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’.