President George Bush's forthcoming state visit to Britain is being derided as an ill-advised trip at an even more ill-advised time. An American president, vilified by much of the British media, will meet a supposedly weak British prime minister. Tens of thousands of protesters plan to throng the streets. In a supposedly satirical rerun of events in Baghdad on April 9, a statue of George Bush will be hauled down in the center of London. Americans may find some of the vituperation heaped upon their president surprising and shocking; David Frum believes that for Bush the trip could turn into "one of the worst media debacles of his presidency." Britain, it might appear, is not quite the close ally many Americans would like to think that she is.

Yet the oddity of Britain is that while the press and public opinion have been volatile in their attitude towards the Iraq war, British political leaders, in government and opposition, are remarkably united in supporting the U.S. administration...