Support grows for anti-Bush demo
Support for a huge demonstration against President George Bush’s visit to the UK was growing tonight on the eve of last ditch talks aimed at agreeing a route for the march.
Organisers of the demo, due to be held in central London on Thursday, will meet Scotland Yard officers tomorrow to try to end deadlock over which roads can be included on the protest march.
The Stop The War Coalition said it remained hopeful of reaching an agreement but was insisting that the protest should be allowed to go down Whitehall and close to the Houses of Parliament. An official said today that there could be huge problems if no agreement was made before the march which is expected to attract tens of thousands of people opposed to the war with Iraq.
Earlier, President Bush told anti-war campaigners they were lucky to be free to protest at his visit. He had a message for those planning to turn out when he appeared on the BBC1 Breakfast with Frost programme.
“Freedom is a beautiful thing, I would first say, and it’s – aren’t you lucky to be in a country that encourages people to speak their mind?
“And I value going to a country where people are free to say anything they want to say.
“Secondly, I would say that I understand you don’t like war, and neither do I.
“But I would hope you understand that I have learned the lessons of September the 11th, 2001, and that terrorists declared war on the United States of America and war on people that love freedom, and I intend to lead our nation – along with others, like our close friends in Great Britain – to win this war on terror.
“That war is my last choice, not my first choice, but I have obligation as the President to keep our country secure.”
The Stop The War Coalition has been inundated with requests for information about the protest in the past few days despite warnings about the security threat during President Bush’s time in the UK.
Some reports have even suggested that supporters of terrorist group Al-Qaeda could be threatening an attack. Stop The War Coalition officials said they believed some of the warnings could just be propaganda aimed at stopping people attending the protest.
An official from the group said: “It appears to be a lot of smoke signals at the moment but I wonder if these are the same intelligence people who warned about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
“Our office has been incredibly busy over the weekend. People are booking coaches from all over the city and we get the feeling that this is going to be a substantial demonstration.”
Some of the officials said attendance at the protest on Thursday could be over 100,000.
A petition against President Bush’s visit signed by more than 100,000 people will be handed into 10 Downing Street tomorrow.
