LONDON - George W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth lookalikes in an open-top coach, a giant inflatable missile and a pink "peace tank" wound through London on Wednesday in a cavalcade of protest against the U.S. president's visit to Britain.

London protesters prepare statue of George Bush. During Thursday's large march through London, protesters plan to use the Bush figure in a re-enactment of the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad.

The march was a colorful prelude to demonstrations on Thursday, when some 100,000 people are expected to take to capital's streets to express their anger about the war in Iraq.

"I'm ashamed to be British. I'm ashamed Tony Blair and the Queen are entertaining this megalomaniac," said Cherry Bennet, 40, a scriptwriter from London.

"I'm not a mad left-winger," she added. "I'm middle England."

Bennet was among hundreds of people gathered on the south bank of the River Thames where Wednesday's "Alternative State Procession" began. Security concerns meant Bush himself missed out on the traditional open-carriage parade along the Mall by Buckingham Palace.

The protest cavalcade rumbled away, led by a horse-drawn carriage carrying "Bush and the queen." Behind the coach was an 18-foot-long inflatable Trident missile and a pink "peace and love" tank, driven by a young boy.

Around 50 police were in attendance. They estimated the number of demonstrators at 350 although organizers said the turnout was higher.

A black cab represented "taxi drivers against the war" and a red bus advertised its route as London-Baghdad. Some marchers were dressed as U.N. weapons inspectors or Guantanamo Bay detainees.

"This is really street theater symbolizing all the different elements of the peace movement. It presages tomorrow which we hope will be the largest weekday demonstration," said Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition, one of the organizers.

"George Bush may leave Friday but Tony Blair is going to pay the consequences for a very long time."

Banners proclaimed the United States was the "excess of evil" and declared Bush was "one piece of garbage we are prepared to dismantle here" -- a reference to the so-called "ghost fleet" of U.S. ships on its way to Britain for scrapping.

Airline worker Dawn Totten, 50, said she had flown from her home in the United States to join the protest. "I came all the way from San Francisco because demonstrations go unrecognized and unreported there."

Asked if she had a message for Bush, she said: "I'd like to tell him to stay here."

© Reuters 2003.

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