"Gordon: I love the USA," screams the headline in The Sun ahead of the Gordon Brown's first annual Mansion House speech on foreign affairs tonight. It reminded me of Tony Blair's "I love the pound" headline in the same paper ahead of the 1997 election, when Blair was secretly planning to abolish the pound and take us into the euro.
Today's headline is much more accurate. Brown has always loved America, and normally took his hols there until he had children. But he doesn't share Blair's "love" for George Bush, as was apparent when he visited the US President in July. Today's re-statement that America is Britain's most important ally is designed to reassure the White House that Brown is not turning his back on Washington even if the personal chemistry is different. Bush is said to miss his pal Blair. No wonder. With Brown, it's business, not personal. In the past week, the President has hosted visits by Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive French President, who seemed happy to fill Blair's shoes, and Angela Merkel, the dour but impressive German Chancellor. Their countries opposed the Iraq war but the wounds are now being healed. So perhaps Brown's words were a polite reminder to Bush to remember his old friends as well as his new ones.
The PM sees the election of Sarkozy and Merkel as an opportunity to create a powerful axis of pro-American leaders in Europe who can unite to reshape international organisations like the United Nations for the 21st century. Any changes would obviously need the backing of the US, and so may have to await the election of a new President in a year's time.
A more immediate problem is Iran. Some headlines over the weekend suggested that Brown was moving towards backing military action by the US over its nuclear weapons programme. Although Brown has always refused to rule out any option, his preference for tighter sanctions. Would he "do a Blair" if Bush took military action against Iran? After Iraq, I very much doubt it.
Brown has laid out a clear path in front of him, and it is littered with the remnants of a once great alliance with America. It is clear to see that the U.K. no longer sees the United States as an ally.
Posted by: AJ | Tuesday, 13 November 2007 at 11:40 AM
Brown is making amends with Europe. This is where the United Kingdom's future will be built. The translantic alliance became unnecessary after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Posted by: Donny | Wednesday, 14 November 2007 at 06:30 AM