Two massive suicide truck bombs ripped through Turkey’s largest city today, killing 27 and injuring at least 450. The blasts threw a sad shadow over the second day of President Bush’s state visit to London. But they did not stop an estimated 100,000 protesters from marching across London and pulling down an effigy of President Bush at Trafalgar Square.

Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair has been America’s staunchest ally. The “kind of partner you want when serious work needs doing,” as President Bush said yesterday. “America is fortunate to call Britain our closest friend in the world,” Bush added. But is that friendship only “Blair-deep”?

Click the “Listen” link to hear about the U.S. -Britain alliance and its future.

Guests:

Gerard Baker, Washington bureau chief, Financial Times

Richard Heffernan, lecturer in government and politics, Open University, visiting professor at the Center for European Studies at Harvard, author of “The Labour Party: A Centenary History”

Graham Griffith, On Point senior producer, live in London