I finally got round to seeing the film “You’ve Been Trumped” last Sunday.  It really came to my attention just over a year ago when the BBC showed “Donald Trump’s Golf War”

I saw the film at the Edinburgh Filmhouse, but after persuading a friend to come with me, I was unable to go on the Friday when there was a Q&A session with the director Anthony Baxter and others, including Andy Wightman who appeared in the film offering legal land related advice.  Instead I went to the Sunday showing.  However, despite the lack of personal presence the film still got a round of applause when it finished.

The story, as you’ll probably know, follows the story of the residents near the Menie estate as Donald Trump started to build his golf course, club house and hotel complex. In the process, he destroyed a unique dune system, enraged local residents, got the Scottish Government to overrule the local council, used the police as his own security team, getting the film maker arrested, cut off the water supply to the local houses, built huge piles of earth to hide the “eyesores” from his golf course and trying to get the council to forcible evict the homeowners using Compulsory Purchase Orders.

Interposing clips from film Local Hero, Anthony Baxter has produced a film worthy of Michael Moore. Whilst I did think that there were some points that were not gone into as much detail as it could (the back story of Martin Ford and the initial decision of the council for example) it does a brilliant job of showing the intense stress caused on the people living at the site, not knowing what Trump and his bullies will do next (as well as not knowing if they’d be forcibly evicted).

The film also raises huge questions of the role of Alex Salmond and the Scottish Government, who overturned the initial council decision.  What Trump did was totally the opposite of what I believe in, and against what I believe a better nation should do. And he was enabled to do so by Salmond.  Independence is supposed to make Scotland a better nation, but the government’s actions does nothing to help me think that things will be any better.  Actions speak louder than words and the SNP can talk very well, but their actions show them up.

Worse still were the actions of the Grampian police.  Whilst, you can understand a government’s head being (wrongly) turned by false promises of jobs and money, nothing can excuse the behaviour of the police.  I hope there is Complaints investigation into their behaviour in the future.

In summary, an excellent, must see film that will make you angry, not just for the destruction of a beautiful environment, but the behaviour of the politicians and the police, the naked money grabbing greed and the bullying tactics of Donald Trump.

I hope the golfers never come (preferring St. Andrews) and the sands blow over Trumps course and cover it up.