LAST week, I took myself off to both the anti-Trump protest and the Gay Pride march. 

Not only did it seem like the same folk were at both, but the same party atmosphere was present too. Whether it be a Mexican wave, line dancing or zumba, there’s always a sense of celebration when a single cause unites us in a gathering. 

Throw in a wee bit of arts and crafts, a balloon, some poster paints and a few slogans and you’ve got a carnival.

Both gatherings were a veritable placard-fest and the sentiments declared upon them could well have been interchangeable: “Love Trumps Hate” was held aloft at the Gay Pride march and the placards at the anti-Trump gathering had a kind of decorative like feel. 

Examples included, “There’ll be Hell Toupee” and “We don’t want you combing over here”! As well as “Melania, blink your eyelashes if you need help” and even “Your Dad sells Avon”.

With one quarter of a million people in London and thousands more in Scotland protesting Trump’s visit, including a diverse bunch of women’s groups, all coming together – as well as party members from the Greens, Labour and the SNP – maybe we’ve got to thank Trump for helping concentrate our minds and reconciling differences. All thanks to the values of tolerance, respect and diversity.

While here, Trump’s bearing and behaviour towards all and sundry, as he disregarded protocol, were fit for the cautionary tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes. It seemed actually beyond parody.

I’ve heard him being described as being, “pronoid” – the opposite of paranoid: instead of thinking everybody is out to get him, he thinks everybody loves him.

Well, the Scots put him right on that score. There was a perfectly pithy description of him – “Ya Radge, Orange Bampot” – on a Scottish Spider-Man’s sign; a monk carried high his, “Zen Buddhists against Trump” placard; and I’ll leave you to work out what the banner “Fifers Against Neo Nazi Yanks” wanted you to spell out.

So, what did Trump’s visit to the UK achieve? Apart from the arrest of the Greenpeace guy on the glider, I hope there was something about seeing him be so rude, contemptuous and dishonest “up close 
and personal” that leaves no-one in any doubt he can’t be trusted.

Like a four-year-old with chocolate on his face insisting he hasn’t raided the biscuit barrel, he surfaces unashamed from disgrace as only the delusional might.  

I’m proud of the “show” us Scots put on for him and I’m sure many watching Americans will applaud how clearly we rebuffed him.

It seems to me Trump has helped reinforce the belief that, if we’re going to thrive in the years ahead, we need to adopt the approach “We’re all Jock Tamson’s Bairns” on the world stage.