Barack Obama begins first official day of his state visit to Britain – meeting the Queen, David Cameron and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
• Obama's visit in pictures
guardian.co.uk
Barack Obama talks with the Queen as they tour the Buckingham Palace portrait gallery. Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AP
8.21pm: At last, the lifting of embargo restrictions allows Julian Borger at Buckingham Palace to tell you what Obama and co have been dining on tonight, and who is there:
President Obama is tonight being fed on Windsor lamb and English wine at the Buckingham Palace state banquet.
The 170 guests under the chandeliers in the great ballroom are a transatlantic mix of aristocracy, raw state power, and celebrity.
For example, Tom Hanks is sitting between Ffion Hague and Lady Phillips of Worth Matravers. Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, has been placed next to C, the head of MI6, Sir John Sawers. Boris Johnson is next to Helena Bonham-Carter, who has been invited along with her husband Tim Burton.
Princess Michael of Kent is on the mayor's other side. After their notable absence from the Royal Wedding last month, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and their wives, are back on the Buckingham Palace guest list.
The menu is patriotically homegrown. Sole in crayfish sauce is followed by New Season Windsor lamb with basil, sauteed courgettes and radishes, green beans, potatoes and salad. Dessert is vanilla and cherry charlotte.
Most strikingly, a Sussex vintage is at the top of the wine list, a 2004 Ridgeview Cuve(acute)e Merret Fitzrovia Rose (acute) - a breakthrough moment for British wine perhaps.
8.09pm: Julian Borger tweets another insight into the British monarchy in 2011:
#Obama banquet: Me: is there WiFi here? Courtier: No, we haven't gone completely Starbucks yet.
8.06pm: The menu and rather interesting guest list for the State banquet at Buckingham Palace is embarged until 8.20, tweets the Guardian's Diplomatic Editor, Julian Borger.
We'll bring full details to you as soon as the veil of secrecy is lifted of course.
8.03pm: The challenges facing "progressive politics" on both sides of the Atlantic were discussed during the meeting earlier between Labour leader Ed Miliband and US president Barack Obama, the Press Association reports.
It was part of a wide-ranging agenda during what aides said was a "warm and friendly" 40-minute meeting between the pair at Buckingham Palace.
Topics included how to capture "a sense of optimism and national mission", dealing with declining living standards and rebuilding post-crash economies.
They also talked about climate change and foreign policy challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya.
Mr Obama left the meeting with a gift from the Opposition leader of a London 2012 Olympic basketball - the president's favourite sport.
A pair of Olympic mascot toys were also handed over for him to give to his daughters, who are not on the trip with him.
8.01pm: This is Ben Quinn taking over the news blog.
Jackie Kennedy at Heathrow airport, 1966. Photograph: Rex Features 5.40pm: Here's a gallery of first lady fashion, including Cherie Blair dressed as a member of Shakespears Sister. That's a great coat Jackie Kennedy's wearing, though.
5.29pm: Labour sources are briefing that their policies on the deficit are much more similar to Barack Obama's than the coalition's are. A source pointed out that George Osborne had "started cutting in 2010 before the recovery had been locked in", resulting in zero growth in the UK in the last six months, while Obama's plan is to "begin discretionary measures to cut the deficit in 2012 - when the recovery has been locked in". The result, according to Labour, is growth in the US economy and falling unemployment.
The source also quoted Obama's 2011 state of the union address, in which he said some measures to cut the deficit would be too damaging, which Labour compares to its own approach:
Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may make you feel like you're flying high at first, but it won't take long before you feel the impact.
David Cameron is hoping Obama will back his view on the deficit when they meet again for substantial talks tomorrow. As Patrick Wintour points out:
*** Any implicit endorsement of the government's deficit reduction plan by the Democrat president would be a massive political prize for the Conservatives, helping to immunise the prime minister from some Labour attacks that the cuts go too fast and too deep.
