Amid protests, UK lawmakers debate downgrading Trump visit

[riversedge]

Source: WashPost




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Demonstrators hold placards as they listen to speeches in London, Monday Feb. 20, 2017, during a rally in Parliament Square opposing U.S. President Donald Trump as Members of Parliament debate his planned state visit to the United Kingdom. (Tim Ireland/Associated Press)




Amid protests, UK lawmakers debate downgrading Trump visit


By Jill Lawless  AP February 20 at 2:50 PM

LONDON Thousands of protesters against U.S. President Donald Trump rallied outside Britains Parliament on Monday, while lawmakers inside urged the government to rescind its offer to the president of a state visit stamped with pomp, pageantry and royal approval.

In a passionate debate thats unlikely to change the British governments position, Trump was labeled a misogynist, a bigot and a petulant child by opposition legislators. They argued that a state visit planned for later this year will demean the U.K. and Queen Elizabeth II, the presidents official host.

Conservative lawmakers, however, said revoking the invitation would do far more harm. Tory lawmaker Edward Leigh said canceling the state visit would be catastrophic to the trans-Atlantic relationship.

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Mondays debate was called after more than 1.8 million people signed an online petition calling for the state visit to be downgraded........................



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/amid-protests-uk-lawmakers-to-debate-trump-visit-invitation/2017/02/20/bf748f32-f75c-11e6-aa1e-5f735ee31334_story.html?tidss_tw-amp&utm_term.ade8f5016ef3

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Original tweet that I posted. I found some kind of committee voting no--but not the Parliament.
So, I just posted a story about the debate.






AJ+ Verified account
‏@ajplus

The British Parliament votes no to a state visit from President Trump the first time they've even debated a visit from a U.S. president.

Link to tweet

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Incredible how the world has taken to dislike the man

and most of all is not afraid to show it

Deplorable 45 = Dep45

[Leghorn21]

2. Hell, I thought they did this a month ago - no, not keepin up too well here. But sure enjoying

the thought of yet one more humiliation added to this loser's big steaming pile of "winning"!

[JudyM]

3. The bit of it I caught online was stunning... they don't hold back, eviscerated him.

Passionate airing of his deplorability to the world. They were saying (paraphrasing here) that Americans are actively protesting, but that there's not much we can really do to get rid of him or even reign him in, but they must stand in solidarity with us ... also it's important for Great Britain to show leadership against him to the world. Wow.

[etherealtruth]

4. according to the BBC, he is still going

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39021333

Commons Speaker John Bercow was criticised by some MPs after he said Mr Trump should not address Parliament during the trip in light of the row over his travel ban and comments about women.

Mr Trump was invited to the UK for a state visit after just seven days as president, while it took 758 days for Barack Obama and 978 days for George W Bush.

The government has said it recognised the "strong views" expressed by the US president but looked forward to welcoming him once details have been arranged.

[riversedge]

9. yes, seems that tweet was only referring to a committee vote. anyway I just posted

a story about the debate as the OP

[etherealtruth]

10. they sure did not hold back :-)

[Denzil_DC]

14. It was not a committee vote. You've posted that on a number of places now.

It was a non-binding debate on two petitions that were submitted to the House of Commons.

The vote at the end was simply a procedural vote confirming that the House had debated the petitions as it was required to.

There was no vote on whether Trump should be allowed to visit or not.

Any value in the whole exercise lies the speeches made, some of which sounded pretty incendiary.

[Kimchijeon]

5. Such uplifting news ♥

Makes me all warm & fuzzy to see this.
[img][/img]

[riversedge]

8. agree. there is a gloomy side to this.

[SummerSnow]

6. Waiting for his nasty Tweet about Parliament...

Who will he blame?

1. The media
2. Obama
3. Hillary
4. Immigrants
5. Gazoo from the Flintstones

[riversedge]

7. I am looking for an offical story. not even any headers on cnn, msnbc, nor fox.

[icymist]

11. That Sally Yates is a parody account and says so in it's heading.

SaIIy Yates
@SaIIyYates
Former Attorney General of the United States. Also served as the Deputy AG. A lawyer by profession. Born to serve people!

** PARODY ACCOUNT **
Joined February 2017
https://twitter.com/SaIIyYates

The real Sally Yates hasn't posted since January and the account is no longer active.
https://twitter.com/SallyQYates

I believe you've been duped my friend.

[VaBchTgerLily]

12. so what does this mean? Is it on or is it a no go?

[ananda]

13. Reuters says it's on..

.. that the mp's finally ignored the protests in the end.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. It's on, because Parliament never had the ability to stop it

The only thing approaching a 'vote' was a vote by voice only on whether they had sufficiently debated the petition. From what people say, the 'noes' were louder, but the debate ended anyway.

The decision to have the state visit was by the Tory government. They'll know it's unpopular, and they'll expect protests, and will probably try and arrange things so they're not too near Trump (assuming he's still in office by the summer ...).

[Denzil_DC]

16. Today's debate makes no difference at all.

There's been a lot of confusion about it.

It was a full House of Commons debate (not a committee as others have posted), but it wasn't held in the usual debating chamber, and the only vote was a procedural one at the end to confirm they'd held the debate, not whether Trump's visit should go ahead or not:

It is technically a House of Commons debate, but it is not taking part in the main Commons chamber. Instead it is being held in Westminster Hall, a mini chamber, or annex, off the historic Westminster Hall (same name, but different room) that gets used for low-level debates that do not involve legislation or votes.

Today’s debate is taking place because the Commons has a rule that says petitions that attract more than 100,000 signatures should normally be considered for debate.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2017/feb/20/paul-nuttall-ukip-chairmen-quit-in-protest-over-paul-nuttalls-hillsborough-falsehoold-politics-live?page=with:block-58ab004ce4b0beeffbc5bd09#block-58ab004ce4b0beeffbc5bd09