Britain: Tens of thousands of people in London's Trafalgar Square cheered, jeered, blew whistles and waved flags yesterday as a huge golden effigy of George W. Bush hugging a missile was toppled to the ground at the climax of a day of noisy protest against the American president's visit, writes Lynne O'Donnell
As the statue fell from the base of Nelson Column, protesters jumped on its remains, echoing the iconic moment during the war in Iraq when a massive statue of Saddam Hussein was broken in half and pulled apart by a jubilant Baghdad crowd. "Down with Bush", chanted the demonstrators as a giant television screen beamed the image to the thousands of people who streamed into the square as darkness settled on the city.
Organisers called the gathering the biggest weekday protest in the city's history and said that up to 150,000 people had joined the march that snaked through streets that had been closed to traffic and were lined by more than 5,000 police officers manning riot barriers.
Police put the numbers at around 110,000 and described the march as peaceful, but said they were on alert for French and German anarchist groups who had travelled to London specifically to make trouble.
London's Metropolitan Police and Scotland Yard have mobilised 14,000 officers for the duration of Mr Bush's three-day visit, and the city has been on high security alert because of intelligence of a possible terrorist attack, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Trotter told reporters.
Helicopters hovered overhead as people of all ages and from all over Britain came to voice their anger about a range of political issues, including Washington's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, the US embargo of Cuba, the CIA's activities on foreign soil, Israel's treatment of Palestinians and America's stockpile of nuclear weapons. Most people, however, appeared concerned about the Iraq war, and Britain's co-operation.
"Bush is a cowboy. Blair is a smug, lying, sycophantic creep," said a banner carried by an elderly man.
A middle-aged woman in a macintosh and sensible shoes carried an umbrella painted with the slogan "Bush go home and take Blair with you."
Radiologist Suzanne Kavanagh took the day off work to join the march carrying a home-made poster showing Prime Minister Blair with President Bush in Washington earlier this year and quoting Mr Blair's words to Congress: "History will forgive us."
"I have attended three marches, this is my fourth, because although it would be an absolute mistake to pull out of Iraq now, we want Bush to know it was an illegal, pre-emptive war that has escalated world violence and aggression," Dr Kavanagh said.
"It was predicted 30 years ago that the third world war would be a terrorist war; it has started, there are no surprises. Bush walked into it," she said. "The whole world was in sympathy with the United States after September 11, but Bush has blown it."
Chilean refugee Vicente Alegria, a solicitor, carried a Chilean flag and said the terrorist attacks on targets in Istanbul in the past week were a consequence of the US actions in Iraq and elsewhere.
"Unfortunately, it has awakened groups in the Muslim world that are going to use terrorist means as a consequential reaction to the injustice in Palestine, the invasion of Iraq, US imperialism around the world and Bush, with Blair's support, imposing his will without respect for sovereignty and independence," Mr Alegria said.
Madeline Brown, a young actress from Texas, Mr Bush's home state, said she had left the United States on September 10th, 2001.
"I knew that once he came to power there would be more censorship, less media freedom, and that his presidency would bring with it a rise in militarism."
In Trafalgar Square, the crowd heard from Ron Kovic, a Vietnam veteran and subject of the Oliver Stone film Born on the Fourth of July, who said: "History is on our side. We are on the side of love, feeling, caring, and beauty. This is only just the beginning."
As President Bush hosted a banquet in honour of his host, Queen Elizabeth, at the home of US ambassador William Farish, protesters began torching their placards in a bonfire that blazed on the edge of Trafalgar Square.