Photograph: Paul Hackett/PA
5.20pm: Photocalls of politicians playing sport are always a recipe for disaster, but these pictures of Barack Obama and David Cameron playing table tennis at the Globe Academy in south London this afternoon are particularly good examples of the genre. Above, we see an awkward high five between the two leaders; Obama looks peevish, Cameron smug and bumptious; he must have just won the point.
Photograph: Paul Hackett/PA
In this second picture, all is forgiven, as the two leaders clutch each other's backs in a matey style.
Photograph: Paul Hackett/AP
Next comes this impressive action shot, with Obama moving in for the kill – and perhaps even stepping ungallantly on Cameron's shot ...
Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AP
Frankly, Cameron needs to raise his game. In this image he actually has one hand in his pocket. Complacent.
5.17pm: It looks like Obama and Cameron played some table tennis at the Globe Academy. Slightly embarrassing pictures to follow.
5.08pm: Hadley Freeman writes from New York with some details of how the US press is viewing Obama's trip.
*** "Tornado-Damaged Missouri Braces for Second Storm, Obama Arrives in London" read today's headline on pbs.org, summing up the general attitude of the American media to the presidential tour of Britain: yes, he's there, but so what? At most, it's a secondary story, certainly compared to the tornadoes in the Midwest and the reverberations still felt from the president's statements about the Middle East last week.
This was never going to be an easy trip, for Obama or the US press. Aside from the distraction of domestic issues, the sheer number of international issues he intends to attend to on this trip were enough to give most American readers news fatigue.
The Obamas' meeting with Kate and Wills helped to bump the story to more prominence on Tuesday, as they are still seen as interesting in their own right, whereas poor Ireland was viewed illuminating mainly in relation to stories about other countries, particularly those in the Middle East, and Obama's distant relatives.
The New York Times has been providing daily coverage of the tour, but in an ever so slightly sceptical, even reluctant tone, and it has made repeated jibes about the cliché of a US president claiming a distant familial connection in Ireland. (The Daily News, on the other hand, ran towards the Irish cliches with the eagerness of an American searching for his ancestors.)
In Tuesday's New York Times, the Obamas drinking Guinness got a good half page - but it was deemed two pages less interesting than another UK story detailing the noble effort of little known "soccer player" to ban internet gossip, a saga that has caused much amusement among American bloggers who are, perhaps, less shocked at the concept of celebrity tittle tattle.
But tellingly, Obama's announcement in London that he will visit Missouri on Sunday instantly got more play on New York Post's website than the pictures of him with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, a couple heretofore revered above all other by American tabloids. Still they can console themselves with the confirmation that they are, officially, seen as the most interesting royals to Americans: the Queen got a few token references in the press but poor Camilla had to make do with a photo in which she is wholly obscured by the president. One can only be grateful, incidentally, that Jon Stewart is away this week so expat viewers don't have to endure his impression, again, of the Queen, one that bears closer relation to Dame Edna than Queen Elizabeth.
4.58pm: Education correspondent Jessica Shepherd sends some details about the Globe Academy, the school in south London that David Cameron took Barack Obama to see this afternoon.
It is no surprise that Cameron decided to take Obama to the Globe Academy in Southwark, south-east London.
While the school started out as a Labour project – and was opened in 2008 by the then children's secretary Ed Balls – it has rapidly become the coalition's destination of choice for launches of youth-related initiatives.
In April, Nick Clegg announced the government's new social mobility strategy on a tour of its classrooms, while a year earlier during the general election campaign, Cameron used the same spot to tell the public of his plans for a national citizen service.
Michael Gove, the education secretary, paid a visit in September to open some of the school's new buildings, including one named after the hedge fund millionaire Paul Marshall.
As if that wasn't enough, the Globe's executive principlal is the politicians' favourite headteacher, Sir Michael Wilshaw. Wilshaw, who is also headteacher of Mossbourne academy in Hackney, east London, is credited with transforming failing schools in the most deprived parts of the country into success stories.
