Will Trump produce merchandise for his ‘basket of deplorables’?

When, in September, Mrs Clinton consigned ‘half’ of Mr Trump’s supporters to what she called the ‘basket of deplorables’, I reminded readers of how some people grab an insult from their opponent with pride (see Notes, 24 September). The ‘Iron Lady’ is a classic example — intended by Red Star newspaper to mock Margaret Thatcher.

I mentioned the Vermin Club. This was a response to Aneurin Bevan’s claim that the Tories were ‘lower than vermin’, and quickly attracted a large membership among Conservatives in the late 1940s. A kind reader, Mr Philip Lewis, has just sent me the club’s badge. It is a handsome metal square, depicting a fat, recumbent rat with a long, well-curled tail, and the single word ‘VERMIN’.

Not so easy to depict the deplorables, who, said Mrs Clinton, include racists, sexists, homophobes, xenophobes, and Islamophobes, but perhaps Trump merchandising can produce an attractive memorial basket.

This is an extract from Charles Moore’s Notes.