A couple dozen of us were outside the Town Hall at 4:30 pm on 15th March to lobby the council meeting about not welcoming the US Secretary of State and former Bush Security Advisor and architect of the Iraq invasion Condoleezza Rice to Liverpool.

One poster said: "Condi Rice not welcome here. (Try the Hague)", in reference to the place where official war criminals are tried.

The Labour concillor Joe Anderson stopped to have a word with us. He said he was against the Iraq war, but not against welcoming Condi Rice's visit, because -- like the LibDem leader Charles Kennedy on Bush's triumphant visit in November 2004 when 400,000 people took to the streets to block his victory parade -- he believes that meeting with her is more important than making a public message that such people have no business walking free in a civilized society.

As he went in, someone shouted, "But she kills children."

"So does Ghengis Khan." Joe Anderson retorted.

Actually he said, "So does Saddam Hussain," but you can substitute one mass murderer who has taken no part whatsoever in the last three years of Anglo-American occupation carnage for another mass murderer, in that kind of a statement. No doubt there will be some dead-enders who will still blame further US bombing of Iraq in 50 years time on Saddam Hussain. The fact is, the war-fighting is wholly of our own making. Always was.

There were few of us in number that most of us got in to watch the the council meeting start. The chairman of Merseyside Stop the War was allowed to make a 3 minute speech to the councillors for our efforts, after which the LibDem block stood up and clapped. The Labour councillors remained quiet and seated, seeming to be so aligned are they with their leadership in 10 Downing Street that principles were irrelevant.

Please come to any demo on 31 March (or whenever they reschedule her visit) to help keep hope for justice alive.