The Stop Trump protesters have got their priorities all wrong

There’s almost as much talk about ‘virtue-signalling’ these days as there is about ‘fake news’. But one thing that doesn’t get said often enough is why virtue-signalling isn’t just irritating, but destructive. Like Brendan, Will and others here, I also take a slightly dim view of the anti-Trump protests that took place in Britain last night. I walked around the one in Westminster to come to a view, and found myself feeling unsympathetic to people carrying placards that said, for instance, ‘Fuck Fascism’. It’s a sentiment with which most of us can wholeheartedly agree, but I cannot see its applicability to the question of whether or not the US President should enjoy a state visit to the UK. Meanwhile, if I wanted to participate in a protest against fascism I can imagine few less suitable people to lead that protest from the stage than Naz Shah. Ms Shah has a more serious and evidence-based taste for anti-Semitic rhetoric than even Donald Trump’s wildest critics have ever been able to claim of him.

However, the problem with all this – the whipping up of fears of ‘fascism’ and, according to some banners at last night’s protest a ‘nuclear arms race’ (really, based on what?) – is that it distracts from bigger, real issues. Obviously the people organising protests like those last night are either campaigning sectarians or the Socialist Workers Party far-left, who are content (as was going on last night) with besmirching the ‘Trump revolution’ while praising and attempting to excuse the Russian revolution. Nobody can change the minds of such people. But they obviously have some success in persuading otherwise decent people that this is the sort of thing they too should spend their time denouncing and protesting against.