COMPARISONS between Donald Trump’s presidential win and Britain’s vote to depart the European Union have typically been overdone. Although throughout the marketing campaign Mr Trump referred to as himself “Mr Brexit” and promised “Brexit plus, plus, plus” for America, many Britons voted for Depart who wouldn’t dream of supporting him. The debates and points concerned had been typically completely different. The racial dimension was a lot much less pronounced in Britain. But there are affinities, as a profitable British petition reveals.
Launched on January twenty ninth it urges the British authorities to cancel Mr Trump’s summer season state go to to Britain. Such journeys are thought of an honour. They aren’t afforded to all presidents and contain staying with the monarch. The petition says the “embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen” can be unacceptable. On the time of writing, it had attracted 1.4m signatories and climbing, far above the 100,000 wanted for Members of Parliament to contemplate debating the difficulty in Parliament. Nonetheless, the federal government says it is not going to change its plans.
Enthusiasm for the petition will not be uniform, the proportions having signed it starting from round 1% to 10% from place to put. Right here the overlap with Brexit turns into clear. The Economist has charted petition “turnout” by constituency with help for Stay within the EU referendum. The ensuing graphic reveals the stark correlation between the 2 units of figures: it appears locations that didn’t like Brexit don’t like Mr Trump. Proportions of petition signatories are highest in cosmopolitan and closely Stay-voting cities like Brighton, Bristol and Cambridge, all with unusually giant populations of university-educated, white-collar residents. And they’re lowest in older, post-industrial, pro-Brexit bastions the place abilities are comparatively low: Wolverhampton, Redcar and Doncaster, for instance.
This tells us a number of issues. First, geographical patterns of opposition to Mr Trump in America could be mirrored in different international locations too. Second, the demographics of his help and help for Brexit communicate to similarities between the 2 phenomena (their “pull up the drawbridge” character specifically). Third, Britain’s divide over Brexit was not a one-off: the political behaviour of cosmopolitan locations and nativist ones stays fairly distinct. And fourth: there are a lot of 1000’s of British folks, lots of them residing in or close to the capital, who could also be minded to line the streets, protest and customarily trigger disruption when Mr Trump involves London. He mustn’t count on a heat welcome.
