Petition to ban Donald Trump from UK reaches 300,000

[Shan Yue]

Yeah, political intolerance is really civilized.

Some people are just lying wankers. They should be treated as such.

Are you truly prepared to apply that standard universally, or is your sentiment more selective?
Neither party in American politics can claim moral high ground in regards to its usage of inflammatory rhetoric.
Trump to my mind, is the Republican equivelant of running the Reverend J. Wright as president. While the Democrats are smart enough not to allow such an outspoken mouthpiece of some of their ideology gain such a platform, the Republicans, despite GOP chicanery, allow more honesty and freedom in their grassroot movements. Perhaps to their detriment, or perhaps not, depending on whose kool-aid you drink. In the end, there is not enough of an honest aspect or perspective to American politics to justify a wholly objective opinion.

[Kraylandia]

British people probably think of Trump as being like Hitler. Trump is not like Hitler. Hitler supported Islam. Trump is against Islam. Trump would be a good leader for the United Kingdom. He is like Nigel Farage. They are not afraid to take unpopular stances.

He is like Nigel Farage

So basically not much better than Hitler then. Got it.

[Washington Resistance Army]

The UK possibly doing something sensible? What is this madness?

[Sun Lands]

Good luck with that. Even if you did ban him from visiting the UK, was trump likely to visit anyway?

[Kraylandia]

Good luck with that. Even if you did ban him from visiting the UK, was trump likely to visit anyway?

Considering he owns some property here, then yeah probably at some point.

[Risottia]

How stupid and incompetent is the petition system over in the UK if only 100,000 signatures merit deliberation by the British legislative bodies?

It's an intelligent system, actually. In a 60 Mpeople country, you can't really lose time listening to petitions with marginal support. And yes, already 100 k signatures out of 60 Mpeople is quite marginal already (it's 0.17%) .

[The Nihilistic view]

Well 14 out of nearly 4000 petitions launched debated is not like it's very easy to both hit 100,000 anyway and be worth debating.

[Great Nepal]

Sure, the UK can ban Donald Trump but they can't ban Anjem Choudary, who is a vocal supporter of the Islamic State and wants Sharia law and has told his followers to purposely go onto the UK's welfare system because this will supposedly be a form of collecting JIzya from the non-Muslim portion of the UK. How stupid and incompetent is the petition system over in the UK if only 100,000 signatures merit deliberation by the British legislative bodies?

I find it a bit amusing that people jump on some right wing politicians, hoping that they can be arrested for hate speech.

Yet, nobody has ever filed anything against Choudary...

I'm fairly certain someone already pointed this out in the first page but, Trump is an foreign national who will require visa to enter UK - UK has no legal or moral obligation to provide visa to anyone (exceptions apply but I dont think Trump will qualify for asylum either). Choudary is a British citizen, and therefore has a right to live in UK exercising all rights granted to all British citizens which includes right against deportation.
If this somehow were to pass, Trump would not be arrested for his speech - he would be detained for being in UK illegally - Choudary, as a British citizen however can not be in UK illegally. Its really not that complicated.

[New Chalcedon]

British people probably think of Trump as being like Hitler. Trump is not like Hitler. Hitler supported Islam. Trump is against Islam. Trump would be a good leader for the United Kingdom. He is like Nigel Farage. They are not afraid to take unpopular stances.

He is like Nigel Farage

So basically not much better than Hitler then. Got it.

The 21st-century Oswald Moseley, basically. A wannabe-Hitler without the wits, the backing or the charisma to amount to more than a fart in a windstorm.

[Traxa]

Please, stop giving trump more attention.

Trump is not on the short list of candidates who will even receive a GOP nomination, Trump is not going to win any national election. Trump is the political news equivalent of any member of the Kardashian family. Stop giving him attention, he just eats it up and enjoys it, he is like a masterful real life troll, and also please stop making ignorant parallels between Trump and Hitler.

/thread

[Purpelia]

Please, stop giving trump more attention.

Trump is not on the short list of candidates who will even receive a GOP nomination, Trump is not going to win any national election. Trump is the political news equivalent of any member of the Kardashian family. Stop giving him attention, he just eats it up and enjoys it, he is like a masterful real life troll, and also please stop making ignorant parallels between Trump and Hitler.

/thread

Why? If he really is everything you say than he is harmless. And if he is harmless and genuinely enjoys the attention why not give it to him? Why deny the man a bit of harmless pleasure? I mean sure, he is a capitalist and that is to be hated. But underneath he is still just a man.

[Huda]

I don't understand the fuss over Muslims being angry over good ol' Donald's proposition. They are lucky enough to be away from him. However I can understand US outrage of being stuck with Trump.

[New Chalcedon]

Please, stop giving trump more attention.

Trump is not on the short list of candidates who will even receive a GOP nomination, Trump is not going to win any national election. Trump is the political news equivalent of any member of the Kardashian family. Stop giving him attention, he just eats it up and enjoys it, he is like a masterful real life troll, and also please stop making ignorant parallels between Trump and Hitler.

/thread

Really? He's only been leading the polls for, what, a year? As Jeb!'s brand of tired old establishmentarianism and Carson's particular niche of batshit-crazy have risen and fallen, he's just moved higher and higher.

Perhaps he actually will become the nominee....

[Alvecia]

No. He should be roundly mocked and experience things like having a large part of a country sign a petition against him because he's a wanker.

But like I said earlier, nothing will come of this.