The school takes pupils aged three to 18 and was forged from the merger of Joseph Lancaster primary and Geoffrey Chaucer Technology College. Its sponsor is the academy chain Ark. Inspectors rated the school as "good" with potential for excellence at their last visit just before Easter.
4.55pm: Apparently Obama signed the visitors' book in Westminster Abbey "24 May 2008". Well, he's got a lot on his mind. And 2008 was a big year for him.
4.54pm: Obama is now on his way back to Buckingham Palace to meet Ed Miliband.
4.43pm: Alexandra Topping has more on the gift-giving:
Getting the gift right on formal state occasions can be a political minefield, as Barack Obama found on his last visit to the UK. The president was loudly derided in some parts of the British press for giving the then-prime minister Gordon Brown a measly 25-film DVD box-set, which, the snipers argued, could not even play in the UK, because of the DVD region code.
On this state visit, however, clearly a lot of thought has gone into making sure there were no opportunities for a present faux-pas.
Perhaps bearing in mind that William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, were likely to be all gifted-out after their recent nuptials, the Obamas presented the newlyweds with six MacBook Notebook computers donated to their chosen charity, Peace Players International in Belfast.
The Queen's present was somewhat more personal - a collection of rare memorabilia and photographs in a handmade leather bound album telling the tale of the visit of her parents - King George VI and Queen Elizabeth - to the United States in 1939.
Green-fingered Charles, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, were presented with a selection of plants, seedlings and seeds from the gardens of Mount Vernon, Monticello and the South Lawn of the White House, as well as jars of honey from the White House beehive.
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, a fan of carriage driving, that well-known sport much beloved of the Duke of Beaufort, received a custom-made set of Fell Pony shanks, each adorned with the presidential seal, in addition to original horseshoes worn by recently retired champion carriage horse Jamaica.
The Obamas were given a selection of letters from the royal archives to and from past US presidents and English monarchs, and as an added bonus Michelle Obama also received an antique brooch made of gold and red coral in the form of roses.
Photograph: Rex Features 4.37pm: A Labour source has just been on the phone to give some details of Barack Obama's upcoming meeting with Ed Miliband (left). Miliband has met Obama several times before, most often at the Copenhagen climate change summit when he was climate change secretary. On the agenda for the Obama-Miliband meeting today is:
• Political strategy.
• The Middle East.
• Libya.
On political strategy, the source said they would focus on "the need for parties to capture a sense of optimism and national image ... What Obama did and what Ed hopes to do."
The source said the meeting would last 20-30 minutes.
4.11pm: Barack Obama and David Cameron are visiting a secondary school in south London, the Globe Academy, Southwark – something not announced beforehand. Looks like Ed Miliband will have to wait.
Michelle Obama's visit to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington, north London, in which she talked movingly about what the pupils could achieve even if they came from poor backgrounds, was a big hit for her in 2009.
4.00pm: Obama and Cameron are now leaving Downing Street after that brief meeting. The more substantial meeting between the two leaders will take place tomorrow. Barack Obama is now off to meet Ed Miliband at Buckingham Palace. (Correction: please see next post.)
Barack Obama greets members of the choir at Westminster Abbey. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
3.54pm: The Press Association didn't get as much out of the Obamas' trip to Westminster Abbey. Here is the news agency's best quote from Michelle Obama at the abbey:
It's a pleasure to be here again.
And here's what Barack said:
She gets to come to all the fun places.
And:
So nice to see you. how are you?
Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters
3.48pm: The Press Association has some more details of the Obamas' visit to the picture gallery at Buckingham Palace today (left).
Barack Obama was shown letters and artefacts charting Britain's loss of its American colonies, and joked: "That was only a temporary blip in the relationship."
The Queen and Prince Philip showed the Obamas a special exhibition of US memorabilia. Barack Obama looked at a handwritten manuscript by George III from 1783 in which the king proclaimed "America is lost", and the president was shown a photograph of HMS Resolute, timbers from which were used to make the desk in the Oval Office.
