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It was a good idea at the time
(Filed: 16/11/2003)

What ought to have been a celebratory visit to Britain by President Bush 
has become fraught with tension and paranoia. Julian Coman in 
Washington, Colin Brown and Tim Walker report on the anti-Bush circus ahead

Last week, as suicide bombers continued to terrorise Iraq, and anti-war 
protesters plotted to terrorise George W Bush during his state visit to 
the United Kingdom, the President and his officials were preparing for 
what they regard as a seriously tough assignment: selling him to the 
British.
 
Police patrol the Mall as preparations continue for the President's 
state visit

As Governor of Texas and during his presidential campaign, Mr Bush 
carefully developed the image of an easy-going, approachable, 
compassionate politician. But this image has not proved easy to export 
across the Atlantic.

"Given the difficult situation surrounding this visit to Britain," said 
one former official with good contacts in the White House, "they decided 
that the President needed to project a softer, more caring image. So, 
for instance, he gave some journalists a full, personal guided tour of 
the Oval Office, in a way that humanised him for the English."

British visitors were shown a painting based on the President's 
favourite methodist hymn, A Charge to Keep. They were pointed to the rug 
designed by his wife, Laura - created to inspire a "sense of optimism".

"For the British trip, too, there are plans afoot to find a way to allow 
him to show a softer side," said the former official. "So that he 
doesn't come across like some cowboy crazy man. For instance, there's 
going to be a high-profile discussion of HIV/Aids - to show him in a 
gentler light."

The White House is trying hard. But even the new "softer" Bush will have 
his work cut out to make a success of this week's formal state visit - 
the first to be made by a US President.

Overshadowed by the bloody aftermath to the Iraq war and the coalition's 
failure to find Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, the dream visit 
has turned into a transatlantic nightmare. A trip intended to celebrate 
the "special relationship" between Tony Blair and Mr Bush has become a 
frantic exercise in crisis management.

One very high-placed Labour figure said last week: "We are very 
apprehensive about it. This might re-ignite backbench hostility." Among 
senior American diplomats there is equal unease: "A while back," said 
one, "folks were comparing this to when Ronald Reagan visited the Queen 
and rode a horse alongside her. Now with the mess in Iraq, the 
comparison is with the Vietnam protests in the 1960s. It's kind of a 
change of tone."

Back in July 2002, a royal invitation to the Bush White House seemed to 
be a very good idea indeed, particularly to Mr Blair. The honour of a 
full state visit, including a three-day stay at Buckingham Palace, had 
not been accorded even to Reagan, the great ally of Margaret Thatcher.

Now, as Mr Blair cemented his post September 11 relationship with 
President Bush, the rare offer would serve as a reminder of British 
solidarity with the United States, and a sign of the Prime Minister's 
personal esteem.

What ought have been a straightforward celebratory visit has become 
fraught with tension, as controversy has raged over the failure - thus 
far - to unearth Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and the horrific 
guerrilla warfare which has afflicted certain parts of liberated Iraq 
(most recently last week's suicide bomb attack in Nasiriyah, which 
killed 27, including 18 Italians. "Let's just say it's not a good time 
to be doing this," said the American diplomat.

In the wake of the war, one poll last week found that 60 per cent of 
respondents believed that Mr Blair's cosiness with Mr Bush is a bad 
thing for Britain. The days when Mr Bush could make a joke about the two 
leaders using the same toothpaste, as he did in April 2002, are long gone.

In Downing Street, the talk is of defiantly "toughing out" the week. A 
senior minister said the Cabinet was told by Mr Blair on Thursday to 
"focus on the issues, rather than the security problems - we will just 
have to brazen it out". Tentative suggestions that the visit might be 
postponed have been angrily waved away by the Prime Minister.

Bush aides are just as full of trepidation and foreboding. "It was a 
good idea at the time and now we're stuck with it," said one Bush 
administration official.

