Leader: Time to end the tut-tutting over Trump

LOVE him or loath him, with Donald Trump it is impossible to be indifferent. He provokes strong feelings, and nowhere has that been more evident than the row over his plans to build a championship golf course in Aberdeenshire.

Such was the anger among the “loathe him” contingent in the local community, residents set up the Tripping Up Trump (Tut) campaign to oppose his transformation of the links and the building of a hotel.

But in its efforts to discredit the tycoon, Tripping Up Trump has tripped up, claiming erroneously the course clubhouse discriminated against women by having a locker room only for men. Not so, as a quick look at the plans shows.

Tut has a democratic right to campaign against the plans, but by misleading they not only undermine their case but allow Team Trump to go into hyperbolic overdrive and accuse them of being liars and anti the North-east.

The developers face another planning hurdle next month, but it looks like Mr Trump cannot be tripped up. Experts say he has delivered on his promise to build a world-class golf course so maybe it is time for Tut to stop tut-tutting from the sidelines.