One of the less remarked on aspects of the new Trump era is that it’s getting me out of the house in the evenings. On Wednesday night there was a demonstration of about five hundred organised by the Ukrainian Solidarity Campaign protesting against Trump’s support for Russian imperialism. On Thursday night several of the same people were at a meeting of about a hundred called at short notice by the Stop Trump Coalition which has done a Lazarus with Starmer’s invitation for a state visit being the equivalent of Jesus’ triumph over death.

The composition and politics of the two events were rather different but positive. Ukrainians are learning the hard way that American imperialism is just as brutal and cynical as the Russian variety. This is an education for them and the liberal, anti-Brexit types who have supported them. The socialists in the crowd have never thought anything else.

Thursday’s meeting was much more explicitly socialist, though a chap in front of me was reading a very good book in the South Armagh IRA, perhaps in search of inspiration. Owen Jones opened with a good introduction which reminded the audience of American imperialism’s bloody history, which long predates Trumpism. This is a useful antidote to the handwringers who think Trump is some sort of aberration.

For my money, Zoe Gardener hit the nail on the head when she explained that anti-migrant and anti-Muslim propaganda is the heart of the far right project and the liberal centre has capitulated to it every step of the way. Seema Syeda, a co-author of Creeping Fascism, put Trumpism in an historical and international context.

The meeting was significant for a couple of reasons.

The organisers very explicitly set out to organise in a way which meant that outcomes were not pre-determined and a self-selecting clique ensured that its ideas were the only ones permitted. This was people saying what they thought rather than what they had been instructed to say, something which demonstrates a commitment to democracy and pluralism.

The second thing is that the new political situation has re-energised people who were active in the Corbyn movement, Another Europe is Possible and that independently minded, internationalist left. They broadly agree on Gaza, Ukraine, Trumpism, climate change, the crapness of Labour and are again collaborating with each other in the real world.

So, the plan is to either stop Trump’s visit or to get hundreds of thousands on the streets if he does visit Mr Windsor. Either outcome would be good. My preference is that Trump comes and the scale of the protests energises the resistance in the United States and provokes a crisis in British politics. On the other hand, he might invade Canada next Tuesday and it all becomes academic.