Now that the so-called "Muslim Ban"( which significantly omits Saudi Arabia, the home of violent jihadism)of the Trump Administration has been struck down by the federal courts, it is worth commenting on the the much talked about state visit by The Donald to our sceptered isle( and proposed address to Parliament by Trump).

To my mind much of the arguments put forward in favour of the latter move strike me as being specious at best and ludicrous at worst!

We must "be realists" as its supporters argue ; if we do NOT give Trump such a signal honour he will not give us what a post Brexit Britain wants- namely a favourable trade deal. Besides many leaders whose democratic credentials were far more dubious than Trump's have been feted at Westminster or Buckingham Palace( Caecescu et al)

My response to this line of argument is(to put it mildly):BALONEY. This is NOT what we were promised in the run up to and conclusion of the June EU referendum,. On the contrary we were promised that we could"take our country back"(back to what was NEVER made clear- presumably Nigel Farage and his ilk mean "The Darling Buds Of May", a BBC sitcom set in the late 1950s).

Is this what they mean, a country that is reduced to grovelling at the feet of any visiting potentate for the sake of a trade deal???

Secondly, addressing both houses of Parliament is an honour NOT a right

extended to few visiting statespersons( Nelson Mandela, Aung San Kyii, Pope Benedict XVI, Barack Obama) and certainly NOT a former real estate mogul turned reality TV star and ultimately POTUS(who has NEVER held elected office before unlike his three predecessors- Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton or conversely served in the armed forces- Washington, Jackson, Grant and more recently Eisenhower- Truman, JFK and Bush Senior were veterans of the First and Second World Wars respectively- Trump dodged the draft for Vietnam as did Bill Clinton, George W.Bush , Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh and he didn;lt even get the popular vote- he owed his Presidency to the Electoral College).

I am reminded of the Victorians contempt for those who"know the price of everything but the value of ultimately NOTHING" as well as for "wee timorous beasties".

It is at least arguable that Trump is more likely to feel contempt for a nation and polity that is so willing to "suck up" to him rather than refuse him an undeserved honour. Anybody think as I do?

Terry