theresa May during her trip to the US last week.
I agree. Pandering to the proletariat clicking on petitions is not a good precedent to set.
The memory of our MPs discussing banning Trump from the UK in 2016 makes my nose sweat.
If you want a true picture of the type of person who can be found keyboard-clicking on petitions, go to the ‘Please Make the Pumpkin Spice Latte Vegan’ petition at Change.Org; it will tell you everything you need to know.
(Believe me. These people care about their Vegan Spice Latte with equal passion as they care about banning Trump.)
A Downing Street source has told the BBC that cancelling the trip would be a ‘populist gesture’ that would ‘undo everything’ achieved by Theresa May during her trip to the US last week.
I agree. Pandering to the proletariat clicking on petitions is not a good precedent to set.
The memory of our MPs discussing banning Trump from the UK in 2016 makes my nose sweat.
Clicking on petitions and waving placards is not about principle. It is, in and of itself, about protest.
Protest is the sum of the whole. The activity of protesting fulfils all the protesters’ aims — without them actually looking to change anything or having a clear vision or goal of what to change, or to what.
The noise, the placards, the excitement of chanting about the KKK, the opportunity to Instagram their endeavour — that is the totality of these people.
They’re like mongrel dogs chasing tennis balls: massively over-enthusiastic at all times, drooling in their enjoyment, never once questioning the point of it all.
Or women teaching babies how to use sign language to ask for milk; way too much spare time to be healthy.
Protest is the sum of the whole. The activity of protesting fulfils all the protesters’ aims — without them actually looking to change anything or having a clear vision or goal of what to change, or to what.
The noise, the placards, the excitement of chanting about the KKK, the opportunity to Instagram their endeavour — that is the totality of these people.
They’re like mongrel dogs chasing tennis balls: massively over-enthusiastic at all times, drooling in their enjoyment, never once questioning the point of it all.
Or women teaching babies how to use sign language to ask for milk; way too much spare time to be healthy.
I am concerned about how this wandering bunch of wastrels, strays, migrant-apologisers (Lily Allen) and jug-eared crisp salesmen (Lineker, I’m looking at you, son) makes the rest of us look.
London’s Mayor has waded in on the action, declaring Trump should not be welcomed while a travel ban is in place.
I don’t hear him complaining about the travel ban on Israelis travelling to 16 countries on the planet. I assume his principles only extend to one religion.
It’s all very well pretending the Queen might be embarrassed by a state visit from Trump, but she is married to the Duke of Edinburgh, for goodness sake.
(He once asked the black dance troupe Diversity at the Royal Variety Performance: 'Are you all one family?')
London’s Mayor has waded in on the action, declaring Trump should not be welcomed while a travel ban is in place.
I don’t hear him complaining about the travel ban on Israelis travelling to 16 countries on the planet. I assume his principles only extend to one religion.
It’s all very well pretending the Queen might be embarrassed by a state visit from Trump, but she is married to the Duke of Edinburgh, for goodness sake.
(He once asked the black dance troupe Diversity at the Royal Variety Performance: 'Are you all one family?')
Over the decades our stalwart Queen has hosted tyrants and despots from President McGuire to Ceausescu of Romania. I’m sure she can handle Trump, who loves her dearly.
What no one is talking about is the embarrassment these protesters are bringing to the rest of Britain.
To the grafters, the busy mums, to taxpayers and people with lives and jobs.
Many of us are Trump supporters. Most of us would love to put the United Kingdom First, in much the same way as Donald has done for the American people.
We are the 52 per cent and live in a foreign land called 'the rest of Britain'.
It is time to stop talking about a mere million or so people clicking on a petition or shouting in the streets. These protesters are a national humiliation and a disgrace.
I asked my Twitter followers what they thought. In two hours, 5,000 of you responded.
Seventy-three percent of you are more embarrassed about protesters and their petitions than about Trump’s visit.
I stand with them — the 62 million or so who want absolutely nothing to do with the hollering idiots plaguing our streets.
What no one is talking about is the embarrassment these protesters are bringing to the rest of Britain.
To the grafters, the busy mums, to taxpayers and people with lives and jobs.
Many of us are Trump supporters. Most of us would love to put the United Kingdom First, in much the same way as Donald has done for the American people.
We are the 52 per cent and live in a foreign land called 'the rest of Britain'.
It is time to stop talking about a mere million or so people clicking on a petition or shouting in the streets. These protesters are a national humiliation and a disgrace.
I asked my Twitter followers what they thought. In two hours, 5,000 of you responded.
Seventy-three percent of you are more embarrassed about protesters and their petitions than about Trump’s visit.
I stand with them — the 62 million or so who want absolutely nothing to do with the hollering idiots plaguing our streets.
- @KTHopkins