"This is my desk in the Oval Office. I think we got a pretty good deal out of that," Obama said.
One display in which the late Queen Mother excitedly declared she had eaten hot dogs during a stay with the Roosevelts in 1939 provoked laughter from the US president, the news agency reported.
The then-queen declared in a letter to her daughter Princess Elizabeth:
There were a lot of people there and we all sat at little tables under the trees round the house and had all our food on one plate - a little salmon, some turkey, some ham, lettuce, beans & HOT DOGS too!
The Obamas were also shown letters and pictures from the first royal visit to the US in 1860 by the Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII. He tried to travel incognito under the name Lord Renfrew.
"Theoretically," the Queen was heard to remark as this was discussed.
Obama said: "I guess he wasn't fooling anybody."
3.41pm: The president and prime minister and their wives greet one another in front of 10 Downing Street (see below).
Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
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3.40pm: Next stop Downing Street. David Cameron and his wife Samantha are just coming out of the door to greet the US president.
3.34pm: Some details of the exchange of gifts between the heads of state. Barack Obama gave the Queen a handmade leather-bound photo album containing chronological highlights of the visit of her parents to the US in 1939 – the first visit to US by a reining British monarch.
In return the president was given a selection of letters from the royal archive and Michelle Obama was given a brooch.
Obama has got in a bit of trouble over gifts before. In 2009, Gordon Brown gave the president an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet, while Obama gave him a set of 25 DVDs, which was seen as an insufficiently thoughtful present.
The Obamas are leaving Westminster Abbey now, to screams from the crowd.
3.15pm: Michael White was on the Buckingham Palace lawn for the beginning of the state visit (and some hours before):
Gosh, at my time of life you forget to live blog the drama, let alone tweet the views. Old habits die hard. But better late than never. Those of us who were assigned to watch the official start of the state visit on the Buck House lawn had to arrive two hours early and were gently chilled in winds gusting in over the high garden wall.
The White House press corps, always an important part of the imperial court which is the travelling White House, were ushered in first: I've been on the White House zoo plane and they always get treated like minor royalty - though in Ronald Reagan's day Mrs Thatcher insisted that they all go through immigration - network TV stars and all - just like everyone else.
Anyway who's complaining. They got cold too and our very own royal rat pack - Fleet St's royal reporters - got special treatment too, freezing much closer to the expected action than the unwashed rest of us. The BBC's Andy Marr, who is making a three-part TV series for the Diamond Jubliee next February ( and the book tie-in), was at our end - about a football pitch away - so he could do a little piece to camera about the US-UK relationship with the Guardsmen and band pounding away behind him.
When not required on camera he was busy reading the Koran on his Kindle for Start the Week. Does that man never stop? He had 18 minutes on camera with the president on Sunday - for his Marr on Sunday show - which turned out to be 23 minutes because his ear piece stopped working.
Time hung heavy until the official party trooped out of the Palace a few minutes late and the soldiers, resplendent in ceremonial tunics, did their stuff. A hard-headed snapper on the viewing stand with me said " No matter how often you see them, it's still a stirring sight." Quite right too, though poor Michelle Obama had to hang on to her skirt.
3.06pm: The Obamas are now in Westminster Abbey, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
3.01pm: Obama's motorcade is leaving Buckingham Palace now – following the same route to Westminster Abbey, but in reverse, as the royal wedding three weeks ago.
2.50pm: Fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley on Michelle Obama's style:
Those keen to pinpoint exactly how an essential relationship differs from a special one will be tracking Michelle Obama's wardrobe choices closely. The President's wife has proved herself to have a talent for projecting a style which underscores and illustrates the Obama political message, whilst also showcasing her own personality. From the colour and glamour she brought to the campaign trail to the casual style she brings to appearances at her vegetable garden or with her daughters, she has proved herself adept at matching the look to the message.
