The new battle in British politics is how to be most like Obama

john problem

Or perhaps Prospero working magic while Caliban and Ariel watch, the one fearful and soon to be abandoned and the other wafting about.

Richard

I would say that we need a politics that is as far away from his pseudo Socialist bullshit as it is possible to be.

expatinUS

wow, what a sad day for the once great British empire, to scramble and fight and pull each other's hair in their quest to be friends with the EMPTY SUIT.

David Bouvier

So Brown is putting thousands of troops into danger - probably costing some of them their lives - for a photo op in the Oval office.

That scrapes new depths of corruption and venality even for Brown.

Obama hasn't done anything yet. His honeymoon won't be 4 years. 2 or less I would say.

London Kulak

America just elected Blair. Why on earth nwould anyone like to be like that convictionless retarded sentimental lying creep?

Verity

Poor David Cameron will be like a chameleon on plaid. He's already adopted the protective colouration of presenting himself as Tony Blair. Made it his identity, in fact. Now he'll have to decide whether he should overlay it with the personna and policies of Barack Obama. Which one will be dominant as he struggles to adopt an identity?

(A Conservative identity is out of the question, of course.)

David Short

I don't think there is any evidence at all, both within and without this rambling piece, that Brown and Cameron are trying to be like Obama.

If Blair was still at the centre of British politics, I am sure he would be straining at the bit to be identified with him.

He would fail on many counts, though, as do Brown/Cameron on many, many points, some principal ones being support for an unending Iraqi war, implicit support for Gitmo, and absolutely no coherent reason why they chose politics to define their lives.

In capping the salaries of his senior staff and forbidding any of his staff to work as lobbyists while he is President, takes him about as far away from Blair and the Blairites (notably Mandy) could be. He has shown he does not care for people to be in politics to line their pockets.

What they would have in common is inconsequential. Brown, Blair and Cameron have never had much of a job in the 'real' world. Blair was a bit of a barrister, Cameron was a PR man for a telly company, and I have absolutely no idea what Brown has ever done.

Obama has not had much life outside of politics, and that was intentional. He left a good and promising job in the private sector as a young man (with no cushion of private wealth a la Cameron) because of his zeal for 'organizing', as in organizing protest.

And Dreams From My Father is not that great a book. At 440 pages, it is about twice as long as it should be, because it's ill-organized, repetitive in what it tries to say and his prose blathers. It's also got to much detail, including conversations, that he could not possibly remember unless he had done a Tony Benn tape every night of his life.

But it is a good story of a good man (although in the book he comes across as dull) who has packed in a lot of life experience.

I'm not sure I believe him when he says he slept in an alleyway on his first night in New York because (I think) his new flatmate was out, though I'd like to believe it to be true. Come on, surely he'd heard of bed and breakfasts, or if he was short of cash, he could have sat in an all-night diner.

Absolutely nothing at all like our crowd.

Verity

David Short, re the inadequacies of "Dreams of My Father", to give him his due William Ayers's metier is the terrorist, not the writer, game. But reportedly, for a terrorist, it's not that bad.

JONNY

'Poor David Cameron will be like a chameleon on plaid.'

Chameleon on plaid? don't get that sort of lingo.
Better get used to the idea he's going to do fine Verity. Irksome though that might be to yourself.
You may not have noticed it but he's the most popular politician in the country.

Verity

Jonny - No. I haven't noticed that Cameron's the most popular politician in the country. I have noticed that he is the least disliked.

I hope you'll forgive me for noting that for such a loquacious poster, you don't seem to have a very wide frame of reference.

Mark Solomon

I hope for all our sakes Cameron doesn't go chasing around to be like Obama too much. The man is an empty suit with very dodgy acquaintances and was pretty much the most left-wing Senator. We do not need more of that here and Cameron needs to learn some lessons fast if he thinks a UK Conservative should be looking for guidance to an American Democrat.

How real is Obama's supposed popularity in the UK anyway? I suspect it is very real in Islington and Notting Hill and the media, but mistaking those places for being in anyway representative is a classic mistake.

Not Even Likely

America is where you sent your second-born sons, the ones with nothing to inherit in the real country. What happened?

