Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

British Press Has Field Day With Vice President Cheney's Visit

Aired March 15, 2002 - 07:50   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Well the British press had a field day this week with Vice President Cheney's visit there. An American werewolf in London, screamed "The Daily Mirror," fangs and all. That sets the stage for our weekly visit over there with correspondent Richard Quest. He joins us from our London bureau this morning.

Richard, good morning. Is there anybody in the British press corps that likes Dick Cheney this week?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can honestly say very few and far between. As the vice president's arrival - first of all, let's remember he's actually flying around the world on President Bush's plane, even though they've nicknamed it or renamed it Air Force Two, it's the big one - the one with the big hump on the top, and we made a great deal of fuss about the fact.

Not only that, there was a big limousine that was flown over, and he was only driving from the airport to the ambassador's residence. An enormous fuss was made about the arrival of the vice president. Ostensibly he was here to talk about Middle East peace, but as "The Daily Mirror" made clear in its headlines, "an American werewolf in London, Dick Long Cheney meets Blair on Iraq", and this is very much, Paula, the tone of a lot. You've got fangs in this particular picture that "The Mirror" chose to put in.

What they're describing him as a war-mongering U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney's claims came as polls show half the public in Britain are against expanding the war against terror to Iraq. So what clearly has happened is that Cheney has come to Britain and indeed gone to other nations, possibly to actually talk about Middle East peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But no one's fooled over here, and in fact one other note, in last week's "Daily Mirror" they had a picture of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair and he was painted as a poodle. So a lot of anger, some resentment, not a little bit of disquiet of the way in which the U.S. has perhaps taken the British support for granted for at the moment.

Now that's the American werewolf (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Paula, I've got a question for you.

ZAHN: Sure.

QUEST: In your vast experience - in your vast experience, have you ever been refused - not that I could imagine anyone would dare, I hasten to add ...

ZAHN: No.

QUEST: ... but have you ever been refused a drink at a bar?

ZAHN: I can honestly say once at some petroleum club in Texas many, many years ago, but that has all been changed, but not recently.

QUEST: And was - were you refused a drink at the bar because you are a woman and it wasn't - you weren't allowed to get the drink.

ZAHN: No, but is that happening over there?

QUEST: As you may know, there are a large number of "men only" clubs, and I'm not talking about sexual things or anything like that. I'm talking about golf clubs, social clubs, even the Carlton Club for the conservative party, which only has one woman member, an honorary member, Margaret Thatcher, and that's because she was elected prime minister.

Now a new law, it all follows a woman who was giving a public speech and she wasn't allowed to go to the bar to buy a drink. Women, you see, women were only allowed in the bar on a Tuesday when they could play on the golf course. The rest of the time they had to be in the lobby with everybody else.

Now the law is about to be changed, and let me just very quickly read you the bill bans private clubs from delegating women to being second-class citizens. Now, shall we take a vote? All those in favor of this new law ...

ZAHN: You can't see me, but I'm raising my hand. So, Richard, is it true that in some of these bars they actually had a white line drawn across the bar that prohibited women from going any further?

QUEST: Yes, you go through that door and they will ask you to leave, even you.

ZAHN: All right Richard, we're going to have to leave it there this morning. Have a dandy weekend.

QUEST: And to you ma'am - and to you.

ZAHN: Thank you, appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com