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CNN Live At Daybreak
Bush Leaves Buckingham Palace
Aired November 21, 2003 - 06:36 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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush's stay at Buckingham Palace is over, but not his state visit to Great Britain.
Robin Oakley is following today's events from London.
Good morning -- Robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, Tony Blair's plane has just touched down in the northeast of England. He's going to have his final day here, visiting Tony Blair and his parliamentary constituency of Sedgefield and having a pub lunch, we believe, at a pub called the Dun Cow.
But it has to be said that the jollier occasions on a trip like this have been badly overshadowed by those explosions in Istanbul. I think President Bush will look back on the trip with satisfaction. Of course, he had the wonderful welcome, all the pomp and pageantry at Buckingham Palace, where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip welcomed him with a 41-gun salute, the Grenadier Guards, the Household Calvary, the full works, the mother of all photo opportunities, as Robin Cooke, the former foreign secretary, described it.
And George Bush's major speech on international affairs while he was here went down quite well with his critics. They said it was a passionate and forceful speech, drawing attention to the need to remain vigilant against worldwide terrorism.
But, of course, that was set against those street demonstrations, 110,000 taking to the streets in London, the biggest number ever for a weekday demonstration. Good-tempered, well-controlled by the police, but ending with that symbolic toppling of an effigy of George Bush in Trafalgar Square, reminiscent of the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
So, a slightly mixed impression, really, for George Bush -- Carol.
LIN: Robin, as we wait for the president of the United States to board his plane -- or to deplane, actually, there at Teesside International Airport in Darlington, I'm wondering, what did Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Brits actually get out of this state visit?
OAKLEY: You may well ask, Carol. I don't think Tony Blair has got very much out of this visit at all. Of course, the explosions in Istanbul have drawn attention to the risks that Britain runs by being such a close ally of the United States in the battle against terrorism. The street demonstrations reflected on Tony Blair as they did on George Bush.
And there were two essential bits of business that British parliamentarians were looking to Tony Blair to demonstrate his influence over the president on. One was those steel tariffs imposed by George Bush to protect U.S. steel manufacturers -- tariffs of up to 30 percent -- as a looming world trade war on that issue with the European Union about to impose sanctions if George Bush doesnt call off the tariffs by December the 5th. If he was going to take any action, he might just as well have done it while he was here to help his friend, Tony Blair, but he said no. He is still thinking about his decision on that.
The other matter being the British detainees, 6 of the 600 of the terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. British parliamentarians objecting to them being held without access to lawyers and their families, wanting Tony Blair to put pressure on to get them back to Britain. The danger there, of course, is that they might not face trial at all, because the Crown Prosecution Service is independent of the government. And Tony Blair wouldnt be able to guarantee there would be a trial held if they were handed over. But, again, the two men talked about that issue, but no conclusion was reached.
So, Tony Blair is left pretty empty-handed at the end of this trip -- Carol.
LIN: But many a photo-op. Thank you very much, Robin Oakley.
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 21, 2003 - 06:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush's stay at Buckingham Palace is over, but not his state visit to Great Britain.
Robin Oakley is following today's events from London.
Good morning -- Robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, Tony Blair's plane has just touched down in the northeast of England. He's going to have his final day here, visiting Tony Blair and his parliamentary constituency of Sedgefield and having a pub lunch, we believe, at a pub called the Dun Cow.
But it has to be said that the jollier occasions on a trip like this have been badly overshadowed by those explosions in Istanbul. I think President Bush will look back on the trip with satisfaction. Of course, he had the wonderful welcome, all the pomp and pageantry at Buckingham Palace, where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip welcomed him with a 41-gun salute, the Grenadier Guards, the Household Calvary, the full works, the mother of all photo opportunities, as Robin Cooke, the former foreign secretary, described it.
And George Bush's major speech on international affairs while he was here went down quite well with his critics. They said it was a passionate and forceful speech, drawing attention to the need to remain vigilant against worldwide terrorism.
But, of course, that was set against those street demonstrations, 110,000 taking to the streets in London, the biggest number ever for a weekday demonstration. Good-tempered, well-controlled by the police, but ending with that symbolic toppling of an effigy of George Bush in Trafalgar Square, reminiscent of the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
So, a slightly mixed impression, really, for George Bush -- Carol.
LIN: Robin, as we wait for the president of the United States to board his plane -- or to deplane, actually, there at Teesside International Airport in Darlington, I'm wondering, what did Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Brits actually get out of this state visit?
OAKLEY: You may well ask, Carol. I don't think Tony Blair has got very much out of this visit at all. Of course, the explosions in Istanbul have drawn attention to the risks that Britain runs by being such a close ally of the United States in the battle against terrorism. The street demonstrations reflected on Tony Blair as they did on George Bush.
And there were two essential bits of business that British parliamentarians were looking to Tony Blair to demonstrate his influence over the president on. One was those steel tariffs imposed by George Bush to protect U.S. steel manufacturers -- tariffs of up to 30 percent -- as a looming world trade war on that issue with the European Union about to impose sanctions if George Bush doesnt call off the tariffs by December the 5th. If he was going to take any action, he might just as well have done it while he was here to help his friend, Tony Blair, but he said no. He is still thinking about his decision on that.
The other matter being the British detainees, 6 of the 600 of the terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. British parliamentarians objecting to them being held without access to lawyers and their families, wanting Tony Blair to put pressure on to get them back to Britain. The danger there, of course, is that they might not face trial at all, because the Crown Prosecution Service is independent of the government. And Tony Blair wouldnt be able to guarantee there would be a trial held if they were handed over. But, again, the two men talked about that issue, but no conclusion was reached.
So, Tony Blair is left pretty empty-handed at the end of this trip -- Carol.
LIN: But many a photo-op. Thank you very much, Robin Oakley.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