Stewie of Subiaco

The Australian PM has also developed up a few ideas quickly, including the idea of people reaching out a helping hand to others in these tough times. I am sure Obama made the same comments only 12 hours before.
Still. maybe a little of this rebirth of ideas is what we need to balance our tough times.

Ben

Hmmm - we're caught up in Obamania, but ultimately it's policies that count. What does Obama actually stand for? What will he do when faced with a problem? Which way will he turn?

Left or Right are bound to take offence, though I sense the left will be more disillusioned than the right - they usually are. Wait for that first sign of 'betrayal'.

In Politics as in life, you can't simply draw a mid-line between two opposing points of view and split the difference. Iraq aside, Blair tried it for most of his premiership and look what a mess we're in domestically now.

In the end you have to decide which side of a problem you come down on. And that will make you enemies as well as friends.

We shall soon see.

Nicholas Storey

If any of this is substantially true, modern Britain is, indeed, a pale reflection of Great Britain: that British politicians have to batten on to the fabricated appearance of charisma of the Obamas of this world and become the poodles of successive American Presidents is pathetic and fully vindictaes my decision to emigrate to Brazil. At least, if, as some Brazilians maintain, "Brazil is a land of nobodies" - they are honest about it.

M McGregor

So Obama represents the
"centre" in British political terms, does he ? I wonder what would qualify as the "left" on
that scale ? It says it all about how far towards Labour the so-called 'Conservatives'
have moved. With so little difference between them, both parties can claim him as "their own" with no difficulty; but, of course, we have to have the necessary squabbling about minutiae to preserve the image of a democratic choice.

Why not be honest*, and admit that Obama being Black is what makes Brown & Cameron writhe & smirk & abase themselves ? And he has a muslim background, how wonderful ! If only he were homosexual, he could go straight to political sainthood, with nothing else required.

*Sorry, silly question.

David Short

Nicholas Storey, the 'Great' in Great Britain has got nothing to do with 'great' meaning wonderful, admirable etc, it just refers to the political entity created when Scotland asked to be merged with England.

In the old days, Scotland was sometimes referred to as 'North Britain'.

David Short

David Cameron is not the most popular politician in Britain, nor even the 'least disliked'.

He may sometimes come out fleetingly ahead of the other leaders or senior pols, but that's not the same thing.

I'm sure if YouGov did a survey, listing all well-known pols, Tony Benn would come out top.

Now there's a thought.

Boris Johnson would be high up somewhere in the list, so would Ken Livingstone.

Ken Clarke would be high, too.

It would be a great survey, and I hope YouGov thinks about doing it.

Let's have an informal one here, who do Speccie forum-feeders think is the most popular pol in the UK?

Nicholas Storey

David Short - as pugnacious as ever - I contrast 'Great Britain' as the social and political environment in which I was brought up with the ghastly place now called 'modern britain' by the morons Blair, Brown, Mandelson -and, no doubt, David Short.

EllenO

I am spellbound: even a writer in the Spectator has fallen under the Obama spell.

Obama is a politician from Chicago where the political 'machine' has been manipulating the political situation since Al Capone.

Call me old fashioned, but I am inclined to praise people after they have done something not before. The glitterati, 'chattering classes' and the left are so excited by a black president that they've turned Obama into a kind of messiah before he has even done anything of any moment.

Remember if you have managed more than 5 people in your job you have more management experience than Bam before he became president.

Nicholas Storey

Ellen-O - Comments with a point. I couldn't agree more. At the moment, Bam is just a set of big teeth with a loud, hectoring, insistent and aggressive television manner - and so appeals to modern America as Blair, Garden Broom and Mandy appealed to modern Britain. And see where that has ended.

Jim

And the Westminster village will be surprised when the BNP take over Britain.
Now would be a good time to come out of your bubble.
Since this crisis began Gordon Brown has done nothing. Nobody has been prosecuted, no laws have been changed. Incompetent crooks are having money transferred to them from competent savers.
With Obama it's worse. Massive expansion of an incompetent state, it can only end badly.
We need to punish the incompetent, reward the competent and bankrupt the bankrupt banks.