You've Been Trumped Page #2

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- local councillor Martin Ford.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Thank you very much. For

those of you who don't know,

in Aberdeenshire, we have a council

who gives Donald Trump

everything he asks for,

and can't make up their minds

whether to throw people out

of their own homes to help him.

Firstly, I think it's important

for people not from the

northeast of Scotland

to have some sense of the build-up.

In 2006, I think that was

the first official state visit

by Mr Trump to Scotland.

'His plan is for the Menie

Estate at Balmedie, near Aberdeen.

'On it, he will create two golf courses,

'a 450-bedroom hotel

'and housing, as well as holiday

apartments and golf villas.

'An investment of 1 billion.'

'Multimillion-pound golf resort

in Aberdeenshire is rejected.

'The chairman of a committee

of Aberdeenshire councillors

'used his casting vote after a

three-hour meeting was deadlocked.'

All the parties had committed

themselves to sustainable development.

And you could apply the tests

of sustainable development

to the Trump proposal.

And it failed them. It

failed them in spades.

'The Trump Organization has confirmed

'it will now pull out of Scotland

'after bitter rejection at Balmedie.'

We are very disappointed.

Ultimately, we can go and develop

the project somewhere else.

We'll be fine.

I think it's the people

of Aberdeen and the shire

that were really let down

by their council today.

It was predicated on

long-distance tourism.

It was predicated on people

flying across the Atlantic

to play a few games of golf and

flying back across the Atlantic.

It was predicated on utilising

an irreplaceable and

diminishing resource

of, effectively, natural habitat.

'Mr Trump also reiterated

his concern about a proposal

'to build an offshore wind

farm close to his site.'

When I look out on to the ocean

from the 18th hole of Trump

International Golf Links,

to be honest with you,

I want to see the ocean.

I don't want to see windmills.

Good evening. There's

renewed hope tonight

that American tycoon

Donald Trump's plans

for a 1 billion golf

development in Aberdeenshire

will go ahead.

In a dramatic twist, the

Scottish Government have called in

the controversial planning application,

taking it out of

Aberdeenshire Council's hands.

'Never before has an application

been called in in this manner...'

By calling in an application

that had already been refused,

it's inescapable that the

government has, in some way,

expressed the view that it does

not want the application refused.

'Today, almost two years on

'from when he first

announced his proposals,

'the Scottish Governments have

given the tycoon the green light.'

Well, I think the message would be

I'm going to build for the people

of Scotland the greatest golf course

anywhere in the world,

there'll be nothing like it.

And it's going to be done

environmentally perfect.

'The Menie Estate is in the constituency

'of First Minister, Alex Salmond.'

The balance of opinion among

people in the northeast of Scotland

and among my constituents

is very strongly in favour.

And that's because we can see

the social and economic benefits.

I mean, 6,000 jobs across Scotland.

1,400 local and permanent jobs

here in the northeast of Scotland.

That's a very powerful argument.

I think that outweighs

the environmental concerns.

There's not many people

looking to invest 1 billion

in this local economy.

It's right in keeping with

our development strategy

that inward-bound tourism is

key for the city and shire.

That's what we're here to support.

And in partnership with Mr Trump,

I believe we can do that together.

I thought it was the biggest

thing that had happened

in the northeast since

oil was discovered.

- No, no, CPO!

- ALL:
You will be the next to go!

Early in 2009, Mr Trump's legal

people approached the council

with suggestions as to how they

might justify to councillors

the use of compulsory purchase.

'The Trump Organization have asked

the council to consider using CPOs,

'and councillors decided

it was inappropriate

'to reject the use of

compulsory purchase orders

'without a full report.'

It leaves a big cloud over

our heads, that's all it does.

Disappointment mixed with

fury, to be quite honest.

This is an action of people with

no conscience and no willpower.

This is typical of the

sort of thing that we get.

Oh, it's very typical.

It's very typical for

councillors like yourself

to defer decisions that are

critical to people's livelihoods.

And you failed. You failed.

'I am thrilled with the outcome.

'They continue to diminish the

importance and nonsensical motions

'put forth by Mr Ford,

'and, hopefully, these

will be the last few minutes

'of his political career.

'Because I think he's blown

'virtually everything

he's ever touched.'

Since that time, the residents at Menie,

in their own homes,

have been living with the

threat of the possibility

that they would be forced to

leave them against their will.

- Just bang the window.

- Jesus, how do you do business with someone who doesn't have a door?

I look at his place, and it's a pigsty.

Do I regret that? No, I

don't regret, it's a pigsty.

It turns out, actually,

we've got a collection

of remarkable principled people,

who have recognised what's

right and what's wrong.

And have said they are

not standing for wrong.

Ben,

what we wanted to ask you...

Have you ever thought about moving?

Um... No.

You see, the thing is, I'm

still working the place myself.

It's my living.

All my relations have been

salmon fishing all their lives.

My great-grandfather, my

grandfather, my father, all my uncles,

they're all salmon fishers.

It's just in the blood, you

know, you just have to do it.

I was 14 and half, I went

down to fish with my uncle

when I left school.

I worked with him for a few years

and I went trawling.

Everybody knew everybody, you know.

All the salmon fishers knew

everybody. It was great.

It was cotton nets back then.

They rotted quick, so they

had to make a lot of nets.

These new ones, they're

made of plastic, polythene,

they last a lot longer and

they are lighter, you know.

So you needed a full crew to

work the old nets, you know.

This boat this size

here, you'd have needed

probably six, six men to

pull one of these nets up.

Now you can do it with two, you know.

Still am, I still am fishing.

I haven't done it for

the last couple of years,

because I've been bothered by my back.

But I'll get going again next year.

I have to tow my boat down to the beach.

It's not like here you

come out of a harbour.

I have to launch it off the beach.

Well, I have nets on the

beach, stake nets, you know,

and I'll be towing anchors through his golf

course as well, because that's how we do it.

We just tow the anchors, we don't

lift them onto trailers and things.

I'm looking forward to it.

HE CHUCKLES:

A lot of local people don't see

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