The future is a scary place if Trump becomes president

He can’t decide whether fighting ISIL is a good idea, a bad idea, or something in the middle, but he’s gonna make damned sure that, whatever happens, the Department of Defense has a wad of dough, NATO has less funding and he’s personally armed to the teeth with a permit to carry concealed on the mean streets of New York City.

It’s a terrifying thought.

This is a man who got out of national service because of heel spurs, whatever they are.

But he can’t remember which foot they were on – or was it both?

He’s a man who thinks his tax affairs are being investigated by the IRS because he’s a ‘good Christian’ and he’s also a man who can’t decide which party he belongs to – first he was a Republican, then he was in the Reform Party.

After that he was a Democrat and finally it was a swing back to the Republicans for Donald.

That’s right, we’re talking Trump.

We’re talking about the man who, last Thursday, reached the required number of votes to secure the Presidential nomination for the Republican Party.

He’s a man without a plan. A vacillating braggadocio of a man who can’t seem to remember what his views are on any one thing from one hour to the next.

This is the man we will have to deal with should the American people vote for him.

It makes me shudder.

What also makes me shudder is that defence spending policy.

By reducing the spend on NATO but increasing the DoD’s budget, Trump is sending a message that his country is moving from peacekeeping to a war footing (assuming he can remember who he said he wants to fight. Was it gay people? The Mexicans? That nice London mayor?).

This is the man who could shape our economic destiny and defence agenda, and in the meantime we have to decide whether to stand with Europe or go it alone.

The future is a scary place, especially when the world could be run by a man like Trump.

I’M UPPING THE MILEAGE AHEAD OF OUR EPIC CYCLING ADVENTURE

My training for a 93-mile charity bike ride I’m doing in July continues apace.

Most Sundays you can find me on the highways and byways of Hampshire and West Sussex, desperately upping the mileage with a teammate ahead of our epic adventure.

It’s to raise money for Headway West Sussex, which looks after people with life-changing brain injuries, plus supports their family or carers, and our route takes us via the Headway centres in Littlehampton, Worthing and Horsham.

I only got into cycling last year, but I have fallen head over heels in love with it.

Please help me and my team reach our fundraising goal by donating at justgiving.com/fundraising/GeorgeIdeRide

AN ARMED ROBBER? THIS IS CLANFIELD, NOT THE WILD WEST

To say I was shocked to see the front page of The News last week about an armed robbery in Clanfield was an understatement.

It’s Clanfield, not the Wild West! How does someone even think of holding up a village Co-Op with a gun, air or otherwise?

Compounding the shock factor was that I worked in that very shop as a 17-year-old, badly slicing cheese and burning loaves of bread for the good people of Clanfield on a Sunday.

The most action I saw was someone running off with a load of washing powder and a 1kg block of cheese, which gave me the benefit of being able to sit down for a bit while I gave the police a statement.

Nowadays the CCTV is better, the perpetrator is probably known locally and I just hope they’re caught.