Gordon in the U.S.A
Peter Hoskin 12:42pm
The idea is for Brown to take America by storm – to reinvigorate the special relationship, and all that. However, it’s not started well. Our Prime Minister’s had a few transportation issues, and the Pope’s stolen his thunder in a major way.
And today – just to confirm that he’s no natural statesman – Brown writes a painfully dull article in the Wall Street Journal. It reads like the appendix to one of his Budgets – a six-step plan to a “renewed and extended” relationship between the UK and US. Here are some of those steps:
“First, I am proposing moving cooperation between our universities at a far higher level…
Fourth, building on well-established traditions of U.K.-U.S. collaboration … I am proposing that we strengthen even further our cooperation in health research…
Fifth, by working together our two countries could make a huge difference in dealing with the impact of climate change. Britain's new Energy Technologies Institute – set up to do path-breaking, low-carbon research and development – is ready to link up with U.S. environmental research efforts.”
Hardly stirs the soul, does it? Unfortunately for the US public, they have a few more days of this to go. Like some in the Labour Party, they’ll be left wishing that Blair was back in power.
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Tiberius
April 16th, 2008 12:54pm Report this commentBet he'll be avoiding golf buggies this time.
Austin Barry@yahoo.com
April 16th, 2008 1:40pm Report this commentBrown seems to lack any sense of humour, wit, irony or the ridiculous. He is gloom personified. He looks like a failed mortuary attendant. Quite what the Yanks make of this mullah of melancholy, this duke of despondency is anyone's guess, but I suspect the sotto voce comment in their delightful demotic is probably "lighten-up, ***-****".
Steve Jones
April 16th, 2008 2:56pm Report this commentLadies and Gentleman, we present to you the Prime Minister of England - a treasonous anti-English far left wing extremist unelected unnacountable-to-anybody-in-England communist Scot.
RW
April 16th, 2008 2:58pm Report this commentGuido reckons the British Embassy in Washington - the Foreign Office's biggest and most expensive outpost - didn't even know the Pope was arriving on the same day. Seems his Holiness hit the headlines, while Brown was nowhere to be seen, surprise. Straightforward old-fashioned British official incompetence, or could Junior Millipede have been subtly undermining his master's latest attempt at a PR comeback?
madasafish
April 16th, 2008 3:17pm Report this commentGiven that Gordon is a Jonah and screws up anything he touches or visits (Arsenal for example), expect the US economy to announce more bad news soon.
Some people are born unlucky, some people have bad luck thrust upon them and some grasp it with both hands.
Guess which category Gordon is in.
Or is it just sheer incompetence?
Oscar Miller
April 16th, 2008 4:14pm Report this commentThe one I liked was the promise to make the English language "freely available". Maybe he should make a start by brushing up on his own ability with words.
Faceless Bureaucrat
April 16th, 2008 4:19pm Report this commentBritannia is hanging her head in shame right now. That Brown has ended-up as leader of our country beggars belief - as a Nation, how did we ever manage to sleep-walk into this appalling state of affairs...
Travis Bickle
April 16th, 2008 6:05pm Report this commentFair play to Gordon,by comparison he is about to make George W look an intelligent and trustworthy leader. Not many in the world could achieve that feat.
Meanwhile when Tony rolls into town next week the American red carpets will be out in full force. Oh the delicious irony.
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