You’re invited for a visit while no one is home
Now Theresa May is hoping Trump’s state visit to the UK can be sneaked in over a quiet weekend at the dog-end of summer so that no one will notice.
The US president’s controversial visit is now expected to run from a Thursday to a Sunday in late summer or early autumn, with officials trying to ensure that Trump is not in London at a time when parliament is sitting, in order to avoid a formal snub.
According to Westminster sources, a weekend visit at the very end of August or in September is now under discussion between the government, Buckingham Palace and the White House. A source described such a plan as “the preferred option at our end”. Parliament will be in summer recess until 5 September and adjourns again for the party conferences on 15 September for nearly a month.
Should work. Everyone will be in Tuscany or the Dordogne or St Ives or Margate, so Donnie can just dash in, do some shopping at Harrods, visit a pub, maybe take in a cricket match, and off home again. No fuss no muss.
At least the Queen is at an age when it’s reasonable to feign illness.
She could just do like Rubio when he explained he couldn’t attend the Republican convention because he had to mow his lawn. I imagine the Queen has a very big lawn.
And maybe he won’t be president anymore by then! Everybody wins!
“I imagine the Queen has a very big lawn.”
Even better, she has one at Balmoral, in Scotland (but not near Trump’s golf courses), where she is in the habit of spending her summer holidays.
If they let him in, do we have to let him return…?
Let’s not forget what happened to Augusto Pinochet when he popped over to London to meet his buddy Mrs Thatcher and do a spot of shopping. I fear that’s not likely to happen to Donnie, but one can always hope.
This could be interesting… in the UK that period, when Parliament is in recess, is known as “silly season” when the newspapers are all desperately scrabbling round for stories to fill their pages.
Given the… harsh and scurrilous nature, shall we say, of the UK tabloids, Donnie may not enjoy their concentration on his visit…
Trump’s ban on immigration caused huge demonstrations in the UK.
His coming here could really stop the traffic.