By Philippa Anamoah
The huge £18m of tax payers money spent on President Trump’s visit needs to be explained to the British public. The Eye Of Media.Com’s Think tank team spent nearly two hours discussing whether this is a question that needs to be answered by the British government.
When the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) revealed yesterday that Donald Trump’s four-day visit to the UK in July had cost the police operation almost £18 million, people were shocked. Security costs for the presidential trip were over four times higher than the security costs for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s royal wedding in May. As thousands of officers were utilized to provide security to the four-day trip records revealed that it was the largest police mobilization since the 2011 riots.
Chairman of the National Police Chief’s Council, Sara Thornton declared the event as a “significant operation” and in her blog published wrote,
“Nearly every force supported the operation with nearly 10,000 officers deployed from all over the country, performing over 26,000 shifts. The full cost of the operation is still being worked out but an early estimate is nearly £18m”
Over the course of his stay, Trump had visited four force areas with protests occurring in many other locations. Even the security costs for the Royal Wedding, which is thought to have cost between 2–4 million, required police in Windsor to ask the Home Office for extra funds.
Mrs Thornton, 55, also revealed how the police were in extremely ‘high demand’ as Mr Trump’s visit had clashed with an increased number of police calls linked to the World Cup, medical emergencies due to the hot weather and other crimes related to summer events and festivals.
The senior officer revealed the incalculable gravity of the policing situation by adding:
“These demands affected local policing to differing degrees across the country with the host forces most impacted. The majority of forces had to cancel officers’ rest days and extend the length of their shifts.”
Yet Thornton claimed that notwithstanding the obstacles and severe challenges the officers and the staff ensured that civilians were kept protected throughout the tenuous period.
“Despite the challenges, the hard work of officers and staff made sure that the public were kept safe”.
Upon his first visit to the UK as President, Trump met with Prime minister Theresa May and enjoyed tea with the Queen at Windsor Castle before travelling to Scotland where he played at his family’s resort in Turnberry. This busy schedule meant that Trump would avoid the thousands of protesters in Central London who were opposing his visit– not to mention the infamous bright orange nappy-clad “Trump Baby” blimp, which flew ever so gracefully over Parliament Square on September 1st 2018.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn gave protesters the green light for the Trump Baby to take flight after thousands of people signed a petition and a crowd funding campaign, which raised over £16,000 to get the orange phenomenon to lift. The wide security needed given plenty of demonstrations over the U.S president’s visit was very expensive, but why should tax payers money have been spent to the tune of £18m? Trump is a billionaire and could no doubt have footed the bill himself- it would have been a drop in the ocean for him.
The British public have every right to feel their tax payments are being abused by a government who are not bothered how their taxes are spent. A point made during discussions about this very subject by one of the member of this publication’s Think tank group was that this is one of the reasons a lot of the big guns move their money abroad to evade tax. Illegal dodging of tax cannot be justified because of wrong use of our taxes, but the government need to explain why so much tax money is spent on things tax payers don’t approve
There is little doubt that Trump’s entourage would have suspected, protesters and oppositions towards his visit. Although the “Trump Baby” will go down in history as the most original form of protest art and the epitome of good British humour, its permission to fly at the Turnberry golf course was refused by Scotland Police. But surely the commotion from both protesters and police is exactly the kind of attention Trump wants. Financially strained police, the Mayor and mocking protesters all add to the hype surrounding Donald Trump, who most claim can only be mocked because you cannot engage him in any kind of sensible argument.
Although £18m is an unimaginably staggering amount, it is important to remember that the Royal Wedding was not met with thousands of protesters and that Trumps visit was significantly longer than the duration of a half-day wedding spectacle. They were two different events with two different security protocols. Despite these facts it is important to consider the repercussions Trump’s visit had on the thousands of officers who were forced into doing more work for less pay.