Even on a day like this, a wet Tuesday in June, you would expect the British left to find a few thousand protesters to issue screaming denunciations of Donald Trump. So it was, and here they were: Quaker socialists and union activists, avengers for Palestine and gay priders, euro-federalists, vegans, concerned mothers, NHS idolaters and 13 people dressed as chickens. They marched out of Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall.
Nobody rubs them up the wrong way quite like Trump does. When President Xi Jinping, the closest personage the 21st century has produced to an actual dictator, made an official state visit to the UK in 2015 the marble streets of Whitehall were largely deserted. When Donald Trump arrives, he is welcomed by the sight of an enormous phallus mowed into one of England’s green and pleasant fields.
In many respects this is a perverse testament to American influence. Britain is surely the most American country in Europe.
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