| There was a time in history when the British monarch, imprisoned by tradition within Buckingham Palace, was known to have envied the comparative freedom enjoyed in the White House by an American President. Reciprocally, America’s elected but transient royalty looked for excuses when they could savour the colourful pomp and dignified ritual perfected at the Court of St. James’s. State Visits provided a perfect opportunity for Presidents to be pampered as royalty, and for Kings or Queens to condescend to the simple level of uncrowned democrats. |
| The highlight of any such official State Visit was invariably the public procession, when the host and the guest could be shown riding side by side, if in Washington DC, then it in a motorcade or if in New York, then in that street cleaner’s nightmare - the famous ticker-tape parade down Fifth Avenue. In Britain, the journey would be invariably be in a horse-drawn carriage (weather permitting), usually from an official point of entry such as Victoria Station, up Whitehall, down the Mall and finally through the gates of Buckingham Palace. |
| One can just imagine the gratification White House planning staff must have felt, when they were finalizing the minutiae of their president’s programme over a year ago, at the prospect of their President George Bush the Second sharing an open royal landau with the British monarch Queen Elizabeth the Second in what they had hoped would be a triumphal procession to celebrate the Allied conquest of Iraq. One can gauge the extent of their chagrin when Bush’s state visit did take place in November this year, to see that procession cancelled ‘on security grounds’, and then to watch him enter Buckingham Palace almost furtively to avoid the hostile crowds that had threatened to disrupt his visit. The Commander-in-Chief of the US forces – Britain’s durable ally in two and a half World Wars - was reduced to reviewing the welcoming military guard of honour within the safety of the palace forecourt. [EXTRACT] |
Published in DAWN 18 Dec. 2004, and reprinted in WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE & OTHER WRITINGS (2006). |
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