If its so fantastic why were the US protests moved out of sight as discussed at length on this board? 
On thursday, they’re holding a special extended protests so that we corporate serfs can attend. I’ll be heading down to Trafalgar Square for the Baghdad-style toppling of Dubya’s statue.
The chief of the Metropolitan police has said that he will be using post 9-11 anti-terror laws during the visit.
Who else thinks these might be called on to keep Bush from ever seeing any protestors?
I’m actually surprised he knows there are massive protests organised against him.
I’d thought his cronies would’ve kept that from him.
is it true that MI5 wanted the whole of London cleared?
How insane.
Bush does not act like a US President. Bush acts like he’s the premiere of the USSR. I guess this goes along with his Soviet-style foreign policy and attempts to impose a Soviet internal regime (like Ashcroft’s desire to recruit all utility workers as government spies upon the US population). GWB would have fit in quite nicely in 1970s Moscow.
Good to see you posting again Els 
<Robert Llewellyn voice>
Attention all 8 million Londoners.
Please form several single-file queues and exit the Greater London Authority in a quick and orderly fashion.
You may return when the siren signals 3 blasts.
Thank you.
</Robert Llewellyn Voice>
simple… when the British protest its democracy and freedom… when americans protest its anti-patriotic and “liberal”.
“I’m so pleased to be going to a country which says that people are allowed to express their minds,”
There you go. He wanted a new experience.
He’s said before that he doesn’t want to govern “by polls” and by extension, I guess, people holding signs and yelling. Clinton was seen in many quarters as having no core convictions and pandering to whatever group yelled the loudest, and lots of people voted for George because he said he wouldn’t do that. So far he’s relatively consistent.
I happen to think putting UP a statue of Freedom would be a lot more effective than tearing something down. I suppose it’s supposed to be an evocation of the American colonists tearing down the statue of George III in Bowling Green as well as Saddam’s statue, but it’ll probably look more like the Chinese government tearing down the Goddess of Liberty in Tiananmen Square. Oh well.
I get your point in a general sense, but that doesn’t really get at what the specific protest is about, i.e. letting Bush know how little his foreign policy WRT Iraq is admired in the country of his closest ally.
The intent of the protest may be to express opposition to Bush’s foreign policy, but the EFFECT will be that the Brits personally hate Bush and are making a petty gesture by destoying him in effigy instead of directly murdering him–at least that is how it will play in the states.
Well there’s that too…
I wonder though if it will jolt with (what appears to me to be) the US media’s portrayal of the UK as supportive of the Iraq war, whereas the reality is that the population is actually largely unsupportive.
The statue is being put up – and pulled down – by an organisation called Americans Abroad Against the War (or a similar name). I think the point is that protest, at least in the vicinity of Bush, is a lot easier overseas – do you think the US media reporting the event will get that poijt across?
Fwiw, I quite like the concept; reflecting the fake, media-friedly quality of the Saddam statue.
But this American idea and protest is, of course, part of an almost week long broad-based protest that incorporates a variety of forms.
Ah, so it’s Americans who hate America so much they have left and still feel that they can lecture Americans who are still here.
No, they’re here to make money. Like thousands and thousands of other Americans, French, Germans, Japanese, Australians, etc. etc. etc. they live and work here, usually for companies based back home.
In case you didn’t know, it’s a big city. People do that kind of thing here.
Kind of place, you ask “Why do you hate America so much?” they start ticking off points on thier fingers.
“Well, first off, mate, bloody obnoxious. Secondly, bloody belligerant. Third, just plain bloody…”
I’m more interested in seeing if the US media will report the event at all. Or if the protesters will be cast as a bunch of kooks…
That may be the reality, but do you really think that it’s how it’s going to be perceived? It’ll be seen as a bunch of furriners and America-hatin’ Americans makin’ personal threats to the Commander in Chief.
In my own opinion, it’s a purely masturbatory gesture. It may feel good to the participants, but it will achieve nothing else.
I’m not sure it’s supposed to “achieve” anything. It provides a focal polit for a demo, that all, as best I know. A lark.
However, I’m now a little worried about what I wrote up there. Earlier in the week – say Monday – I read the statue was being organised by Americans but there’s no reference to that in today’s press.
Certainly the statue itself is being built by a group in Suffolk, no mention of them doing it for an American group, though.
So, as of now, I’m a little uncomfortable with assigning the plan to ‘Americans Abroad’ – I just don’t know.
As per rjung, The reporting of it will be interesting. It’s looking like a big bastard. I presume they’ve negotiated with the police for getting it into Trafalar Square . . .
As I wrote in the Pit thread, it looks like the police are saying (in broad terms) ‘we’re not doing anything special to keep the public away from him, so, if he feels the need, he better keep away from the public.’