Black humour has already set in. "Maybe they'll just keep the lights off 
and pretend they're not home," joked another White House aide. And when 
one American official was asked where the Bush entourage would be 
landing, it is said he replied: "Heathrow... if it's big enough."

The Bushes should be staying on the ground floor of the Palace, in the 
Belgian suite, close to the indoor pool. The last time Mr Bush dined 
with the Queen - in 1992 at his father's White House, wearing cowboy 
boots emblazoned with God Save the Queen - he asked if she had any black 
sheep in her family.

"Don't answer that!" his mother, Barbara, interjected, trying to avoid 
embarrassment. This time he's the President, the man in charge. The 
dynamics could be significantly different.

Security, however, is the obsession. As the anti-war protesters prepare 
to fill Trafalgar Square with unflattering images of the "cowboy" 
President and the Downing Street "poodle", mild panic has set in behind 
the scenes.

At Buckingham Palace there is bewilderment and some resentment at the 
sheer scale of American security requests for the duration of Mr Bush's 
stay. The Palace knows how to do state visits. But there has never been 
one quite like this before.

"They wanted blast- and bullet-proofed windows," one senior courtier 
told the Telegraph. "They wanted strengthened curtains and strengthening 
to the walls of the President's suite and the other rooms that he would 
be spending time in during his two-day stay."

The proposal, which would have meant substantial building alterations, 
was firmly turned down by the Queen. But anxiety levels among the Bush 
security team continue to grow.

Buckingham Palace security pass-holders are being ordered to go through 
bomb checks for the first time. Some Palace staff who have had security 
clearance for 30 years are undergoing positive vetting again.

"The Queen will not have to wear a security badge. I think we know what 
she looks like," said one Palace official. "But it is getting to that 
level. It is quite ridiculous."

"The President's men seem obsessed with the idea of an airborne attack 
on the Palace," said another courtier. "Her Majesty takes the view that 
no amount of strengthening of windows and walls could protect the 
President in such an eventuality. Other political leaders have stayed at 
the Palace at difficult times in their careers but have not made such 
demands."

The deteriorating relationship between the Palace and the President's 
security men has infuriated the Queen. When it is all over, a mighty row 
with the Prime Minister is on the cards.

"The Queen is annoyed to be the one having to turn down so many of the 
White House's requests," said a Buckingham Palace official. "Downing 
Street's attitude is that this is something that should be resolved 
between the Palace and the White House. But the fact is that the Queen 
is being left to negotiate a political minefield pretty much on her own.

"Officially, the invitation was made to the President in her name, but 
of course ultimately this came from Tony Blair. Now that it is looking 
as if the visit is not going to be a cakewalk, Blair is, predictably, 
trying to distance himself from the whole thing," said the official

Matters are equally fraught at the Foreign Office. One minister had a 
surprise visit last week from a tense group of men in suits at his 
Whitehall office. They announced they were from the American Embassy and 
wanting to "check out the joint".

The visitors' mission was to inspect Durbar Court, a magnificent hall in 
the 115-year-old Foreign Office building, where the Prime Minister and 
the President will hold their joint press conference. "They came right 
through my office. I don't think they were CIA," said the bemused minister.

As the security men swept through Whitehall, rumours emerged that the 
White House also desired a Black Hawk helicopter, capable of ferocious 
firepower, to hover continuously over the Palace. According to the 
security men, a Black Hawk would be invaluable in the event of a 
rocket-propelled grenade attack.

Arrangements are also dominated by the terrorist threat. Senior British 
officials were reluctant to discuss details, but conceded that the White 
House has refused to allow the President a traditional trip down the 
Mall in an open-top landau.

In Whitehall, that was accepted with a shrug of the shoulders. This has 
become, after all, a state visit like no other. "Driving down the Mall 
is not an essential part of a state visit
anyway," said one Government 
official.

