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The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, will boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Donald Trump to protest against the US president’s failure to intervene decisively to end the war in Gaza.

Davey, who is invited to the dinner for Trump’s state visit to the UK, said to turn down an invitation from the king went against all his instincts and that it was a deeply serious move to refuse to attend.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/27/lib-dem-leader-ed-davey-boycott-king-banquet-trump-protest-gaza

I’m sure the king and Trump will be devastated at this.

A ‘deeply serious’ move from a deeply unserious politician.

Good evening

Davey may think it is good politics, but frankly demonstrates why he is not statesperson material

From Starmer to Macron, UVDL to Merz, from Zelensky to Carney and many other leaders, not engaging with Trump is not an option no matter how distasteful that may be

He is the POTUS and as such is involved in multiple important and epoch defining decisions, and world's leaders are essential in attempting to influence these decisions wherever possible, not turning their backs

The real test for Davey is, would he boycott this event if he was Prime Minister ?

He's not, though is he ?
I think you're quite wrong on this, BigG.

Turning up to a banquet will give him approximately zero opportunity to "engage" with Trump.
That would, of course, be entirely different if he were PM, as you know.

He is a senior opposition leader but then he chooses to boycott an invite from the King ?

In practice, it is an invite from Starmer who invited Trump to a State visit, embarrassing the King and upsetting a majority of the population.

The invitation stands in the King's name no matter how distasteful

So how much of a hit in the polls do you think the Lib Dems will experience after this snub to the King?

All the best people turn down an invitation from the King.

I'm intrigued, Mr Eagles. Was your invitation so he could pick up fashion tips, or was it specifically to meet a Cambridge educated lawyer who is both modest and subtle?

I have a friend who is a staunch monarchist invited me to a dinner with the King and hundreds of other people, as he reckoned an evening with the King would turn me into a monarchist.

I couldn't go to an event hosted by an alumnus of Trinity College, Cambridge, those fuckers arrogantly think they are the best of the best, real intellectuals.

(Soz Robert)

I was not at Trinity Hall.

Nor, I suspect, was the King.

No the King went to Trinity and briefly Aberystwyth

Therefore following in the footsteps of the two oldest children of OGH.

Although I guess he went to both places before my sister and me.

That sounds like a throw-away-yet-disturbing line from a David Lynch film.

Zia Yusuf

@ZiaYusufUK


Quick reminder to all contractors:

a Reform government will immediately ABOLISH the moronic IR35 rules.

We will clear all the obstacles to allow you to increase your earnings and grow our British economy! 🇬🇧

Good, it was imposed by the last Labour government and persisted, to their discredit, through 14 years of nominally 'conservative' rule.

I hope Reform have factored in the revenue losses from income tax as a result.

There’s a reason IR35 was introduced. People who were actually employees pretending to be self employed. They’re still at it.

Also employers insisting contractors, who were to all intent employees, doing it, to avoid taking them on as employees.

Not sure why @Concanvasser thinks this is a good thing. It is tax evasion and a means whereby employers can evade their employment responsibilities.

IR35 was designed to quash the entrepreneurial spirit (killing the incentive) of individual contractors who were willing to take on the risk of not being an employee for the return of higher wages. It suited all parties, but most of all the economy. Moves like this are exactly what is needed if the economy is ever to start growing again.

Lol, sure. I recall all those 'entrepreneurs' working every day 9 to 5 for the same bank for years. The riskiest thing they ever did was move desks occasionally.

Yes. As someone who ran a genuine one man company, those abusing the system really irritated me. It also threw suspicion on those that were genuine, that maybe they weren't. IR35 was NOT designed to kill off the entrepreneurial spirit, because not only would that be a bizarre thing to do, but a genuine entrepreneur wouldn't be affected anyway. The only ones impacted were those who were really employees pretending to be self employed.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

As a United fan can I endorse your post?

An 18-minute penalty shootout to bin us out against League Two Grimsby Town.

I know the club is broken at a fundamental level. But whatever problems we have - and they are endless - the answer is not Ruben Amorim.

It literally doesn't matter who the manager is at Man Utd for at least the next five years. No manager can fix the club. It can't be fixed until the Glazers are gone.

My movers were a pair of Liverpool fans, and the most cutting things they said to me were, "sorry for your troubles," and, "can understand turning to cricket when your football is so bad."

Awkward echoes of the national (perhaps global?) political scene. We can boo the manager, we can condemn their lack of inspirational leadership, we can sack them. But as long as the owners insist on extracting more than they put in, there are limits on what any manager can do.