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CNN Live At Daybreak
Bush in Britain
Aired November 19, 2003 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It was a beautiful, and at times touching, ceremony at Buckingham Palace earlier this morning. There was a 41-gun salute and the American National Anthem played for President and Mrs. Bush.
Next: the president's speech and those massive protests. Those demonstrations will take place a mile from the palace at Trafalgar Square.
Let's go there live now to CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
And the demonstrators are already gathering.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are indeed, Carol, but not here. This is where they're going to end up in a few hours from now.
They're gathering about a half a mile to a mile away from where we are at what's known as Jubilee Gardens near the big London Eye. And there are several hundreds of them now, and they are going to be starting their march at any time, we're told.
Now, today's demonstration is meant to be more a sort of a humorous, comical vein. It's called the "alternative state procession," and it's meant to be basically a bunch of floats, people dressed up, sort of walking along the procession, taking a specific route, basically because the president himself, -- despite this is a state visit -- has not decided to take the traditional horse-drawn carriage ride with Queen Elizabeth II. This, apparently because of the American security service concerns about the situation and the security surrounding the president.
So, today's protest is likely to be fairly light-hearted, fairly small, but we understand that tomorrow, according to the Stop the War Coalition -- which is now calling its protest "stop Bush" -- they are going to try to bring out tens of thousands of people, and that, too, will end here a Trafalgar Square. And indeed they're already constructing, and have done so, an effigy, which they plan to topple, much the same as they did in terms of sort of highlighting what happened in Baghdad when the Saddam Hussein statue was toppled.
Now, having said that, it points out quite a conflict of public opinion here about this state visit. Many people, about 46 percent according to the latest poll, welcome the visit of President Bush here. Some 36 percent do not welcome the visit. But a different poll a couple of days ago said that 60 percent of the people view President Bush as a threat to world peace. Now, we report these statistics, because it does show, as I say, the conflict and the conflicting emotions here. On the one hand, the people of Britain say that they are staunchly pro-American, that they believe by overwhelming numbers that Britain should be and is allied forever with the United States. On the other hand, they say that they are against President Bush personally and the policies -- the foreign policy of this administration.
And what some senior officials here are saying is that they'll wait to see whether Prime Minister Blair, who stood so tall and side by side with President Bush in everything, most particularly the Iraq war, whether President Bush in his public speeches here or in private meetings whether there will be a payback. In other words, what will be the outcome in terms of reward for Prime Minister Blair? And that's a deep concern to the British here, because so far, they believe that they've done all of the giving and they've done no receiving.
Now, in terms of, will the British get to see the president on his visit here, one headline in "The Daily Telegraph" calls it "Bush, the Invisible Visitor." And this perhaps highlights what is going to be an unprecedented security operation around the president and the very few public events that he will have.
There was the opening -- official welcoming ceremony today. There will be the speech at Whitehall, but there will be no speech to parliament, as most American presidents and foreign leaders do, and there will be very little interaction, if any, with any of the public. And certainly the president will be kept far, far away from any protestors.
Back to you -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Christiane Amanpour reporting live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired November 19, 2003 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It was a beautiful, and at times touching, ceremony at Buckingham Palace earlier this morning. There was a 41-gun salute and the American National Anthem played for President and Mrs. Bush.
Next: the president's speech and those massive protests. Those demonstrations will take place a mile from the palace at Trafalgar Square.
Let's go there live now to CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
And the demonstrators are already gathering.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are indeed, Carol, but not here. This is where they're going to end up in a few hours from now.
They're gathering about a half a mile to a mile away from where we are at what's known as Jubilee Gardens near the big London Eye. And there are several hundreds of them now, and they are going to be starting their march at any time, we're told.
Now, today's demonstration is meant to be more a sort of a humorous, comical vein. It's called the "alternative state procession," and it's meant to be basically a bunch of floats, people dressed up, sort of walking along the procession, taking a specific route, basically because the president himself, -- despite this is a state visit -- has not decided to take the traditional horse-drawn carriage ride with Queen Elizabeth II. This, apparently because of the American security service concerns about the situation and the security surrounding the president.
So, today's protest is likely to be fairly light-hearted, fairly small, but we understand that tomorrow, according to the Stop the War Coalition -- which is now calling its protest "stop Bush" -- they are going to try to bring out tens of thousands of people, and that, too, will end here a Trafalgar Square. And indeed they're already constructing, and have done so, an effigy, which they plan to topple, much the same as they did in terms of sort of highlighting what happened in Baghdad when the Saddam Hussein statue was toppled.
Now, having said that, it points out quite a conflict of public opinion here about this state visit. Many people, about 46 percent according to the latest poll, welcome the visit of President Bush here. Some 36 percent do not welcome the visit. But a different poll a couple of days ago said that 60 percent of the people view President Bush as a threat to world peace. Now, we report these statistics, because it does show, as I say, the conflict and the conflicting emotions here. On the one hand, the people of Britain say that they are staunchly pro-American, that they believe by overwhelming numbers that Britain should be and is allied forever with the United States. On the other hand, they say that they are against President Bush personally and the policies -- the foreign policy of this administration.
And what some senior officials here are saying is that they'll wait to see whether Prime Minister Blair, who stood so tall and side by side with President Bush in everything, most particularly the Iraq war, whether President Bush in his public speeches here or in private meetings whether there will be a payback. In other words, what will be the outcome in terms of reward for Prime Minister Blair? And that's a deep concern to the British here, because so far, they believe that they've done all of the giving and they've done no receiving.
Now, in terms of, will the British get to see the president on his visit here, one headline in "The Daily Telegraph" calls it "Bush, the Invisible Visitor." And this perhaps highlights what is going to be an unprecedented security operation around the president and the very few public events that he will have.
There was the opening -- official welcoming ceremony today. There will be the speech at Whitehall, but there will be no speech to parliament, as most American presidents and foreign leaders do, and there will be very little interaction, if any, with any of the public. And certainly the president will be kept far, far away from any protestors.
Back to you -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Christiane Amanpour reporting live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
