Chanting A Weak Farewell To George Bush
PRESIDENT George Bush “will bid Britain farewell today and then fly home after a frantic final tour of Europe where he secured vague assurances of support, but little tangible progress, for what remains of his foreign policy,” writes the Times.
Caption the picture.
Bush is pictured meeting with the Queen (FT and Times’ front pages) and Gordon Brown (Telegraph).
But the Guardian features not the star but his opponents. A clue to the paper’s seinsibilities can be sensed in its leader column: “World leaders have legacies. Global disasters have aftermaths.”
The front page headline trills: “What do we want? George Bush. What do we get? A no-show.”
Crowds often turn out in Britain for the farewell tours of famous American names and yesterday was no exception. Some 2,500 had gathered in Parliament Square hours before the big event was due to start, and there plenty of T-shirts and memorabilia on sale.But despite non-stop chants of his name, the star of the show made no appearance in front of the crowds.
The Guardian is the papers that ignores the big American star on the red carpet and looks at the fans. It says Bush is not there, which may means the paper was in the wrong place? It seems surprised that chanting someone’s name fails to conjure them up. Still, no news can still be news:
The fact that the chants were “George Bush terrorist” and “Arrest George Bush” may have had something to do with it. Certainly the noise was loud enough to be heard above the polite conversation 200 yards away at 10 Downing Street.
Why would Bush appear at Parliament Square, that glorified roundabout that’s home to a camp site and peopled by tourists staring up at Big Ben and armed police?
Given the weight of this sort of palsied protest, is it any wonder Bush did what he wanted to without disturbance?
Posted: 16th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians Comments (10) | TrackBack | Permalink
