Scotland Against Trump Protest

I usually try to keep politics off this blog as these days it's all depressing af, but when we've got a fascist wannabe dictator trying to take the US back to the dark ages, sometimes you just have to take a stand for what's right, and so I did my bit by going along to one of the many protests held here in Scotland while he (unfortunately) came over to visit this week.

Despite his arguments to the contrary, nobody here likes him. Not even a little bit.

The protest was to be held in George Square, right in the middle of Glasgow city centre, and as I had some shopping to do anyway, I went in early to do that before the protest officially started at 5pm.

Whilst meandering round earlier, I couldn't resist photographing this gorgeous mural when there were people underneath!

I arrived in George Square just before 5 and there were already rather a lot of people kitted out with signs and banners. I ended up meeting my friend Kevin at the protest, along with his friend Aiden - both of whom were also wielding their cameras!We sat around and chatted for a while, at one point finding an abandoned Clone Trooper toy, who we immediately named Steve and adopted as a mascot.

We also saw a large gull try to carry off a live pigeon (and fail!) so that was...interesting!

Before I get into the excellent array of protest signs, I'll just drop this link here for all the non-weegies reading this, as there's a considerable lexicon of Glaswegian and Scots words on most of them that tend to baffle other folk. XD

http://www.glasgowvant.com/glaswegian-dictionary-terms-and-phrases/

I'll also preface this by saying that some people may find the language used on certain signs offensive, but frankly, if you take more offence to a protest sign than the disgusting actions taken by the Trump administration then I think you need to get your priorities straight.

Donald Trump has a controversial history with Scotland; famously promising (then not delivering) over a billion dollars in investment with his golf courses, bullying the locals for not moving out of their 'ugly' houses so he could bulldoze them, cutting off said locals water supply, building huge earthworks around their property so golfers couldn't see their house, and then there were his numerous unsuccessful attempts to sue our government over their decision to prioritise a wind farm which would generate renewable energy for thousands of people, over the scenic view from his golf course. The list goes on and on.

His mother may have been Scottish but that's as far as it goes really. Scotland is no friend to Donald Trump.

We value diversity and tolerance here, and don't stand for the hateful rhetoric he and his racist ilk are peddling.

 

There were many references to Trump's distinctive complexion, from comparisons with Scotland's most popular soft drink...

...fruit...

...to...well... 💩

 

Scotland is a small country of only around five million people, but we welcome immigrants. Recently several Syrian refugee families came to live on the tiny island of Bute and have been roundly absorbed into the community. Obviously there is racism everywhere, no matter how tolerant the society, but on the whole I believe the Scottish people are amongst the most welcoming in the world; Glasgow in particular is renowned for the friendliness of her people and was notably the first place to grant Nelson Mandela the freedom of the city whilst he was still in prison.  Seeing Trump's aggressive bigotry against anyone who isn't rich and white is abhorrent, and something I and I'd hope most other decent people would immediately rally against. His targeting of immigrants is particularly ironic given his own immigrant origins. His mother was from Scotland and travelled to the US for a more prosperous life elsewhere, and his father hails from German stock himself. The irony couldn't be more obvious, but then again, they were all white, so of course it's completely different. 😒

'Immigrants are welcome, we do not welcome Trump'

His attitude towards women is one of his worst attributes, and again, that's not something we will accept here.

While he claims to be 'the smartest/best' at virtually everything, he talks like a child, and that's frankly insulting to most children who probably have a substantially more varied vocabulary than he does. I've heard many people in the medical profession say that they believe he may be suffering from some kind of dementia, which I can well believe, as when you look at interviews of him back in the 80s he could carry a conversation like a fairly normal person, whereas now he goes off at a tangent, repeats himself constantly, and seems prone to delusions about himself, others and the way the world works. It would be sad if it wasn't so terrifying.

 

It wasn't just Scots who were out in force either!

Other than being an absolutely horrendous excuse for a human being, he's an utterly useless politician.

 

Some of you may be thinking 'oh well that's not very nice, how can you claim to be tolerant whilst calling him names?'

Well, the fact is, when you tolerate intolerance you've just created a paradox, and frankly, if he can't take a few digs at his appearance, behaviour and character after all the bullshit he doles out to other people, then he has no business complaining! He spends half his time bitching about people who don't like him on twitter like some shallow teenager obsessed with gossip. Hardly the behaviour befitting the office of president!

If people don't stand up for their rights, and those of others, they risk losing all of them.

Overall it was a very chilled out kind of protest, though there was one moment where things could have kicked off partway through. Some Trump supporters rolled up with a big banner and a megaphone and started spewing out all manner of crap through it. They were immediately surrounded by the crowd who chanted 'Nazi scum, off our streets!' until the police intervened and stood between the protesters and the Trumpers. There was no physical aggression from either side, just lots of sign waving and shouting, but the police horses were on hand just in case. Eventually the handful of Trump fans skulked off to raucous applause and that was pretty much that.

It couldn't be a Scottish protest without Nessie making an appearance though could it? XD

One of my pet hates is loch being pronounced as 'lock'
but I'll let it slide for the sake of the pun in this case.

 As well as loch monsters, there were lots of dogs protesting too.

 

This one in particular was indeed a Very Good Boy.

This one was incredibly fluffy and super duper cute.

Curiously greyhounds seemed to be the protest dog of choice as they were everywhere!

This gorgeous lad had a little altercation with a very disrespectful terrier at one point, but when we went to say hello he was super friendly.

We got talking to his owner and discovered that his name was...Nigel! 

He obviously had to be introduced to his name-twin with some snazzy close-ups which he was only too happy to provide. I could honestly have sat and photographed him all day, he was adorable!

While all the signs made light of everything,we really can't excuse Trump's actions or behaviour in any way, shape or form. Wars were fought to eradicate fascism, millions of lives lost, and for what? Trump isn't so much flirting with the thought of dictatorship as actively going steady with it. He's made it perfectly clear that he wants power and he doesn't care how or where he gets it from or who suffers for it. I'd urge all my American readers to please vote his cronies out as soon as you can - he's a blight on the face of democracy and everything your country is supposed to stand for.

It's worth remembering in this dark period of history with hatred and vitriol from the far right threatening to divide us, that these are the messages we should be listening to.