As Scotland Yard and the American secret service wrestled with the 
problem of security, Mr Blair and President Bush spent last week 
devising a political strategy for the week ahead. The preferred tactic 
was quickly apparent: confront the critics head on.

In an interview with the Telegraph, President Bush's National Security 
adviser, Condoleezza Rice, issued a forthright message to the protesters 
who will fill Trafalgar Square on Thursday:

"Protests are a part of our democratic heritage and our democratic 
privilege. But I hope the protesters remember that the causes for which 
the Prime Minister and the President have now become well known - in 
Afghanistan and Iraq - are finally getting those countries to the place 
that people might have the same privilege of protest. The world is far 
better off and freedom has been advanced by the destruction of [the 
Iraqi] regime."

In London, the tone was also defiant. In a speech last Monday at Mansion 
House, Mr Blair told a sceptical audience that Mr Bush's visit had come 
at "exactly the right time". He also robustly defended his role as a 
bridge between the EU and the US, warning that: "If Europe were to let 
anti-Americanism define its foreign policy, it would be a disaster."

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was sent onto the airwaves to make 
the same point, deriding the "fashionable anti-Americanism" that was 
making a comeback in sections of British opinion.

Meanwhile, Mr Bush made an impassioned defence of the White House goal 
of bringing democracy to the Middle East, starting with Iraq. He also 
gave a ringing, if slightly curious, salute to his closest political 
ally in that project, Mr Blair.

"In my relationship with him, he is the least political person I've 
dealt with," said President Bush in an interview with three British 
editors. "He makes decisions based on what he thinks is right. I'm 
really looking forward to spending time with my friend - and I emphasise 
my friend - Tony Blair."

Last Wednesday evening in Washington, the "special relationship" between 
the US and the United Kingdom was being feted yet again, this time by 
Jack Straw. The Foreign Secretary flew over for an award ceremony that 
honoured his American counterpart, Colin Powell, who will also be in 
London next week.

In a short speech, Mr Straw described Mr Powell as "the wisest man I 
know", and told his audience that their contact was so frequent that his 
wife, Alice, called the Secretary of State "the other man in my life".

More of the same can be expected throughout the coming week, as the 
Prime Minister and his unpopular friend face down protesters from 
Trafalgar Square to Sedgefield.

But when Mr Blair and Mr Bush finally get down to business in Downing 
Street over lunch - from a menu chosen by Nigella Lawson, though as of 
last night the White House catering committee had not told British 
officials of any special dietary requirements - they may find that the 
united front in public is more difficult to maintain away from protesters.

According to one Downing Street official, the Bush administration's 
desire to accelerate the timetable for the transfer of sovereignty to a 
provisional Iraqi government has startled and worried members of the 
Blair team.

On Friday, following his emergency trip back to Washington last Tuesday, 
Paul Bremer, the US envoy to Iraq, talked of a handover of power to 
Iraqis by next summer. No British representative attended the crucial 
White House meeting with President Bush, at which the new approach was 
endorsed. Having been caricatured as the President's bag-carrier leading 
up to war, Mr Blair cannot afford to lose a grip of the peace.

"The bulk of the discussions will be on how far and how fast to go in 
Iraq," said an official familiar with pre-visit discussions in Downing 
Street. "There's a worry that because the presidential election year is 
coming up, some members of the Bush team might be in too much of a rush 
to disengage."

In other matters, given the furore surrounding the President's visit, Mr 
Blair is desperately hoping that the "special relationship" is at last 
about to yield some tangible benefits.

It would be gratifying to Number 10 if President Bush chose Britain as 
the place to defuse the current tensions over trade between Europe and 
the US, triggered by the American steel tariffs imposed last year. Mr 
Blair would be even more pleased if the White House agreed that the nine 
British citizens held as prisoners in Guantanamo Bay should be given a 
legal right of appeal to a federal court.

