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Haven't been this excited about a giant balloon flying over London since Pink Floyd's pig.
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Donald Trump to be met by protests at each stage of UK visit
‘Angry Trump baby balloon’ mascot for London action, with protests happening across UK
Original by Dan Sabbagh on The Guardian.com
Campaign groups and trade unions have organised a schedule of protests to follow Donald Trump on his visit to the UK next week, including a six metre angry baby balloon that will fly over Westminster from Parliament Square.
Demonstrations begin next Thursday evening at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, and in Regent’s Park, London, near to where the protesters believe the president will have dinner, and then at the US ambassador’s residence, where they believe he will stay the night.
The “Trump baby” balloon is due to fly on the Friday morning, after campaigners raised £16,000 to pay for it and the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, gave permission for it to fly. “The mayor supports the right to peaceful protest and understands that this can take many different forms,” a spokesman for Khan said.
Leo Murray, an environmental campaigner behind the balloon stunt, said the protest was intended to play on Trump’s psychology. “He’s a deeply insecure man, and that is the only leverage we have over him. If we want his attention, we have to do something that humiliates him.
Further protests will take place on Friday morning near Chequers, the country house where it is thought Trump will meet Theresa May for breakfast, with the main demonstration in London starting outside the BBC’s headquarters at 2pm and ending in Trafalgar Square at 5pm, where organisers hope “very large numbers” – in the tens of thousands – will attend.
Details of the protests, listed on Facebook, are being organised by a coalition called Together Against Trump. Its membership includes the TUC and other trade unions, Stop the War, Friends of the Earth, CND and the Jeremy Corbyn-supporting grassroots group, Momentum.
The Labour leader, however, is not expected to attend the protests personally, although the party is opposed to Trump’s official visit to the UK and it expects many members to attend the protests. “People will make their feelings known,” a party spokesman said.
The president is also due to meet the Queen, most likely on Friday at Windsor Castle, a location several miles outside London and slightly more secluded than Buckingham Palace.
Trump is then expected to head to Scotland, the birthplace of his mother and where he owns two golf courses. There will be demonstrations on Friday evening in Glasgow and again on Saturday in Edinburgh at noon, where organisers promise a “carnival of resistance” against Trump with stalls, talks, music and games such as “Toss the welly at Trump”, “Trump’s head coconut shy” and “Mini golf”.
Meanwhile it emerged that around 150 business leaders have been invited to a black-tie dinner with president Trump at an unnamed location during next week’s visit.
Due to security concerns, guests to the exclusive dinner – which reportedly includes the British chemical billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the BlackRock, chief Larry Fink – have only been told the venue is between one and two hours from London.
Speaking to the Financial Times, one lobbyist whose client will attend the dinner, said: “It’s a bit like those 1980s warehouse raves where no one knows until just before.”
Trump is flying into the UK following the Nato summit in Brussels next week, before heading off to a summit with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Helsinki, Finland, on 16 July, a day after the World Cup final in Moscow.
A spokesperson for Together Against Trump said: “We regard it as a victory that Donald Trump does not appear to have any official engagements in London or anywhere with a large population. Instead he will stay hidden away in country estates and castles.”
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