Bush comes close to home, but not close enough
The old lady in Co-op muttered that Sedgefield had never seen anything like it as she braced herself for the police to search her shopping bags, presumably for weapons of mass destruction. Down the road at the Hope Inn, the locals stared into their pints bemoaning the virtual shutdown of their village; meanwhile outside, the Village Green was submerged in a sea of protestors, journalists, camera trucks and fluorescent jackets. The disruption, the helicopters hovering above, the hoards of police, and the not so subtle undercover agents pointed to one thing: Dubya was in town to meet Tony and the folks.
Sedgefield isn’t the most accessible place at the best of times. With no railway station and an irregular bus service which turns up when the driver rather than the passengers wish, getting to Sedgefield is in itself a challenge. Add to this the closure of the main access routes in and out of the village in deference to Bush’s visit, and Tony must have been confident that here, of all places, in the bosom of his constituents, George was sure to get a warm welcome. Anti-Bush sentiment can’t be that strong in Sedgefield – can it?
An eclectic mixture of protestors, young and old, provided the answer. School children against the war, pensioners against the war, Trade Unionists, veterans of the Miners’ strikes, Tony Blair’s priest, Mosque groups from Bradford and Oldham, oh, and the police all awaited Bush on the Green. In fact everyone apart from the US President and the British Premier turned up. Around 1,500 in fact descended on the Village Green and lined the High Street with placards, posters and chants. Not all those present were protesting against the Iraqi War. Amongst those protesting against the US President’s visit was Ann Marsh who had bought her baby along in order to voice her opposition to “Bush’s actions, which threatened the very existence of the planet.”
Amongst the crowd there was the occasional pro-Bush banner and the odd inquisitive spectator who had decided to turn up in Sedgefield, not to vent their anger at Bush, but instead to welcome him to the north-east. Typifying these was 67 year old Bill Wilkinson, from Easington Co Durham, who revealed that whilst not “particularly enamoured to Mr Bush” he had decided that as he had never seen Mr Blair in his constituency, let alone the US President, today was the ideal time. Unfortunately, Bill along with the protestors was to be disappointed as the protestors and greeters were kept at arms length from the President. Whilst George enjoyed fish and chips with mushy peas (presumably pretzels weren’t on the menu) in Tony’s local, the Dun Cow Inn, the protestors and the police froze on the Green.
As it became more and more apparent that Blair and Bush weren’t going to make an appearance, the crowd began to disperse. Throughout good-natured, I couldn’t help but feel that the police operation had been somewhat excessive with 1,300 police assigned to protect the President in Durham, and the constant overt presence of the Metropolitan Police’s Surveillance teams filming all those present. When quizzed by nouse, a Met Officer who refused to be named, pointed to the “necessity to monitor the ten percent of trouble makers present in the crowds”. Presumably then my maths isn’t very good because I witnessed no trouble. Equally worrying was his declaration that all footage and photos were retained on police file. However, when confronted by nouse, following Bush’s visit, Durham’s Assistant Chief Constable, Gary Barnett, sought to play down concerns regarding the infringement of civil liberties stating that “any material gathered that is not used for evidential purposes is destroyed”.
And so following one day of traffic chaos, tearful mums being barred from picking up their kids from school, a £1 million policing bill and a two hour pub lunch, George W. Bush left town. Meanwhile, the residents were left asking themselves whether it worth all the hassle for what was the most expensive trip to the local in history.
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