Wednesday, February 01, 2017
Will Prince Charles be allowed to meet Trump?
Much as I am opposed to the unseemly haste with which a state visit has been offered to Donald Trump, secretly I really want to witness a meeting between the US President and Prince Charles, but only if it could be subsequently broadcast to the rest of the world.
For all his quirks, the heir to the throne is fairly sound on climate change and is not afraid to let his views be known more widely. He is also alive to the threat to democracy posed by popularist movements such as that headed by Trump.
The Independent reports on his latest pronouncement in which he issued a warning over the “rise of populism” in a veiled apparent reference to the election of Donald Trump and increasingly hostile attitudes towards refugees in Europe:
The Prince of Wales said there were “deeply disturbing echoes of the dark days of the 1930s”, adding that “evil” religious persecution was taking place across the globe.
The “suffering doesn’t end when they arrive seeking refuge in a foreign land," he said in the pre-recorded message for BBC Radio 4's Thought For The Day.
“We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly aggressive to those who adhere to a minority faith. All of this has deeply disturbing echoes of the dark days of the 1930s," he said.
“My parents’ generation fought and died in a battle against intolerance, monstrous extremism and inhuman attempts to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe.”
Citing UN statistics, he added that a "staggering" 65.3 million people abandoned their homes in 2015 — 5.8 million more than the year before.
“The suffering doesn’t end when they arrive seeking refuge in a foreign land," he said. "We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly aggressive towards those who adhere to a minority faith."
He went on to urge listeners to remember this Christmas “how the story of the Nativity unfolds with the fleeing of the holy family to escape violent persecution”.
For once Donald Trump has not responded. Perhaps the reference was too subtle for him.
For all his quirks, the heir to the throne is fairly sound on climate change and is not afraid to let his views be known more widely. He is also alive to the threat to democracy posed by popularist movements such as that headed by Trump.
The Independent reports on his latest pronouncement in which he issued a warning over the “rise of populism” in a veiled apparent reference to the election of Donald Trump and increasingly hostile attitudes towards refugees in Europe:
The Prince of Wales said there were “deeply disturbing echoes of the dark days of the 1930s”, adding that “evil” religious persecution was taking place across the globe.
The “suffering doesn’t end when they arrive seeking refuge in a foreign land," he said in the pre-recorded message for BBC Radio 4's Thought For The Day.
“We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly aggressive to those who adhere to a minority faith. All of this has deeply disturbing echoes of the dark days of the 1930s," he said.
“My parents’ generation fought and died in a battle against intolerance, monstrous extremism and inhuman attempts to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe.”
Citing UN statistics, he added that a "staggering" 65.3 million people abandoned their homes in 2015 — 5.8 million more than the year before.
“The suffering doesn’t end when they arrive seeking refuge in a foreign land," he said. "We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly aggressive towards those who adhere to a minority faith."
He went on to urge listeners to remember this Christmas “how the story of the Nativity unfolds with the fleeing of the holy family to escape violent persecution”.
For once Donald Trump has not responded. Perhaps the reference was too subtle for him.
