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A number of British journalists have bitched and moaned about “The British Prime Minister being snubbed” by Barak Obama and the resulting articles were total tosh to be frank, I don’t agree with the sentiments expressed at all.

Obama is new in the job and still has the hope however vain in the end, that he can bring a “fresh start” to International relations and part of that is not ‘cosying up’ to the past.The President has done the “token” by inviting the British Prime Minister who, whilst he will make a hash of it, gets to address the Joint Houses.

The Reality of Brown

However, let us be realistic here, Brown is hopeless at “Foreign Policy” has no ‘feel’ for it or how to behave, he looked like a total Muppet when he visited George Bush.

On top of this, he has insisted on blaming America for the whole global financial crisis, has refused to accept any personal responsibility and is too thick to pick up on the ‘verbal clues’ coming from the President along the lines “..that this is a hole we have got ourselves in and we are cleaning it up.”

Barak Obama is about uniting people in a common struggle rather more than playing the “blame game”. Brown is all about “It wasn’t me…” The very worse thing you can call an American is a “Loser”, Brown has loser written all over him and right through him like a stick of Rock.

An American Prespective

Washington is only too aware that Brown will have gone in a year never to return to front line politics again, so how much effort do you put into him ? Building a personal relationship with the next likely British Prime Minister David Cameron (quietly), is likely to be more productive because like Obama, he will come to the table with ‘clean hands’.

Whether Barak Obama works out as a great success as President, time will tell but the key to him is the possibility of change and hope in dark times for many Americans. Brown is mired by his past as Chancellor and reeks of desperation, a new British Prime Minister not responsible for past decisions, able to take a more open view and explore new and different approaches to old problems, would be a more welcome person for the Administration to work with.

The Special Relationship

I also think all this crap about the “Special Relationship” should be put to one side and actually forgotten in the terms in which it is normally used in the British Media. It often seems to me far too ‘girly’ as in “My Best Friend, not yours…”

There is a “special relationship” throughout the Anglosphere built on very deep common bonds of language, culture and shared experiences but when it comes to doing ‘business’, ‘business’ should be the common focus – enlightened self interest by both/all sides in any situation. There is nothing wrong with this approach, the beauty of which is that because of common culture, agreements are not ambiguous in terms of both the “Letter and the Spirit”.

Tony Blair was a prat who was totally lacking in any appreciation of Britain’s best interests in most matters, a salesman at best, a snake oil salesman at worse. Alliances are built on real strength not being a sycophantic fool to the Bush Administration because Brown blocked him out of UK domestic politics, Blair was too frightened to sack him and he wanted to be seen as ‘doing something’. As in the EU and relations with the US, Blair didn’t even weigh in as a flyweight, just an idiot intent on getting by, respect has to be earned by both sides in any relationship, he was never the man for the gig.

What makes the UK a desirable ally is a degree of independence set against clearly defined goals. Whilst we are at it let us forget that other stupid phrase “punching above our weight” and concentrate on “playing to our strengths” but the first step is deciding what those are and shaping Foreign and Defence policy to match.