I don't think so, either. I'm just pointing out that it's sort of messed up people are supportive of this. Freedom of speech means everything from being allowed to say how dumb a religion/party/political figure might be to allowing pictures of Mohammed to allowing bigots to express their views. We shouldn't be banning the person because we find their discourse distasteful. We should be explaining why their discourse is bad and reprehensible.

Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom of Consequence Free Speech. We are more than able to hear him talking about how he hates Muslims through a television screen.

[Alvecia]

I've just signed the petition.
While I'm under no illusion that this will actually come to fruition, The petition is the third most signed at a little over 400,000 now. I really kinda want it to be number 1.

Like that time we got Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of to be the UK Christmas number 1, because reasons.

[Traxa]

Please, stop giving trump more attention.

Trump is not on the short list of candidates who will even receive a GOP nomination, Trump is not going to win any national election. Trump is the political news equivalent of any member of the Kardashian family. Stop giving him attention, he just eats it up and enjoys it, he is like a masterful real life troll, and also please stop making ignorant parallels between Trump and Hitler.

/thread

Really? He's only been leading the polls for, what, a year? As Jeb!'s brand of tired old establishmentarianism and Carson's particular niche of batshit-crazy have risen and fallen, he's just moved higher and higher.

Perhaps he actually will become the nominee....

The same polls predicting trump gets the GOP nominee are the same polls that said Romey would give obama a run for his money in their election and the only state Romney got that was of any value was Texas...I really don't need to say anymore.

[Ethel mermania]

It seems that there are civilized places in the world.

Considering listening to your opponents and not exiling them is a component of being civilized. There are at least 300,000 brits who reject the concept of civilized.

[Teemant]

I don't think so, either. I'm just pointing out that it's sort of messed up people are supportive of this. Freedom of speech means everything from being allowed to say how dumb a religion/party/political figure might be to allowing pictures of Mohammed to allowing bigots to express their views. We shouldn't be banning the person because we find their discourse distasteful. We should be explaining why their discourse is bad and reprehensible.

Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom of Consequence Free Speech. We are more than able to hear him talking about how he hates Muslims through a television screen.

Let me guess. Consequence thing only applies when someone says something you don't like?

[Alvecia]

Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom of Consequence Free Speech. We are more than able to hear him talking about how he hates Muslims through a television screen.

Let me guess. Consequence thing only applies when someone says something you don't like?

You guessed wrong. Consequence always applies.

[ErVaReAn rEpUbLiC]

It would be interesting to see what happens if the UK bans him from entering the country, and then he becomes POTUS. Would probably sour the relations between the two countries.

[Wallenburg]

A petition calling for Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump to be barred from entering the UK has gathered more than 329,000 names, so MPs will have to consider debating it.

The petition went on Parliament's e-petition website on Tuesday.

It was posted in response to Mr Trump's call for a temporary halt on Muslims entering the United States.

Chancellor George Osborne criticised Mr Trump's comments but rejected calls for him to be banned from the UK.

Any petition with more than 100,000 signatures is automatically considered for debate in Parliament.

Mr Trump is seeking the Republican nomination for next year's US presidential election.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35052505

Donald Trump - who appears to be the US equivalent of the Monster Raving Loony Party - has made himself so unpopular with the public of Great Britain that Parliament will be forced, by petition, to debate the possibility of his permanent exclusion from the United Kingdom.

There is a precedent for banning certain inflammatory individuals from the UK - including leaders of the Westboro Baptist Church, radical Islamist preachers, and KKK officials.

My personal view on this issue is one of internal conflict between, on one hand, my strong belief that freedom of speech should never be curtailed, no matter how ridiculous and on the other hand, my desire for strong border control to keep out undesirable foreign elements - and given Trump's comments on Muslims, and the fact that the UK has a sizeable Muslim population, it may well be that this individual potentially poses a threat to them and that therefore banning him from entering the UK would be justified.

What do you think?

Am I the only one who found the "Monster Raving Loony Party" more interesting than the rest of this OP?
I'm going to be up a while.

[Alvecia]

It would be interesting to see what happens if the UK bans him from entering the country, and then he becomes POTUS. Would probably sour the relations between the two countries.

Honestly, if I were a leading politician here, I would be looking for alternative political and economic partners. America seems so unstable at times, and the Republican lineup is horrifying.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

I don't think so, either. I'm just pointing out that it's sort of messed up people are supportive of this. Freedom of speech means everything from being allowed to say how dumb a religion/party/political figure might be to allowing pictures of Mohammed to allowing bigots to express their views. We shouldn't be banning the person because we find their discourse distasteful. We should be explaining why their discourse is bad and reprehensible.

Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom of Consequence Free Speech. We are more than able to hear him talking about how he hates Muslims through a television screen.

Yes, but a government actually banning someone from landing in the UK is actually the kind of censorship we don't want.

Can private individuals NOT bother with Trump, or not put up with his shit? Sure, they can. A government, however, should not use its power to censor someone, no matter how stupid their ideas are.

[Alvecia]

Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom of Consequence Free Speech. We are more than able to hear him talking about how he hates Muslims through a television screen.

Yes, but a government actually banning someone from landing in the UK is actually the kind of censorship we don't want.

Can private individuals NOT bother with Trump, or not put up with his shit? Sure, they can. A government, however, should not use its power to censor someone, no matter how stupid their ideas are.

Oh, I don't agree with the ban. But I felt that the distinction should be made.

[Teemant]

Let me guess. Consequence thing only applies when someone says something you don't like?

You guessed wrong. Consequence always applies.

Then there is no free speech.

First sentence in wikipedia says: Freedom of speech is the right to communicate one's opinions and ideas without fear of government retaliation or censorship.

You are against free speech by supporting goverment retaliation.