President Trump: State Visit

Carol Monaghan Excerpts

Monday 20th February 2017 Westminster Hall

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I am a teacher by profession. One of the most important things that a teacher can give to their pupils is a view of tolerance, respect and understanding that the world is made up of a whole variety of different people who are no better or worse than one another.

I became concerned when I heard comments such as

“Grab them by the pussy”.

I was even more concerned when those comments were dangerously dismissed as locker room talk. Unlike the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh), I do not know any men who think like that, have those thoughts or even discuss them in the locker room—but then again, I move in circles different from him. When Donald Trump was elected, I tweeted:

“Xenophobic, racist, sectarian and sexist rhetoric has just been legitimised. We should all be very afraid.”

Fox News reported that our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, had urged Trump to reach out to those who felt marginalised—a view I think we all agree with.

[Michelle Thomson (Edinburgh West) (Ind)]

I appreciate that my hon. Friend is a trained teacher, but could I ask her to project a little more, over the noise of the many, many people who are protesting outside against Trump?

[Carol Monaghan]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. Of course, many of us may join those people after this debate. [Interruption.] No, I will not give way.

Fox News also quoted my tweet, which opened the floodgates. I have a whole pile of comments. I will not treat Members to the whole selection, but I will read a couple of brief ones. They include:

“Mind your damn business and stay the hell out of our politics,”

“The silent majority has spoken. We do not want to end up like your piss poor country,”

and

“We kicked your ass once. We can do it again if you give us a reason.”

Here is another one:

“Keep your vulgar comments on your side of the pond. We should have let Germany run over you in the 40s.”

My personal favourite was from the geographically challenged Randy Krone from Dallas, who tweeted:

“Ignorant, thick, foolish is the order of the day with Carol Monaghan. Australia should be very afraid.”

Regardless of why people voted the way they did, a Pandora’s box of hate has been opened and the right wing has been emboldened, both in the United States and across Europe, and we should all be worried about that. Dark rhetoric that should never be uttered is now being freely expressed. What do teachers now tell their classes? How do they teach them tolerance and respect when Trump has been not only elected, but offered a state visit? How can teachers defend tolerance? How can they stand up to their pupils? How can they tackle bullying, xenophobia and homophobia in schools when we have rolled out the red carpet to him? I have heard a number of people saying that that is in the national interest. I will tell them what is in the national interest: showing an example to our young people and telling them that those views are not to be accepted or tolerated. We should be defending those who have moderate views and moderate positions.

I stand here in support of the 3,554 of my constituents who have signed the petition and the many others who emailed me, urging me to speak out against this state visit.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

My hon. Friend and I share a constituency boundary, and 5,259 of my constituents have signed the petition against the state visit, compared with the 168 who signed the petition in favour. Given the vast level of public interest in this petition, the interest that we can hear outside and the interest that is demonstrated by the number of hon. Members wanting to contribute this evening, does my hon. Friend agree that the Petitions Committee and the Procedure Committee need to look at ways of extending the time and perhaps even the space that is available for this kind of debate in the future?

[Carol Monaghan]

Absolutely. I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. As soon as we arrived for the debate this afternoon I wondered why it was not taking place in the main Chamber. So many hon. Members obviously want to speak, and I am sure that the main Chamber is much less busy than this one this evening.

To conclude, I agree with the overwhelming view of my constituents that this state visit should not go ahead, in the national interest.

[Several hon. Members rose—]