FLAMING June begins, and for once the Scottish weather is playing along. What a different people we become when that yellow thing in the sky decides to put its hat on. Relaxed, optimistic, sitting outside pubs drinking and smoking as if to the Mediterranean born, who indeed is like us given a nudge upwards in the thermometer? Why, if it was like this all the time, Scotland would be like Norway with its tap aff.

Hang on to your skip cap, but it is about to become even hotter. By the end of the month, political forecasters are predicting a surge in the temperature dramatic enough to set the heather alight. Indeed, the glow could stretch all the way from Ayrshire to Downing Street. Yes, that other big ball of yellowness that goes by the name of Donald Trump is set to visit Scotland for the official opening of his redeveloped course and hotel at Turnberry.

After The Herald’s Kate Devlin revealed the trip last week, the paper commissioned a poll by BMG to find out what sort of welcome the good folks of the UK would like their Prime Minister to extend. Not much of one was the headline answer. More than four in ten do not think David Cameron should do a Mitt Romney and pose at Downing Street with the presumptive Republican nominee. One in five thought Mr Trump should be “intentionally snubbed”, while 31% wanted the two men to meet, but only so Mr Cameron can tell him off face to face.

There are different ways to look at this. We are either an ‘orrible lot who ought to be drummed out of the diplomatic club for shocking naivete and appalling manners, or we are simply a democratic nation that reserves the right to protest against a man who has made it his business to start fights in every empty house he can find. Mexicans, women, Muslims, the Chinese, Alex Salmond – it would be easier to list the people Mr Trump has not offended than to run down the ranks of those on the sharp end of his speeches. Some would like to go further and ban The Donald from these shores on the grounds that his visit would not be conducive to the public good. More than half a million signed a petition to that effect.

All things considered, Scotland should probably have a wee word with itself about how we want to play this one. With the “welcome” given to Labour leader Ed Miliband during the independence referendum, and the barricading of UKIP’s Nigel Farage in an Edinburgh pub before that, we particularly need to pay attention to the “optics” here. Mr Trump is now a global figure, with a media entourage to match. The eyes of many are going to be on Scotland. How do we want to be seen?

How different it was not so long ago, when Mr Trump was a pal of Alex Salmond and the Scottish Government, when he could do no wrong as far as investing in golf courses went. How so many loved the big talk and the massive dollar signs that accompanied this son of Scotland (his ma is from Lewis) wherever he went. But then folk in Aberdeenshire objected in ever increasing numbers to the way Mr Trump did business, and when he did not get his way over an offshore windfarm plan the dummy was well and truly spat (translation for the Foreign Office: Mr Trump and the Scottish Government came to a mutually agreed parting of the ways following a Supreme Court judgment). If you need a ready reckoner on any of this, I can recommend Anthony Baxter’s outstanding documentaries You've Been Trumped (2012) and A Dangerous Game (2014).

But Turnberry, it has been said, is a different bucket of golf balls. On this paper’s letters page yesterday, reader Iain Brown of Ayrshire said prospective protestors at Turnberry should think again because Mr Trump’s redevelopment of the hotel and golf courses was “nothing short of spectacular”. He has spent more than £250 million making what Mr Brown reckons could end up being the number one course in the world. “Be in no doubt,” wrote Mr Brown, “that the people of Turnberry, Maidens, Kirkoswald and surrounding area are delighted to have been part of this project and would like the protesters to stay away.”

Mr Brown’s argument, that what is taking place in politics has no business in sport here, is not one that will find favour with everyone. Given the choice and chance to protest at his views, some might even see it as their duty to turn out and make some noise. They would hardly be alone in criticising Mr Trump. David Cameron described the Trump proposal for a temporary ban on Muslim visitors to the US as “divisive, stupid and wrong”. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the former star of The Apprentice “you’re fired” as a business ambassador for Scotland. She even broke with convention and said she hoped he does not become the US president. From Cameron and Sturgeon to George Osborne and Sadiq Khan and many a UK politician in between, we are clearly in uncharted diplomatic territory when it comes to a prospective President Trump. If he wins, there is going to be a new world record set in the eating of humble pie. My, there will scarcely be enough spoons and plates to go around. But will he win?

If nothing else, those who discount his chances have solid demographics in their favour. His core vote, angry, poor, white men, is shrinking by the hour. But he has defied every law of political gravity thus far and he is still standing. Readers may recall that other contenders once deemed unthinkable as presidents – Reagan and Dubya to name but two – made it all the way. The office has a tendency to maketh the man, though not always, as in the latter’s case. Then there is Mr Trump’s likely opponent. To some Americans, Hillary Clinton is just as divisive a figure.

Scotland, like every other nation, will just have to wait and see. As the FM herself acknowledged, it is up to the people of America who they elect as president (who knows, maybe this crazy notion of non-intervention will catch on when it comes to presidents, queens and referendums …) In the meantime, regardless of what one thinks about Mr Trump and his views, he should not be banned. He should, indeed, be given the toastiest of welcomes to come over here and hear the other side of the arguments he has started so cavalierly. That is the inconvenient truth about freedom of speech – it is not always easy to extend it to certain individuals sometimes, but how much poorer we would all be if it was withdrawn. If nothing else, as David Cameron said, “If he came to visit our country he’d unite us all against him”. Imagine that, a Scotland united in defence of freedom of speech and the right to be a balloon.

Heavens, if the sun can shine in June, maybe even that is possible.