![\"bushpoll08.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/bushpoll08.jpg\" "\\"bushpoll08.jpg\\"")
The real purpose of George Bush’s visit to London became clear this afternoon, as Des Browne was set to announce more British troops are to be sent to Afghanistan, and Bush and Gordon Brown declared their intention to enforce further sanctions on Iran.<\/p>\n
The tea in Windsor Castle and dinner in Downing St made the visit look like a social occasion, a farewell tour for an outgoing president. But the real reason for visiting Britain was never tea and cakes with the queen. Bush has been travelling round Europe trying to secure support for sanctions and a possible future attack on Iran, for greater support in Afghanistan and for backing for permanent US bases and occupation in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Protesters attempting to highlight opposition to these policies were refused the right to march up Whitehall and were attacked by the police. This government appears to have no shame. It has followed its bribery and bullying
\nto win the vote on 42 day detention without charge for terrorist suspects with
\nattacks on our right to protest. It has now added further escalation of the
\nwar
\non terror to these attacks on our civil liberties. Gordon Brown is continuing
\nTony Blair’s abject loyalty to the most unpopular US president of recent
\ntimes.<\/p>\n
The Stop the War Coalition has written to the Home Secretary complaining about
\nthe decision to ban protestors from Whitehall and violent police tactics on
\nthe
\nday.<\/p>\n
The letter is below<\/p>\n
Jacqui Smith, Secretary of State
\nHome Office, 3rd Floor, Peel Building
\n2 Marsham Street
\nLondon, SW1P 4DF<\/p>\n
Cc: Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair<\/p>\n
16 June<\/p>\n
Dear Home Secretary<\/p>\n
We are writing to protest in the strongest possible terms concerning the
\nconduct of the Metropolitan Police at yesterday’s demonstration organised by
\nthe Stop the War Coalition, CND and the British Muslim Initiative.<\/p>\n
In particular, we wish to raise two decisions with you. First, the decision
\nto
\nban the march from proceeding peacefully up Whitehall after rallying in
\nParliament Square. There can be no justification for this arbitrary
\nabridgement of our right to peacefully protest. As you may know, the Stop the
\nWar Coalition has organised over twenty major demonstrations in the last seven
\nyears, nearly all of them in London. There has been no disorder, let alone
\nviolence, at any of them. The idea that we could have presented any physical
\nthreat to the President of the United States is laughable. This decision
\nsmacks of a growing authoritarian clamp-down on the right to demonstrate,
\nbearing in mind that the Metropolitan Police also tried to prohibit our march
\nin Whitehall last October, and is indicative of your government’s increasingly
\ncavalier (to put it gently) attitude towards civil liberties. It further
\ncontradicts the Prime Minister’s stated intention, on his accession to office
\nlast summer, to take a more liberal approach to protest around Parliament and
\nthe seat of government.<\/p>\n
Second, we ask you to address urgently the violent policing of the
\ndemonstration itself. This arises, of course, from the undemocratic nature of
\nthe decision to ban our march. However, there could under no circumstances be
\nany justification for the repeated and uncontrolled assault on peaceful
\ndemonstrators who at most were doing no more than attempting to proceed up
\nWhitehall and in many cases were actually endeavouring to comply with police
\ninstructions. A large number of our supporters, none of whom, of course, were
\nin any way prepared for any sort of physical confrontation, sustained injuries
\nfrom baton-wielding police officers and others were arbitrarily arrested. We
\nrefer you, inter alia, to the attached letter from George Galloway MP to the
\nCommissioner of the Metropolitan Police which details some of the gross and
\nunjustified brutality which accompanied much of the policing operation.<\/p>\n
We hold that this conduct is entirely unacceptable in a democratic country.
\nThe determination of the police to ensure that our voices cannot be heard in
\nWhitehall on an issue of urgent public controversy, at the apparent behest of
\nthe US President, presents a bleak picture of the government’s priorities.<\/p>\n
We are therefore seeking an urgent meeting with you to discuss this issue.
\nYou
\nwill understand that there can be no question of any further co-operation
\nbetween the Stop the War Coalition and the Metropolitan Police in regard to
\nfuture protests until these concerns are addressed to our satisfaction.<\/p>\n
Yours<\/p>\n
Andrew Murray
\nLindsey German<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The real purpose of George Bush’s visit to London became clear this afternoon, as Des Browne was set to announce more British troops are to be sent to Afghanistan, and Bush and Gordon Brown declared their intention to enforce further sanctions on Iran. The tea in Windsor Castle and dinner in Downing St made the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,20,1615],"tags":[55],"class_list":{"0":"post-3869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-contributions","7":"category-general","8":"category-uk-news","9":"tag-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}