Britain’s Debate Over Keeping Donald Trump Out, by the Numbers (Video)
The British Parliament will soon debate whether to bar Donald Trump, the U.S. Republican presidential front-runner, from entering the U.K. because of his hate speech.
The British parliament will debate a motion to ban Donald Trump from the UK on January 18. Typically 100,000 signatures on a petition will provoke such a debate, but many more Britons asked for it than that.
Trump would hardly be the first person banned there for hate speech. The British Home office can ban outsiders who are considered likely to provoke trouble, and has kept out Muslim radicals such as Safwat Higazi and Yunus al-Astal and their opposite numbers, Western haters of Muslims such as Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and Geert Wilders, and white supremacists like Stephen Donald ‘Don’ Black.
I suppose it is a bad enough humiliation for the US to have the leading candidate in one of the two parties considered very possibly to be in the same category as a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan or the Chief Inquisitor against Muslims. Here are some numbers to consider:
Number of Britons who petitioned for debate on Trump exclusion: 560,000
Number of Britons who petitioned for debate on allowing Trump in: 40,000
Number of years Britons can be jailed if found guilty of hate speech: 7
Population of UK: 64 million
Number of Muslims in UK: ~ 3 million
# of Muslims in British House of Commons: 13
# of women Muslims in House of Commons: 6
# of Muslims in House of Lords: 10
UK Gross Domestic Product (nominal): ~$3 trillion
How much investment in Scotland Trump has threatened to pull: ~ $1 billion
Wait, before you go…If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.
Support Truthdig
In their eagerness to nominate anyone but Bernie Sanders, Democrats are falling into the same trap as Republicans did in 2016.
The impeachment defense team reserves bulk of its case for Monday, focusing just two hours on what they call "politically motivated" effort.
For the first time, the Iowa Democratic Party will report three sets of results from the party's presidential caucuses.
When he won, many American liberals said Democrats needed their own version of the French leader. They should be careful what they wish for.
It begins a marathon two-day session to consider the historic charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress against President Trump.
However, a letter to the House from the former security adviser’s attorney states he would appear only under court order.