How ministers saw the bright side when Bush took a tumble
IT was a moment of acute embarrassment for the US President and meant a visit to hospital for the policeman with whom he collided.
But George W Bush falling off his bike during the G8 summit at Gleneagles in Perthshire in the summer of 2005 was secretly celebrated by Scottish ministers.
Cabinet papers released from the archives indicate that Jack McConnell’s Labour/Lib Dem coalition government viewed the VIP mishap as a ‘positive’ opportunity to showcase Scotland to the world.
The then First Minister had claimed in the run-up to the event that hosting world leaders at the Perthshire resort would hand Scotland a £500million boost.
That seemed a forlorn boast, though, as footage of anarchist mobs blocking the M9 and smashing up Edinburgh and Stirling city centres flashed across news channels around the world.
However, a memo from August 2005 – part of a batch of historical papers released today by National Records of Scotland – shows that the then finance minister, Tom McCabe, believed the accident-prone President had ridden to the rescue.
He advised Cabinet colleagues: ‘While the Scottish and some national media hinted that the clashes between police and the minority of protesters later in the week might harm Scotland’s reputation, this story did not run internationally.
‘ Transport problems as a result of protesters and the road blockades did, however, make international news. On a more positive note, President Bush’s fall from his mountain bike and his subsequent praise for Scotland and its beauty did feature quite widely internationally, positioning Scotland in a positive light.’
Mr McCabe admitted that the summit had seen Edinburgh’s tourist trade take a financial hit but he claimed, bizarrely, that it had showed off Scotland as a good place to stage a protest.
He stated: ‘Whilst the shortterm impact on businesses in Edinburgh was not terribly positive, with many reporting a reduction in visitors, VisitScotland remains of the view that the long-term impact of hosting G8 will be positive.
‘It has enhanced Scotland’s reputation and demonstrated that the country can both hold major international events and play host to demonstrators wishing to exercise their democratic rights.’
Two months later, though, Mr McCabe handed the Cabinet research which showed the true G8 windfall was minuscule compared with McConnell’s forecast.
He told fellow ministers that ‘there had been a net benefit tt o Scotland of around £5million. ‘In addition, the summit had generated media coverage of Scotland with an estimated value of £66million, a fifigure that would have been higher had it not been for the terroriste bombings in London on July 7.’ Predicting a media backlash, ‘the Cabinet agreed that the publication of the detailed cost/benefit analysis would require careful handling’. Mr McCabe told MSPs in December 2005 that the windfall to Scotland from ‘ the longer term pattern of coverage [was] £618 million’ – despite admitting to the Cabinet behind closed doors that that figure was ‘not robust’. President Bush suffered grazes when he fell from his bike as he cycled round the grounds of Gleneagles. He had been waving to a squad of riot police when he lost control and crashed i nto the l ower l eg of an officer who was left on crutches following hospital treatment for an ankle injury. The three-day summit brought together all the world’s major leaders – among them Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac – to discuss global issues such as climate change and African debt. A £91million security operation manned by 10,000 police officers was launched to keep Gleneagles secure and marshal days of protests, which included a 250,000-strong anti-globalisation march through Edinburgh. Cabinet papers are released into the public domain once 15 years have elapsed.
‘Praise for Scotland and its beauty’