Hail to the Chief

George Bush needs to be pictured with the Queen to impress voters in the forthcoming presidential election, but, says Peter Oborne, next week’s state visit by the Commander-in-Chief is causing chaos

It is obvious why Tony Blair agreed that next week’s visit to Britain by George Bush was a good idea. It was suggested in the aftermath of the invasion of Afghanistan. The Blair–Bush relationship was at its strongest, and the transatlantic alliance at its most formidable: the Iraq war yet to come.

Over the past few weeks, Downing Street, the White House and Buckingham Palace have been urgently coming to terms with an invitation issued rather too casually when the world was a different place. It is causing chaos. In the palace, where the imminent arrival of the President is in certain respects a welcome distraction from the Prince Charles crisis, Prince Philip is loudly harrumphing that he feels ‘under siege’.

Much, though by no means all, of the trouble comes from the decision to invite President Bush on a state visit. The Queen has known all the 11 US presidents of her reign, starting with Harry Truman. Most have visited London. All of them, even Ronald Reagan in his pomp, arrived as heads of governments rather than heads of state. Everything was that bit more relaxed. Visiting presidents could stay at the ambassador’s residence off Regent’s Park, where the security is less obtrusive.

Not so this time. Buckingham Palace is not equipped to cope with George Bush. The 100 new telephone lines and elaborate satellite networks that inevitably accompany an American president are causing dismay. One courtier expressed alarm that they will disrupt domestic communications in the palace, above all committing the cardinal sin of interfering with the Queen’s favourite viewing, Channel Four Racing and Coronation Street.