Rice shrugs off anti-war protests

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today shrugged off the anti-war protests that have dogged her visit to Britain.

At a final press conference at Blackburn Town Hall in British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s constituency, Dr Rice insisted that she had enjoyed a warm welcome in the region.

“Democracy is the only system that allows people to be heard and be heard peacefully,” she said.

“When there are more places where people’s voices can be heard peacefully, especially in he Middle East, we are all going to be better off.”

Even as she was speaking the chanting of some 200 demonstrators who had gathered outside the town hall could be clearly heard in the conference room.

Mr Straw, however, suggested that the turnout had been far less than anti-war campigners had been hoping for.

“They said they were going to get busloads and busloads in. If they had asked me I could have done better,” he said.