Protests sour Secretary Rice's UK visit

Condoleezza Rice's visit with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has been controversial. Picture / Reuters

BRITAIN - It was to have been British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's repayment for the hospitality, football and authentic southern food afforded him in Condoleezza Rice's native Alabama last year: a two-day whistlestop tour introducing the United States Secretary of State to the "real" Britain of Blackburn and Liverpool.

But Rice's trip to northwest England reached the realms of fiasco when a mosque withdrew its invitation to her, a headteacher fielded complaints from parents about her visit to his school and anti-war protesters geared up for hostilities.

In Liverpool, where one newspaper columnist likened the visit to that of Oswald Mosley, the Philharmonic Hall scoured its C-list of possible comperes for a gala evening in Rice's honour, following refusals by poet Roger McGough and actress Cathy Tyson.

The response to the visit in Straw's Blackburn constituency had been relatively positive before the Masjide Al Hidayah mosque announced it was withdrawing its invitation to Rice. Ibrahim Master, a member of the mosque's governing committee and Lancashire's deputy lord lieutenant, said there were safety concerns around plans by Muslims opposed to the weekend visit to protest in the building.

"The visit wasn't cancelled because we don't like Condoleezza Rice," Ibrahim insisted.

But some of the mosque's 100 members revealed their committee had decided to accept Straw's request to visit before consulting them and had been forced to reverse their decision when the level of opposition became clear.

"The young members of the mosque are more politicised," said one member.

"They took a stand and the committee had to accept that they should have consulted members first."

Rice's visit to Pleckgate High School remained on the schedule despite fierce opposition from a number of Asian Muslim parents.

A group of around 40 parents staged a protest about head teacher Robin Campbell's failure to consult them about the visit, and Campbell also held two meetings with small groups of parents who were opposed.

"At the end of the day, we are responding to a request from our MP, who is Jack Straw, to host a foreign dignitary," Campbell said.

"We are celebrating the achievements of [the] school."

In Liverpool workers erected security barriers near the Philharmonic Hall where Rice was expected to run a gauntlet of opposition.

Straw made a highly personal appeal to Liverpudlians to accept Rice, in a letter published in the Liverpool Echo this week. "Secretary Rice is without doubt one of the most powerful people in the world," he wrote. "[But she is] is also black. And if you were black, and brought up in Alabama, at the time one of the most racist states ... then you don't forget that you are black."

- INDEPENDENT