Then there are Iran's suspected nuclear ambitions. In the wake of a 
damning report by the International Atomic Energy Authority, which 
stated that Iran had been secretly enriching uranium for 18 years, 
senior members of the Bush administration have called for UN sanctions 
against Teheran. Mr Blair has no desire to go down the UN Security 
Council route again, in pursuit of a second member of the President's 
"axis of evil".

The issues will be serious and complex. Outside, on the streets of the 
capital, there could be pandemonium. Streets are to be closed off as 
demonstrators are prevented from marching down Whitehall or gathering in 
Parliament Square.

In Trafalgar Square, an estimated 100,000 protesters will attempt to 
confront the so-called "toxic Texan" on Thursday, albeit at a distance. 
The Islamic Society of Britain has spent a week preparing papier-mache 
mock statues of the Queen's guest, ready to be toppled, designed to echo 
the fall of Saddam's statue in the spring.

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate for London, has 
spent the past week trying to cash in on President Bush's notoriety 
among some potential voters. The decision to invite Mr Bush for a state 
visit, said Mr Hughes, was "ill-judged, ill-conceived and 
inappropriate". Not to be outdone, Ken Livingstone has spent £8,000 of 
Londoners' money to hold a party for the anti-Bush warriors.

According to a Republican Party official who will not be on the trip, 
the White House will just have to grin and bear it. "They know that for 
every great image of the President at the Palace, or Laura with the 
Queen, there will be another terrible image of tens of thousands of 
Brits telling him to go away. It's not great, coming into election year."

At least Westminster will do its best to carry on regardless. Michael 
Howard and Charles Kennedy have separate meetings with the President in 
a Palace suite on Wednesday morning, immediately before Prime Minister's 
Questions, assuming they get past up to 250 secret servicemen.

The Liberal Democrat leader, who is second in line to meet Mr Bush at 
11am, has already arranged a fast car to get him back to the Commons in 
time to put his questions to Mr Blair at midday.

Mr Blair's wife, Cherie, is preparing to escort the First Lady to 
museums and other places of interest before the state banquet at 
Buckingham Palace - unless the demonstrators get there first.

By the time the battered party reaches the Prime Minister's own northern 
constituency of Sedgefield, battle fatigue could well have set in. But 
at least there may be time for some gentle comedy.

Some days ago, a White House security official, checking up on the 
Blair's four-bedroom constituency home, Myrobella, asked John Burton, Mr 
Blair's agent, "how many acres" the Prime Minister owned.

Mr Bush will find the Blair residence somewhat more compact than his 
ranch in Crawford, Texas, although Mr Burton manfully pointed out that 
the house "has a back garden". The Bushes in Sedgefield will be a sight 
so strange that even the protesters might pause to enjoy the spectacle.

The President and his 700-strong entourage will leave Britain on Friday 
evening. At that point, Mr Blair will be able to judge the success of 
what has become a damage limitation exercise. Notwithstanding the pleas 
of certain Labour MPs, it would have been almost impossible to take any 
other approach to next week's ordeal.

According to one senior British official familiar with the Royal Visits 
Committee process: "Once an invitation is formally issued it is unheard 
of to go back on it. It was decided not to invite Bill Clinton following 
the impeachment scandal, but that trip was never more than a glimmer in 
the eye."

In fact, Mr Clinton may be to blame for the whole affair. Before the war 
in Iraq, he told Mr Blair to "stay close to Bush - don't let him 
escape". Mr Blair stayed and remains close, still valiantly seeking the 
role of mediator between Europe and the United States.

The Prime Minister persuaded the President to seek UN approval for the 
war in Iraq. He flew to Washington for crucial summits in the lead-up to 
the conflict. In its aftermath he has urged the White House to consider 
a broader role in postwar Iraq for the United Nations. Each week he 
speaks to the President by videophone, last week talking through Iran 
and the problems of Iraq.

Mr Blair has indeed "stayed close" to Mr Bush. This week, the Prime 
Minister will discover whether his fellow countrymen think he is too 
close for comfo