Speak up

Mark Carney was right to call on countries and companies to stand up to the US president

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There was a rumour that during Donald Trump’s speech in Davos last week the mobile networks were going to be shut down. It was fitting, in that it was both factually untrue and metaphorically accurate. Mobiles worked, but Trump’s appearance switched off everyone’s networks. People couldn’t seem to think or talk about anything else.

During his speech, the conference hall hummed with resentment and disbelief. But no one spoke up or shouted out, even as things that would normally have made front-page news went unremarked. He mentioned bombing Iran, but said nothing about the thousands of protesters who have been murdered there. He repeated the outrageous claim that when the US needs its western allies, they are not there, forgetting 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan. When he described Somalis as a “low IQ people”, many rushed afterwards to “contextualise” the remark by suggesting he was referring to the Somali pirates. The transcript is clear. He was surprised by the intelligence of the Somalis.