Bush to face protests in Britain

By Todd Richissin
The Baltimore Sun

	MAX NASH / AP A squad of British Guardsmen march down The Mall, bedecked with British and U.S. flags, toward Buckingham Palace yesterday. The flags are for President Bush's state visit next week.
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The volunteers are making signs. They are printing T-shirts and hanging banners. They are building a 10-foot-high likeness of the president that they plan to topple, à la Saddam Hussein's statues in Iraq.

Mostly, though, they are organizing to bring large crowds to London's streets to protest Bush's visit. The president is scheduled to arrive Tuesday, with his public schedule beginning the next day. Bush is scheduled to leave Nov. 21.

U.S. presidents attract protesters almost everywhere they go. But in the capital of the staunchest U.S. ally, in the only country to significantly back the U.S. war in Iraq, thousands of police and security agents are preparing for one of the largest protests to greet Bush since the start of his presidency.

"We've canceled all leave for all personnel," said Allison Clark, a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard, where officials expect 60,000 to 80,000 demonstrators to go to Trafalgar Square, a traditional site of British protests.

John Stevens, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC): "We are at the highest alert we have ever been. ... We are working more than 2-1/2 times harder than we did at the very height of the Irish terrorism campaign."

Police have been working with the U.S. Secret Service and protest organizers to agree on a route for demonstrators, but Stevens said negotiations have not been easy. The protesters want to march past Parliament. The Secret Service wants "exclusion zones," which would shut down much of central London.

Organizers said they expect more than 100,000 demonstrators, including anti-war activists, environmentalists and anarchists, many from the European continent.

The same organizing group, the Stop the War Coalition, drew more than 1 million people in an anti-war demonstration in February, the largest protest in Britain's history. Organizers have been scurrying around the group's street-front office, making phone calls, preparing signs and posting information about the demonstrations on the Internet.

"People are energized and with good reason," said Lindsey German, who runs the coalition and is planning the biggest of the anti-Bush protests for next Thursday. "This is nothing against Americans. At the same time, we hope Americans will see that their president is so unpopular here, even among his closest allies, that it'll drive home how he's seen around the world."

Dana Allin, senior fellow for trans-Atlantic relations at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said: "I think the protests are a reflection of the goodwill the United States has lost around the world."

There is also an edge to the bad feelings that has sharpened since the war. Once content to ridicule Bush as an oaf — a computer-altered photograph of him carrying a copy of "The Presidency for Dummies" was a common sight at February's protest — these demonstrations are likely to take an angrier tone.

"Bush is going to know he's not welcome here," German said. "Everywhere he goes, we want him to run into protesters, to feel uncomfortable."

That may be working already. The British media reported that a planned ride with Queen Elizabeth II in her carriage has been scrapped because of security concerns and the potential for embarrassing protests, though Buckingham Palace has declined to comment.

Bush is to take part in two banquets with the queen, meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair and speak to an undisclosed group.

One person who will not be on hand is the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who plans to snub Bush by holding a "reception for peace" during the visit.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said people were entitled to demonstrate but questioned why those who planned to march against Bush had not protested Saddam's regime.

"What bothers me is the fashionable anti-Americanism that's around," he told BBC radio. "Many more people, I guess, will be demonstrating about the United States and the action which the United States has had to take since Sept. 11 than ever demonstrated against the brutal, vicious, horrible regime of Saddam Hussein."

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company