THE CONTRAST could not have been stronger. Within minutes of leaving the grandeur of Buckingham Place yesterday, the President, Mrs Robinson, was guest of honour at a local inner city community school, situated between concrete tower blocks, in Camden, north London.
As the "posh" girls from the local Catholic school, dressed in identical white blouses and green kilts, lined the pavement opposite the South Camden Community school to welcome "their President", an 11 year old Bengali child stood patiently outside the school gates, fumbling with the large bouquet of flowers to be presented to her guest of honour.
To loud cheers, President Robinson's Daimler drove slowly up the road. As the car drew to a halt, Halima Begum ran up and gave her the flowers.
Twelve year old Thomas Cuddihy stepped forward to recite a few welcoming phrases in Irish that his parents had taught him specially for the occasion.
"They are very proud of me", Thomas admitted. "The President told me I had greeted her very well and she said it was nice to be in Camden again."
At the multi cultural school, over 40 languages are spoken. The student welfare curriculum co-ordinator, Mr Dennis Barkin, had invited Mrs Robinson to a prize giving ceremony in May, "never dreaming that she would accept"
Although President Robinson was unable to attend that ceremony, she asked the school if she could visit during her official four day trip to Britain.
Her visit could not have been more welcomed. . .
Pupils, many accompanied by their parents dressed in national costume, lined up to greet the President in their own languages Bengali, Somali, Turkish, Arabic Cantonese, Farsi, Linguala, and of course English. And then it was time for maths.
Popping into one maths lesson, the President was keen to reassure the pupils that she was not an inspector, but wanted to learn about fractions and pyramids.
As over 80 per cent of the school's pupils have English as a second language, there are two teachers for every class - one of the few "luxuries" the British government is still prepared to fund.
After being thanked by a Somali teacher and a Bosnian pupil for drawing their countries plights to the world's attention through her work, President Robinson said she hoped the world would learn from the school's example of tolerance, warmth and support.
Last night President Robinson went back to her "roots" by being guest of honour at a legal dinner hosted by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay, at Lancaster House.
Every aspect of British law was represented amongst the 40 guests, who included judges, solicitors and barristers.