Condi and her beau slip in the back entrance

BBC Radio are reporting that Condileezza Rice and her beau for the weekend handsome, slim, debonair, man about town, Jack Straw used the back entrance this morning. Visiting Plackgate School they avoided the massive demonstration of banner waving children, parents and Anti War protesters by slipping in quietly.

At the school visited by Rice and Straw, about 200 protesters stood across the street with banners and signs, chanting "Condi Rice Go Home!" One demonstrator held a yellow hand-lettered sign that read "How Many Lives Per Gallon?" reports the Lexington Herald Leader. and details the Opponents of the Iraq war Web site, www.condiwatch.co.uk
, that listed times and locations for marches and gatherings. Protesters planned to distribute T-shirts that read, "Fab Four, Not War," in reference to Liverpool's most famous export, The Beatles.

The Jerusalem Post report Rice was greeted by protesters carrying anti-war banners, along with cries of 'war criminal' and 'human rights abuser' as she joined British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on a tour of northern England on Friday.

Meanwhile the Daily Mail reports she is off to BAE Systems at Warton, Nr Blackburn Lancs, where the Eurofighter Typhoon jet is built (never far from war our gal) - and will allegedly discuss the joint JSF Stike Fighter alternate engine to be built by Rolls Royce for which US$2.7Bn. funding was withdrawn from next year's military budget.

Under the heading (syndicated in many other papers)" Rice Gets the Cold Shoulder in Britain" the British Columbia , Canada Hinewburg Journal reports the AP story ...which says ...

"LIVERPOOL, England - Demonstrators organized marches to call Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a war criminal and human rights abuser as she joined British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on a tour of his adopted northern England working-class home."

STOP PRESS NEWS

NELSON solicitor and Euro MP Sajjad Karim today told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to visit the area this weekend unless she apologised for the war in Iraq and for the prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay, dismissed the visit as a "shameless publicity stunt."

Mr Karim said: "I think it is wholly inappropriate for Jack Straw to be organising a series of events for Ms Rice designed to do nothing more than provide the world's press with a photo opportunity.

"While Mr Straw and Ms Rice are being entertained to a series of gala events and lavish dining, I doubt the British forces serving in Basra, the innocent Iraqis caught up in the turmoil in their own country or the detainees at Guantanamo Bay will be celebrating her visit in such style."

Mr Karim, who grew up in Brierfield, admitted high profile state visits were normally good at boosting the tourism and local economy of the region.

However, he blamed Ms Rice for the instability in Iraq and for Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-ray, in Cuba, where hundreds of people suspected of terrorism are held without charge.

"Condoleezza Rice is directly responsible for what has happened at Guantanamo Bay, where people are being held against international law, and the extraordinary rendition of innocent people by the CIA.

"Unless Ms Rice is planning on using this trip to apologise for the war in Iraq or to announce the release of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, she may as well stay at home so far as I am concerned."

7:00pm Thursday 30th March 2006 Lancs Evening Post

Well said Mr Karim - no use him expecting ennoblement then.