He’s a country boy at heart
Trump is going to steer around the whole protest problem by…avoiding London.
He will hold talks with Prime Minister Theresa May at her 16th-century manor house, meet Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle and attend a black-tie dinner at the home of former World War Two leader Winston Churchill – all outside London.
Well that’s fine, there’s nothing of interest in London after all.
A spokeswoman for May said the British people were looking forward to his visit.
“We are looking forward to making sure the president has a chance to see and experience the UK beyond London and the south east,” she told reporters.
Definitely, because why would anyone with any sense want to go to London? There is literally nothing there.
On his arrival on Thursday afternoon, the president will travel to Blenheim Palace, the 18th-century mansion where Churchill was born and spent most of his childhood, eight miles (12 km) north of Oxford, according to May’s office.
He’ll like Blenheim. It’s very him – very gaudy and showy and massive.
In the evening, May will host a black-tie dinner for Trump at the stately home that will be attended by about 100 business leaders from industries including finance, pharmaceuticals, defense and technology.
For the only time during his visit, Trump will then travel into London when he will stay overnight at the home of the U.S. ambassador in the center of the city.
On Friday, Trump and May will visit an undisclosed location to witness a display by British soldiers.
Trump will travel with May to Chequers, the prime minister’s official country residence. He will then go to meet the Queen at Windsor Castle, the family home of British kings and queens for almost 1,000 years.
Afterwards, the president will travel to Scotland, where he owns two golf courses.
Which will cost millions for security. Trump won’t be paying for it.
Yeah, I can’t imagine anything worth seeing in London. The Parliament building? A hovel. The Thames River? A trickle. Westminster Abbey? Get real.
I remember during the Bush administration when he avoided all the protesters. These Republican presidents have no desire to hear what the people think of them. They are craven cowards who can’t deal with criticism. And Trump is the worst of all. If he ever really came to grips with what people think of him, he would probably shrivel up and die, because once his massive ego was popped, there would be nothing left except an ill-fitting suit , a too-long tie, and a peculiar hair piece to remind the world he was once here.
Oh, I dunno.
There’s possibly a whiff or two of Churchllian cigar in Blenheim Palace to this day.. If Trump left a hairpiece behind there (sprayed with a suitable lavatory cleaner of course) it might fit well and contribute to the overall ambience.
Just a suggestion, mind.
Blenheim was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, a decent playwright but a terrible architect. Wikipedia surprisingly amusing on the subject:
The Duchess was known to favour Sir Christopher Wren…[t]he Duke however, following a chance meeting at a playhouse, is said to have commissioned Sir John Vanbrugh there and then. Vanbrugh, a popular dramatist, was an untrained architect, who usually worked in conjunction with the trained and practical Nicholas Hawksmoor.
Blenheim, however, was not to provide Vanbrugh with the architectural plaudits he imagined it would. The fight over funding led to accusations of extravagance and impracticality of design, many of these charges levelled by the Whig factions in power.
***
Following their final altercation, Vanbrugh was banned from the site. In 1719, whilst the Duchess was away, Vanbrugh viewed the palace in secret. However, when he and his wife, with the Earl of Carlisle, visited the completed Blenheim as members of the viewing public in 1725, they were refused admission even to enter the park. The palace had been completed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, Vanbrugh’s friend and architectural associate.
***
Vanbrugh’s severe massed Baroque used at Blenheim never truly caught the public imagination, and was quickly superseded by the revival of the Palladian style. Vanbrugh’s reputation was irreparably damaged, and he received no further truly great public commissions.
Sweets for the sweet, I guess?
Fortunately I’ll be in France while all this is going on here.
Churchill didn’t live at Blenheim in his cigar days. It’s the ducal seat and his daddy Randolph was a younger son. It’s very Yank-oriented to call it “the home of former World War Two leader Winston Churchill” because 1. it wasn’t and 2. it’s conspicuous for other reasons.
Sad to think it could have been a Wren building, isn’t it.
I’ll be in Seattle while all that is going on there!
Heehee
No but seriously, we apologize to everyone who won’t be elsewhere.
Vanbrugh really was an incompetent architect–all his buildings look like poorly-designed stage sets. They’d fit in perfectly with other ‘Trump properties’. (Walking through Blenheim and Castle Howard it’s easy to identify which parts were designed by Hawksmoor.)
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1982706851747766/?type=3&theater
It’s a bit ike Highclere Castle, the location for that most improving and agreeable television series, Downton Abbeah. The construction of Highclere was financed by proceeds from the slave trade.
But so many such fine houses have been bulldozed for rampant development. Tragic really. But not so tragic as the enclosures of the commons land grabbing and peasant clearances that set them up in the first place.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2101933/Englands-lost-Downtons-Or-endless-homes-ended-bypasses-office-blocks-golf-courses.html
This database kept me occupied for hours:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
There could have been no Industrial Revolution without the investment capital from public funds given to slaveowners to compensate for ending slavery.
I’ve always wondered how enclosure could have happened–how could the people have so quickly lost their ancient rights to the land? E. P. Thompson gives us some idea, but I think even he underplays how violent the revolution of the rich actually was.
It’s not really much like Highclere, which is 19th century fake-Gothic (see: Parliament buildings, London). Both are grandiose, yes, but the periods and styles are different.