I cant make it myself until the bastard has left, I wish you all well. Happy hunting

This rocks the Celt & Saxon in me. Send "King George" to the dungeon. Solid solidarity from the States.

Thank you so much for your spirited actions over there in the UK greeting our "selected" murderer! Your work means so much to us here who are trying to make this regime accountable for the untold thousands of deaths they have caused. Perhaps we will build our own statue here and light it up for democracy's sake!


Pacé, Another US Veteran

nice to see a positive use for this wretched piece of statuary. looking at all the ghastly works being thrown up by demented 'architects', lets be honest; if they were in pyongyang or bucharest or berlin we would condemn them for totalitarian follies. even the dominant slogan of the age (''working together'') has a sinister ring to it.
down with bush and blairs new order.

K and I made the mammouth journey, by car, from the Black Country to Sedgefield, in County Durham, this morning. We changed our plans to go to London at the last minute, on the basis that Bush and Blair weren't there and the protest up there needed us more than the smattering of protests ongoing in the capital today.

We arrived around noon and were pulled over by police as soon as we turned off into Sedgefield. Upon being asked where we were heading, and K's response of 'We're going into Sedgefield', we were informed that there was parking by the Racecourse and a free park and ride into the village. We headed that way and another officer gave us an A4 notice explaining that they had paid for the park and ride facilities; that all members of the public were to congregate in one area only, but that President Bush and Tony Blair would be including this area (to meet the public) as part of their itinery; it also informed us of our rights and that the special powers (made legal in 1985 and 2003) had been granted to the Durham Constabulary for the day. This included searching everyone in the area etc.

Let me make clear here that in all of my considerable dealings with the police today, I found them all to be friendly, charming, helpful and a credit to the force. I've also never seen so many of them in one place in my life - which is quite a statement for someone who lived in a mining village during the Strike to make! My only gripe is that we were all constantly being filmed and photographed by officers in police baseball caps, and notes being made on what looked like pre-printed forms, though no-one with a form came close enough for me to see what it was all about.

Security was massive. The police were everywhere you could see, including one officer per park and ride bus and including officers on the rooftops. They were on horses, on foot, in riot vans, in cars, in helicopters, on motorbikes - you name it and it's likely I saw a police officer in it! We were shepherded onto the village green, with officers searching folk and their bags before they were allowed onto it. Somehow K and I managed not to be searched, by the expediency of stepping around the officer who was searching the bag of the lady in front of us, and entering the green. We could have been searched with impunity, but we weren't. :-D

We entered a very noisy and crowded scene. The newspapers are reporting 500 people; K and I had this conversation whilst standing in the middle of it. By counting 50 people, then multiplying that by the ground covered by equally dense crowds, we agreed on a rough estimate of 2000. However, folk were moving around a lot, so I don't know how any figures could be entirely accurate.

Again the mix was good-natured and eclectic. Dreadlocked 'usual suspects' (like me) mingled with people in well-cut suits, an optomorist (?) (according to the badge on the business suit), Muslims, young couples with children, the elderly etc. There was a microphone set up for any to speak, including a single pro-Bush person, who was heard out. An elderly gentleman stood up there and announced that he had been in the Battle of Britain and in Borneo, and that this war was tactically and strategically wrong; he stated that our troops were getting killed and would continue to be killed in a war they couldn't win.

There were pro-Bush people there - I counted five actually holding banners positive to the president or waving unburnt American flags; K reckoned on around 30 pro-Bush people. There were a few people without banners or noise of any description (around 50 at a guess-timate), whose allegiance is impossible to determine.

All the shops in view were closed, except the pubs and a cafe. One man said that his shop was opposite the Old Dun Cow (where they dined) and that he had been refused access to it to open up by the police and security forces. Those whose houses were in the cordoned off area had all been advised not to leave their homes (according to both their friends with us and a comment made by the Blairs' neighbour. The houses behind the pub (according to a local lad as we spoke to) all had their own police officer inside them.

Shortly after we arrived, a Viking coach travelled down the centre of the street, filled with press and their cameras. We all shouted ourselves hoarse. Since returning, we have watched the various news channels. ITV (if I remember correctly) showed us all (K and I were under the Democracy RIP banner, next to the Palestinians); however Sky News did the most misleading piece of editting as I have ever seen!

They ran from a scene showing Bush being introduced to the neighbour of the Blairs in Trimdon, with a commentary telling us that he saw members of the general public; then cut straight to the corner of the High Street, where a group of people without banners waited; then cut to a gentleman holding a 'Welcome Dubya' sign; before cutting to the inside of the Old Dun Cow, where specially hand-picked people were introduced to him; before cutting to the local school, where he met school-children. The impression given was that he drove down the street where we all were.

He did not. Though the notice handed out by the police had stated that he would (I understand that their plans were subject to constant change and I don't hold them personally responsible), we were all (pro and anti alike) kept approximately 100 yards from the Dun Cow and didn't clap eyes on him. I overheard a policeman tell a disappointed couple (they didn't have banners or obvious allegiance) that he had done a presentation to those further up the line of command on their (the couple's) behalf, but had been told that the security forces (paraphrasing here) would not allow the President to be exposed to our shouting for security reasons. The couple then left.

People slowly left, still good-natured and the general feeling being that it had been a victory, in that there could be no photo opportunities for use in an election campaign back home, of ecstatic British crowds welcoming him. There were no crowds happy to see him and he didn't get close enough to any of us for it to be engineered, other than how Sky managed it.

We waited an age for the park and ride bus back, then decided to walk. We soon came across a huge traffic jam, which we walked along until we came to the motorway bridge. There was a huge police presence here and looking down, we saw the weirdest sight. The motorway had been cordoned off somewhere out of sight, for as far as we could see. On one side, police officers stood in on the motorway right up to the bend; and on both visible bridges, there was a long line of officers.

As we watched, we saw the cavalcade pass underneath. It was very long! Hundreds of police-cars, riot vans, an ambulance, a mobile NHS unit, motorbikes, two identical cars (one presumbly a decoy and one holding the VIPs). It was almost a comedy scene, in that it seemed to go on forever. Just when you thought that another police car couldn't possibly be added, along it came, with another line of vehicles behind it!

Once it had passed, we were allowed over the bridge and off to the racecourse, where our cars were parked. We could see that protestors were also lining the fences of the motorway, clearly visible.

And that's it. My full report. :-D

yours
Mab
xxxxx

Obviously lots of effort has been made to give what Bush deserves, but the main question is why not-Authoritarian groups are appearing as an anti-Bush and anti-America as well as the left groups do?
I could imagine why left group( middles Class ) are upset with American empire but I can't figure it out why non-Authoritarian group should forget any thing about Capitalism system as a main reason for War, an appear as anti-Bush and anti-America?
Since Vietnam war there has been a thousands demos against various American presidents as a symbol of war , don't you think is a time to change the tune and join the anti-Capitalist instead.
I don't want to convince middle class wonkers, they just want to be a Capitalist Administrator that's all they after.

We caught up with his cavalcade also, only about 15 strong at the time. Myself and four others almost accidently bumped into him on the outskirts of town. Pretty much the only antis in a crowd of a few hundred apparant pros, and with police presence obviously high, all we could do was scream ourselves stupid and generally make a spectacle of ourselves. He drove past us just a couple of metres away, hopefully expecting some cheering and flagwaving, and instead just got a torrent of abuse.

Respect to the beast chasers xx