Today's outfit for the palace visit will perhaps play better at home than it will in Britain: the full-skirted shape and curved collar referenced a gracious, homemade-lemonade vision of American womanhood which is perhaps what the American public want Mrs Obama to represent at Buckingham Palace. But to modern British eyes – post McQueen wedding dress, post Pippa madness – it looked somewhat stiff and upholstered.
Barack and Michelle Obama meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AFP/Getty Images
Indeed, the contrast with the new Duchess of Cambridge was marked and surprising. The First Lady was in girlish, almost princessly sheeny florals; the new Princess, by contrast, looked a vision of modern, transatlantic glamour. The dress, the blow-dry, the deep tan: this could be Victoria Beckham at a Los Angeles luncheon. What's more, Kate's dress is currently available on the British high street, for £175, from Reiss.
2.40pm: For a catch-up of events so so far, our picture desk has put together this gallery of the Obamas' visit so far. And here's James Meikle's story on the US president's arrival at Buckingham Palace.
2.35pm: The prize for the most bandwagon-jumping Obama-related press release so far goes to Cherish PR, which promotes a dating website by asking:
Michelle and Barack Obama – how do they do it?
"Power Couples don't just fall in love. They build an alliance with each other ..."
Power couple Michelle and Barak [sic] Obama are in the UK this week. A famously strong partnership, the trained lawyers have managed to successfully juggle work, children and a punishing schedule. What's the secret to their very happy 16 year marriage, and how can working couples who might not be in the spotlight maintain the right power balance in their relationship?
I like that reference to "working couples who might not be in the spotlight". It's important not to forget the little people.
2.25pm: Sam Jones is now in the Abbey:
Have run gauntlet of US secret service agents (stereotypically huge and ominous) and Met officers (very polite and friendly) and am now in Abbey cloisters. White House press corps has extremely stylish passes – twinge of envy ...
1.55pm: While the Obamas and royals enjoy an "informal" Buckingham Palace lunch for 60, Sam Jones is outside Westminster Abbey, the next stop on the itinerary, from where he sends the following:
A dozen police carriers around Methodist Central Hall and the ever-present chopper droning overhead. Abbey choristers waiting to go in as the last security sweep finishes up.
Abbey towers a beautiful chalk white against a cloud-smudged sky. A cool breeze shakes the chestnut trees in Dean's Yard.
If only that bloody helicopter would hush itself ...
1.40pm: And here is a video from Flickr user brmurray of the motorcade arriving at Buckingham Palace, complete with off-camera voices in the crowd asking "Did you see him?".
1.08pm: Alexandra Topping has this video of Obama's motorcade, and this interview with Obama supporter Moses Edewor, who is on holiday from Nigeria.
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12.44pm: The Press Association has filed on the Obamas' meeting with William and Kate, something the news agency described as "their first royal duty as a married couple".
Barack and Michelle Obama meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AFP/Getty Images
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met the Obamas in the "grand" 1844 room of Buckingham Palace. The PA report continues:
There were no television cameras nor reporters in the room for the meeting. A Clarence House spokeswoman said the couples spent around 20 minutes together, chatting informally.
12.38pm: It's pretty windy out there and the Queen and Camilla are having to hold on to their hats.
12.36pm: That 41-gun salute is still going on. The guard of honour are beginning to march away. Obama and the Queen are chatting politely.
12.33pm: Now Obama and the Duke of Edinburgh are inspecting the guard of honour. (It reminds me a bit of when you try the wine in a restaurant – it's pretty unlikely you're going to say it's not up to scratch.)
12.31pm: Michelle and Barack Obama are standing with their hands on their hearts next to the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh as they receive a 41-gun salute. It's actually quite dramatic.
12.10pm: While the Obamas are shown to their room (they stay in Buckingham Palace's "Belgian suite"), here is a US press review put together by Paul Owen – not that Obama's UK visit is exactly top of the US news agenda, he says.
