Stop Trump

President Trump’s second official state visit to the UK this week (17th and 18th September, 2025) was not only for him to receive the full British ceremonial treatment but was also meant for him and British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer to announce a number of investments into the UK economy.

After being wined and dined by King Charles (who for his sins had to put up with what must have been one of the most cringe making speeches he had ever heard) Trump and the cohort of tech leaders he had brought along with him did indeed announce billions of dollars worth of investment.

Whether these investments will truly benefit the UK or whether the country will simply be giving up its ability to control the development of technologies like AI and quantum computing remains to be seen. The fear is that the UK risks losing more jobs than it gains from these investments whilst at the same time trashing its climate targets, giving away our data and abandoning any attempts at regulating the US big tech players.

Trump did not get much of a public exposure (British state visits usually involve a drive down The Mall to Buckingham Palace but Trump was ‘confined’ to Windsor Castle and Chequers) so was not exposed to how the British really felt about his visit. This did not prevent the Stop Trump Coalition from organising a protest march which took place on the first day of his visit.

I attended both to march and take some photographs which you can see here. Sadly I suspect the march did not get the turnout that was desired with, according to reports, approximately 5,000 people in attendance.

The good thing was the march was peaceful and friendly with some fiery and passionate speeches as well as music from Billy Bragg and others at the Parliament Square rally. Hopefully these pictures capture some of the feelings and passion of the people at the march.