Protests and praises as Bush arrives in UK tomorrow
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"The unprecedented security operation to protect George Bush during this
week's state visit starts today after the Home Office said Britain was at a
heightened state of terror alert, although there was no specific threat,"
reports The Independent.
"Up to 4,000 officers will be policing demonstrations by some 60,000
protesters who are demanding the right to march down Whitehall on Thursday,
when Mr Bush is to hold talks with Tony Blair in Downing Street."
With everyone on heightened alert, it's time for the cultural commentators
to throw some light on how we should be resounding to Bush's visit.
The Times' William Rees-Mogg notes that "John Kennedy was our ally in
resisting the Soviet tyranny, and we were his ally. The same is now true in
resisting the threat of terrorism.
Blair is right to make common cause with this brave and visionary
President, argues Bruce Anderson in The Independent.
"In 10 years, if George Bush has his way, the peoples of the Middle East
will have more votes, more human rights, more prosperity and more freedom.
If the Stop the War campaign had its way, Saddam's torture chambers would
still be in business."
The paper's interview guest this week would be inclined to disagree.
"It's up to the British people to do their job in letting the American
people know the British people don't support this war," Michael Moore
author of the best-selling critique of corporate America, Stupid White Men,
tells The Independent.
The Guardian news lead today has dug up a potentially tricky dilemma for
Blair, as if he doesn't have enough already.
"George Bush will be served notice today that the deep hostility towards
him in Britain has reached the Blair inner circle," the paper reports,
"when the former minister Stephen Byers launches a bid to destabilise the
president's re-election campaign next year."
"On the eve of Mr Bush's state visit to Britain, Mr Byers, an
arch-Blairite, will set out proposals to help Democrats in key swing states
if the White House refuses to abandon punitive trade sanctions against the
UK."
Gary Younge, on the paper's analysis pages, notes that "if you want an
example of a guest taking liberties this is it"
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