In the New York Times, Roger Cohen discusses David Cameron's statement that he wanted relations with the US that were "solid" but not "slavish", and says the prime minister has achieved that on Israel, Libya and economic policy. But, he says, "the immediate test of the redefined US-British relationship is the ability of Obama and Cameron to deliver change in Tripoli fast and stop the conflict festering". Saudi Arabia needs watching too, Cohen suggests, an issue "that demands solid, un-slavish US-British unity to avoid the mother of explosions".
The Washington Post's Anthony Faiola says that Obama arrives in the UK as "the British are wondering whether their deeply indebted nation can maintain its subtantial international role", a debate, he says, that may foreshadow issues raised in next year's US presidential campaign.
Meanwhile the LA Times is concerned about how closely Obama is following the tornado damage in Missouri, Minnesota and the US Midwest while abroad: "While the president's two-day visit is devoted to emphasizing the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom - 'special relationship' is the officially preferred term - an aide said the president is also asking for frequent briefings from home."
11.57am: Obama is at the Palace.
Barack and Michelle Obama are greeted by the Queen and Prince Philip. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Yes, they are much much taller than the Queen and Prince Philip.
11.44am: A few minutes earlier, Alexandra Topping snapped this "bonafide American".
Zena Martin, who has lived in London for 13 years, was waiting in Regent's Park for her president, wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt and carrying a Michelle Obama bag.
"I wanted to show him that he had the support of his voters even in London," she said.
Less visible on this photograph, unless you look closely, is a pin on her lapel with intertwined US and UK flags.
11.41am: Obama's 22-car motorcade, with the US president in his bomb-proof "Beast", has now left Winfield House and is en route to Buckingham Palace. It includes Prince Charles' car, who met him in the US ambassadorial residence.
11.30am: Before the presidential motorcade departs for Buckingham Palace, here is a schedule with approximate timings for the next two days put together by my co-blogger Paul Owen.
Today
• Midday: Obama visits Buckingham Palace, meeting William and Kate, Charles and Camilla, and the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.
• Lunch with the Queen.
• 2pm: The Queen will take the Obamas to view Buckingham Palace's American art in the royal picture gallery.
• 3pm: Wreath-laying for the unknown warrior at Wesminster Abbey.
• 3.45pm: Arrival in Downing Street for meeting with David Cameron.
• 5pm: Obama meets Ed Miliband at Buckingham Palace.
• 5.30pm: Anti-war protest planned outside Buckingham Palace.
• 8.30pm: State banquet.
Tomorrow
• Talks between Obama and Cameron at 10 Downing Street.
• Obama address to both houses of parliament.
• Barbecue at No 10 hosted by Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron for families of military personnel.
• Dinner at Winfield House.
11.25am: Alexandra Topping reports "six beast-like 4x4s with blacked-out windows" coming out of Winfield House with a police motorcycle escort. Not the US president, apparently, but there is a rumour it could have been Michelle. Update: Here is a picture. Update 2: It wasn't Michelle
11.13am: More from Regent's Park, with less than an hour to go before Obama's arrival at Buckingham Palace:
Lin Morris, who lives by Regent's Park, has decided to stick around and see if she can get a glimpse of the President.
"I think he's fantastic, really cool in the old fashioned sense. I'm a bit of a groupie," she said.
These visits are important, she thinks. "It shows the British public that he cares and it shows the American public that it is a special, or essential as they are now saying, relationship."
Marika Bernadt, an Estonian who lives in Sweden has been waiting outside for hours: "I came to see him because for me Obama is the greatest hope for the world," she said.
10.55am: Alexandra Topping is waiting for Obama outside Winfield House, the US ambassador's Regent's Park home, and has this to add:
Well, I'm around 200 yards away and there's no chance of getting any closer. Jolly coppers everywhere advising me that if I try and get any closer they'll have to rugby tackle me. I'm not risking it.
According to one policeman there have been around three patriotic Americans so far. Poor show chaps. Asked how many police are here he answered: "I couldn't say. Lots."
