UK News 19-11-2003 Royal Welcome For `Invisible Bush` who: George W Bush what: Arrives in the UK for presidential visit where: LONDON when: Last night snippet: President Bush touched down at Heathrow last night inside what The Times describes as "an unprecedented ring of armour" to begin one of the most controversial state visits to Britain for many years, "with the most security and ceremony accorded to an American leader since Woodrow Wilson came to London in 1918." With a 700-strong entourage "worthy of a travelling medieval monarch," the President was greeted by Prince Charles at Heathrow before The Guardian watched him being "whisked to Buckingham Palace by US military helicopter." With the world`s most powerful man "safely installed behind the high walls" of the palace, it was revealed that Mr Bush`s visit "will devote just 150 minutes to direct talks with Tony Blair on Iraq and other thorny problems." Which is bad news for those hoping for agreement on British detainees at Guantanamo Bay or averting a trade war with Europe by lifting US steel tariffs, reckons a no less cheerful Times. Downing Street hit back at accusations that no hard talking would be done by pointing out that Bush and Blair talk to each other at least every week and so this visit "is not a one-off event in which each side have to produce goodies for each other." While their motives may be born of profit rather than pacifism, Britain`s mobile phone operators are standing up to the US authorities by refusing to bar calls in Central London during the presidential visit, reports The Times. "Police sources said that...mobile phones have been used to detonate bombs" but operator Orange is having none of that. "The rules state that we only have to block phone calls in this manner when there is a national emergency. That means during a war," a spokeswoman said. "The visit of a foreign dignitary is not a national emergency. It`s Bush hysteria." Never afraid to sneak in where they shouldn`t, The Mirror sent reporter Ryan Parr to pose as a royal footman and gain access to the President`s Buckingham Palace bedroom. "Security before the visit was so lax I was able to wander around at will with my uniform guaranteeing me unquestioned access to the suite," he writes, before concluding, inevitably, that "had I been a terrorist, the consequences are unthinkable." [... more]

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