Thousands march against Bush
Thousands of demonstrators have set off on a march through central London in protest at the American president’s state visit to Britain.
The protestors marched into Malet Street in Bloomsbury and made a symbolic march past Parliament and along Whitehall, passing the entrance to Downing Street where the president and Mr Blair were holding talks.
Foghorns, drums and whistles accompanied the sound of chanted slogans. The atmosphere remained light-hearted as protesters sang and danced in the street, watched by some of the 5,000 police officers drafted in to monitor events in London today.
Deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Andy Trotter said the tragic suicide bomb attacks in Istanbul today underlined that police officers were working for the protection of demonstrators as much as the US president.
“As we have seen, terrorists really don’t care who they blow up or who they target,” he said. “They would have no compunction to take out demonstrators, no compunction in any way at all. And that’s a very difficult message to get across to some demonstrators.”
The Stop the War Coalition, who organised today’s demonstration, expect around 100,000 to take to London’s streets, however police say they expect 30,000 to 40,000.
Workers left offices across London to join the protest, students left universities and pupils walked out of school to march. Organisers hope today’s rally will be the UK’s largest ever weekday protest.
Police are concerned that some 1,000 anarchists have come over from Europe for the protests and predict that there could be outbreaks of violence later on.
Many Brits are still furious that an anti-war rally held before the Iraq war, when over a million people took to the streets of the capital, did not have more effect on the British government’s policy on Iraq.
