2:37pm Tuesday 23rd December 2008
By Alex Lewis
THE people of Hertfordshire have been showing US President George W Bush their opinion of him by throwing their shoes at him in imitation of a daring Arab journalist - on-line.
No fewer than 1, 536 people in the county have played sockandawe.com since its launch started on December 15.
Louise Doherty, spokeswoman for the site said: "Proportionally that makes Hertfordshire the number two shoe-throwing county in the UK, after Essex (1,924)."
The hit on-line game allows users to throw virtual shoes at the soon-to-be ex-President and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri-al- Maliki, just as a journalist memorably did at a press conference on December 14, in a traditional Arab insult which struck a chord across the world .
The game, created by 24-year-old entrepreneur Alex Tew and soon sold to web publishing company Fubra has been a global hit, with more than 6 million unique visitors – an unparalleled achievement.
Fubra paid £5215 for the game after winning an online auction, but after putting advertisements on the site, made its money back less than 48 hours afterwards.
Numerous US government employees have been throwing virtual shoes at George Bush, who will hand over to Democrat Barack Obama on January 20, after eight bitterly controversial years of office.
SockandAwe.com has been inundated with requests to add other world leaders and additional throwable objects, and even plans to get the shoes commercially sponsored.
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