IF ONLY THEY WEREN'T DUMB AS WELL AS STUPID...:

Smitten by the Stars and Stripes (Tara Hamilton-Miller, 17 January 2008, New Statesman)

There is huge excitement in the party about the US elections. Many Conservatives secretly consider America to be the only other power worth bothering about, and the present political circus is only fuelling that.

When he was Conservative party leader, Michael Howard fell out with the White House after criticising Tony Blair's handling of the Iraq War. Offending George Bush and his senior aides left the party's relationship with the United States in a delicate state. After that there was a long and rather frozen period. There has, however, been a thaw.

For years, the shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, discreetly worked hard to maintain good cross-Atlantic links. Other shadow cabinet members with strong ties are George Osborne (who secured Senator John McCain's visit to the 2006 party conference) and William Hague, although frequent-flyer Liam should take most of the credit.

"The departure of Blair and his replacement by Brown has made an impact," says a strategist. "It's now easier for us. Part of the reason they were so cold with Howard was that they had such a good relationship with Blair. If they had little use for Howard before, after the ill-timed war comment he was totally sidelined."

Brown's relationship with the US is not considered as strong, so the Tories have been courting furiously.

...they'd run on an Anglospheric Trade Union and against the EU.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 17, 2008 8:17 AM