10.40am: Obama is making a statement on the Missouri tornado from the US ambassador's London residence, another attempt to convey that "split-screen focus" (see 9am) on events at home. One of the travelling White House press corp, Mark Knoller of CBS, tweets that Obama says he will personally inspect tornado damage and meet with victims on Sunday, after his return from Europe.
The US president describes himself as "heartbroken" by the devastation, which has claimed more than 100 lives, and tells survivors the US government will "stay by your side".
10.20am: Andrew Sparrow wonders if Nick Clegg still stands by his comments in the general election campaign on the special relationship:
I think it's sometimes rather embarrassing the way Conservative and Labour politicians talk in this kind of slavish way about the special relationship
Clegg is taking questions in the Commons today.
10am: Obama, of course, flew in to Britain early to avoid the ash cloud. Not so Latvian prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis who has just called off his UK visit tomorrow and Thursday because of the Grimsvotn volcano's spewings.
9.50am: No "beast", the Obama car, yet visible on the streets of London so royal biographer Penny Junor is telling the BBC about preparations for tonight's state dinner. The horseshoe-shaped table will take an astonishing seven hours to prepare, some of which time will be taken up measuring the distance between place settings so they are a uniform distance apart (anything else would be vulgar). Good topics of conversation with the Queen are dogs and horses. Luckily Obama has a dog. Junor also tells us: "The royal family is not that interested in wine, they are more spirit drinkers."
9.25am: Andrew Sparrow has more on the special relationship on his politics blog:
One of the depressing features of an American presidential visit to the UK is that it always triggers a banal debate about the "special relationship". The Americans think that it's just a symptom of British insecurity (which it probably is). British prime minsters also tend to wish that they didn't have to keep banging on about it, but they fear that if the "special relationship" doesn't get a mention, the press will claim that Britain has sufffered a diplomatic downgrade on their watch. So every time we go through the SR rigmarole.
9am: NPR reports on the White House's efforts to convey Obama's "split-screen focus" on events at home while he travels abroad. Drinking Guinness in Moneygall was juxtaposed on TV news, it says, with footage of a Missouri town devastated by a tornado.
8.45am: Fresh from a Guinness-drinking embrace of his ancestral roots in Ireland, US president Barack Obama today continues his European tour with a state visit to Britain – a country some have suggested he was somewhat less keen on. You may remember when Obama's gift of DVDs to Gordon Brown was seen as an ominous development in that perennial favourite of the British media, the state of the special relationship.
But that's all changed now, we are told. Not only are they to meet the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge but the US president and his wife will also receive a ceremonial welcome and state banquet at Buckingham Palace, to be followed with a speech to both houses of parliament and Downing Street barbecue. Obama and David Cameron have furthermore written a joint article in the Times declaring "Ours is not just a special relationship, it is an essential relationship – for us and for the world."
The two leaders will, of course, also hold political talks. Here are some of the main points likely to come out of the visit.
• Deficit Cameron is hoping for an endorsement of the coalition's deficit reduction plan, which will insulate him to an extent from Labour charges that the cuts are too deep and too fast (the Conservatives already claim that Obama's own budget cuts are at a similar pace to Britain's). Patrick Wintour's report today says: "Privately, Conservative sources are increasingly confident that the Treasury and its American counterpart are now seeing eye to eye on deficit reduction after being at odds for some months"
• The "essential" relationship Officially upgraded from merely "special", the set-piece development will be the announcement of a US-British national security council to work together on international challenges and share intelligence. An Obama administration official told Reuters it will help enable "a more guided, coordinated approach to analyse the 'over the horizon' challenges we may face in the future." Libya, as Britain sends in attack helicopters, will feature in their talks, though Hillary Clinton said yesterday after talks with William Hague that the US "continues to fly 25% of all sorties" and wanted other Nato members to do more.
• Meeting the Queen And then there is the ceremony - visits to the royal art collection, meeting William and Kate, a 21 gun salute, a US presidential motorcade, a state banquet and - probably keenly observed - present giving.
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