Snowmail: bidding Bush farewell
Updated on 16 June 2008
What's in store on tonight's programme...
I have spent the morning with George Bush. Not alone, you understand.
A George Bush conference these days requires the entire closure of Whitehall, barricades, extraordinarily large numbers of police and a string of vehicles not unlike armoured personnel carriers. I suppose it was ever so, it just feels just a little more embattled than for previous presidents.
Dear Snowmail reader, your correspondent was in what we call a "lock-in" from half past eight to gone 12 noon. And I can only say the taxpayer has nothing to complain about in the Locarno room.
Mr President and Gordon, as they referred to each other, appeared to get on extraordinarily well, and it was notable the extent to which Gordon Brown was prepared to shower lavish praise on the president and all that he stands for.
As for Mr President, he returned the shower in a slightly scatological way.
The event took place in the colonial wastes of the Locarno room, at the foreign office.
Aggressively un-American: no air-conditioning, drab feel, musty smell, windows that appeared not have been opened since Victoria was on the throne and no water or coffee or any other hospitable indication of interest in what Gordon Brown called our shared values.
Now, you might say these are the small-minded observations of a whinging hack who had done without breakfast and you would be right.
Dear Snowmail reader, your correspondent was in what we call a "lock-in" from half past eight to gone 12 noon. And I can only say the taxpayer has nothing to complain about in the Locarno room.
Not one penny was spent on presenting our American brethren and sisters any sense of either style or welcome.
In the event, the majority of journalists there seemed to me to be from the Middle East and beyond. They of course have caught the thick edge of Mr President's tongue, for which he expressed regret in The Times newspaper at the weekend.
So what happened|? Well in this, his valedictory tour of Europe, he took the opportunity to say that maybe it wasn't the last time he would appear here.
I'm afraid there was an audible gasp from some of the technicians. As for content, solid on Iraq , solid on Afghanistan, solid on terror, solid on oil prices, solid on life and solid on the Bush legacy. Though as to precisely what that is, we were not told.
More soldiers for Afghanistan
However, this will allow us tonight to explore what is happening in Iraq, there are strong indications that Britain is finally moving to get out; and Afghanistan, where there are solid indications of our getting in ever deeper.
As Gary Gibbon will report another 230 soldiers have been committed today and that certainly does not seem to be the end of it.
Mann 'criminal bastard' ahead of trial
We have an exclusive tonight form Equatorial Guinea. Not often I can write that so I'll wallow in it while it lasts.
Tomorrow sees the scheduled start of the trial there against the maverick old Etonian who - as he himself told this very programme in a previous exclusive - was party to an attempted coup plot against Equatorial Guinea. Well, tonight we have an interview with the country's president, against whose rule the coup was aimed.
The president calls Simon Mann a "criminal bastard" - which doesn't seem to bode too well for his prospects. Sue Turton will be reporting from this tropical oil-rich despotism.
Watch our exclusive interview with Simon Mann.
What now for the EU?
David Miliband and other Euro foreign ministers are struggling to sort out what happens in the aftermath of the Irish no.
Tory green agenda
A big speech from David Cameron today on his green agenda. It's interesting stuff and we will see whether the Tory leader may grace us with an interview... Oh dear, just as I wrote that my "booker" announced that Mr Cameron is not going to talk to us.
There's some great golf picture today, with Tiger Woods putting his way to a run-off for the title.
And finally, come back Dylan Thomas, all is forgiven. A new film starring Keira Knightley on the day she's been dispossessed as the face of Chanel perfume, Coco Mademoiselle.
What on earth that has to with the fascinating piece on the great Welshman that Stephanie West is working on, I really don't know.
What I do know is that tonight is both an eclectic and electric programme. We'll be giving you the full 240 volts tonight at seven.
And on More4 News with Kylie Morris
As his would-be successors consider which bits to keep and which bits to throw away, we're taking a two-and-a-half-minute spin through the foreign policy legacy of the aforementioned George Bush.
Also, if you're a teen with an eye on future honours, which career should you choose? Yes, on the occasion of Prince William's royal knighthood, we've a how-to guide on ermine and medals and what they tell us about Britain today.
Join us at eight.
