Is Speaker Bercow right to deny a platform to Donald Trump?

Tweet

President Donald Trump is due to visit the United Kingdom on 3-5 June, this being an official State Visit that is timed to coincide with events to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. It has become customary on such occasions for US Presidents to address both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall, which is the oldest part of the Palace of Westminster, dating back to the 11th century. However, the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, is doing everything he can to stop such an address taking place. In his view, a man with such racist and sexist attitudes as Donald Trump does not deserve the privilege accorded to much more acceptable people in the past who have held his office. But this raises a huge issue, which is that of recognizing the position of the President as opposed to the character of the person who holds it. There are very few people - at least in the UK - who do not agree with Speaker Bercow that Trump is a particularly nasty piece of work who is utterly reprehensible as a human being and lends no credit at all to the office he holds. However, he is still the President, and is coming to the UK not as Donald Trump the man but as the representative of his nation. In that respect, he should be allowed to do what any other person holding the US Presidency would do under these circumstances. Another point to bear in mind is that the Speaker of the House of Commons is politically neutral. His job is to ensure fairness and due process in the work of the House and not to express views of his own. It would appear that Speaker Bercow has forgotten this.