George W Bush has touched down in London. The Age reports

Security in the British capital, Europe's biggest city with more than seven million inhabitants, was unprecedented for a state visit, with 14,000 officers -- practically half the Metropolitan Police -- on duty this week.

Several hundred gun-toting US Secret Service agents have also come over from Washington, and airliners flying into London's airports were being diverted away from the skies over the city centre.

This translates to one in every nine of the British constabulary protecting the great man. What was the real point here I wonder. Was the risk to GWB that great in London, The Green Man suspects not. The Green Man suspects the police, secret service agents and the air exclusion zone over London were a media exercise to send a message to British and American public on how dangerous things are at the moment to justify their massive expenditure on the war in Iraq.

In support of this hypothesis The Guardian reports that the support for the war in Iraq has surged with the arrival of GWB in London. A number of other factors undoubtedly contributed to this as well, in particular the recent suicide bombings in Turkey. Opposition to the war has fallen from 53% to 41%.

The view of America in the UK is generally rosy, 62% of British voters believe America is "generally speaking a force for good, not evil, in the world". I think we can safely say, however, that Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London is firmly located in the remaining 38%. The Independent reports him as saying GWB is the "greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen" and that the current administration in the USA is "the most corrupt and racist American administration in over 80 years".

Mr Livinston is hosting a reception at London City tomorrow to which you are invited provided you are not George W himself. Mr Livingston's logic being

I don't formally recognise George Bush because he was not officially elected. So we are organising an alternative reception for everybody who is not George Bush.