You Just Don't Get It

Our esteemed House of Commons is currently distracting itself from the many important issues before it by debating whether the odious Donald Trump should be banned from Britain. This debate was itself mandated by the gimmick of an online petition which has garnered over half a million "signatures". The process is of course bollocks, every bit as much bollocks as the suggestion that Trump should be barred from the country. If you don't understand why either of these things is bollocks then we have to stop beating about the bush and say that - you just don't get it. Not my best honed line of argument I will confess but life's too short. Let Trump come if he dare (he won't) and let me go and exercise my right to protest against him (I haven't been on a good demo since the old Legal Aid cuts). This man is poison but Britain is perfectly capable of showing him up as the moron that he is. And so, pray God, is the United States of America.

Here's something our pea-brained politicians could try to get their heads round (this matters particularly if you live in Port Talbot - Steel plant jobs cut ) - how about an unwhipped debate on the friction between principles of free trade and state support of vital industries in an imperfect world. We could invite the ghosts of Gladstone and Crossman to investigate this from first principles, that is to say from problem to solution rather than the preferred modern mode of starting with your answer and working backwards to the facts.