Beneath gloomy skies and a grim pall cast by news of the deadly bombings in Istanbul, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London on Thursday to protest the visit of President Bush.
They carried banners and signs denouncing Bush as a war criminal and urging him to “Bush-off.”
They blew whistles, shouted slogans and, at a symbolic finale in Trafalgar Square, they pulled down a papier-mache effigy of the American president, an echo of the moment when a crowd in Baghdad toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein.
Police estimated 70,000 people took part in the march, less than the 100,000 the organizers had predicted and far less than the 1 million who gathered here in February to protest the war.
About 50 people have been arrested since Tuesday evening, when Bush arrived, but the protests have remained peaceful despite fears that splinter groups would try to stir up trouble. There have also been heightened concerns about terror attacks in London in the wake of the Istanbul bombings.
“As we have seen, the terrorists really don’t care who they blow up or who they target,” Metropolitan Police spokesman Andy Trotter told the British Broadcasting Corp. “They would have no compunction to take out demonstrators, no compunction in any way at all.”
The march through central London seemed to draw from all segments of the population: young and old, a sprinkling of businessmen in pinstriped suits among youthful revelers with outlandishly colored hair. Quite a few marchers identified themselves with Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labor Party.
The long parade moved up Whitehall, past Parliament and past the gates of 10 Downing Street, where Bush and Blair had a working lunch at the prime minister’s official residence. This would be the closest the demonstrators would get to Bush, but by the time they arrived, the president had been whisked back to Buckingham Palace in his armored Cadillac.
Organizers of the demonstrations said that they expected Bush to be deaf to their protests, but they hoped the television images of tens of thousands of Britons taking to the streets would have some impact on the American public. They hoped that images of Adm. Horatio Nelson’s column draped with anti-Bush banners would cancel out the images of Bush with the queen.
“This demonstration is in no way anti-American,” said Chris Nineham, chief steward of the march. “But we do want Americans to understand that the militarization of U.S. foreign policy is not acceptable to the people of Britain.”
Many who gathered in Trafalgar Square went out of their way to differentiate between their fondness for Americans and their dislike of its present political leadership.
“Really, we don’t want to upset the general American public–they are our friends, and we remember that they were very helpful to England in getting rid of the Nazis–but we don’t think any war is justified without UN approval,” said Karen Cox, 39, a London secretary.
Even though the protesters were kept well out of Bush’s sight, Cox said she hoped the president would get an eyeful on television. “He is going to see us all on the telly,” she said. “He does watch the telly, doesn’t he?”
Aly Ahmed, a 72-year-old pensioner, said the bombings in Istanbul on Thursday morning persuaded him to take part in the anti-Bush demonstration.
“He shouldn’t be allowed to set foot in this country,” said Ahmed, a Turkish Cypriot who immigrated to Britain in the 1950s. “To my mind, he’s creating terrorism. Right now, he’s the biggest terrorist in the world.”
Another sore point with many Londoners is the high cost of providing Bush security and the disruption the presidential visit has brought to their city. Official estimates of security costs range up to $15 million.
“I don’t think he should have been let in at all,” said Jenny Bell, a 23-year-old child-care worker who came to the demonstration with her two toddlers in a stroller.
“It’s costing our country millions and millions of pounds–money that could have been spent on schools, on the homeless, on fighting AIDS,” she said. “They say it’s going to cost every taxpayer [in London] 3 pounds [$4.50]. That’s a lot of money for nothing.”
“And besides, we’re against the war,” added her boyfriend, Ben Johnson, a 25-year-old carpenter.
