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Change you can believe in

Wednesday, 9th January 2008

The Spectator reflects on the parallels between British and American politics.

Senator Clinton’s slogan, in contrast, is ‘Ready for change’. Her claim to the presidency depends upon her experience in the White House and her familiarity with the dark arts of Capitol Hill. On the Republican side, John McCain also promises that ‘change is coming’, grounded in ‘the unique experience that prepares me to lead as commander-in-chief from day one’. Evidently, the voters of New Hampshire found Sen. Clinton’s curriculum vitae and Sen. McCain’s record of military valour and moral independence as impressive as their counterparts in Iowa found Sen. Obama’s charismatic novelty (and, for that matter, the Republican Mike Huckabee’s pitch as a shamelessly demotic outsider).

What relevance, if any, does this unfolding drama have for Westminster? As ever, the parallels between US and British politics are far from exact; but they are real. This week, both Gordon Brown and David Cameron launched their New Year offensives, in respective styles that have transatlantic resonance.

In a series of interviews, the Prime Minister offered a message that was all about character rather than policy, and echoed Sen. Clinton’s rhetoric, often uncannily. Mr Brown was unrepentantly gloomy about the global context. ‘This is a difficult and dangerous situation for the world economy,’ he told the Observer. At such times, the PM suggested, the nation needs a weathered man of experience and strength (rather, by implication, than a callow Etonian Tory). ‘Look, you know it’s easy to take softer options,’ he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr. ‘The lesson I take out of this is do not be diverted from the long-term decisions that you’ve got to make.’ Hillary could not have put it better herself.

The Prime Minister was at it again on Monday’s Today programme, declaring that his New Year resolution — or insight — was that ‘you cannot be diverted from the big long-term questions’. Sen. Obama’s campaign began with a sensationally successful tour promoting his book, The Audacity of Hope. Mr Brown is displaying what might be called the audacity of pessimism: in awful times, he says, you need a heavyweight politician who will not bend with the wind.

Like Sen. Obama, Mr Cameron presents himself as a youthful optimist, the spokesman of a bright new political generation that aspires to replace a tired oligarchy. Mr Brown’s hope is that his appeal to the voters will fade in the many months between now and the election, and he will be heartened by the New Hampshire primary, where Sen. Clinton defied the polls, the media and blogging rumours that she was preparing to withdraw from the race. In the wake of this astonishing result, Mr Brown must be nursing hopes that he too can be the Comeback Kid in 2008.

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A child of our time

From the economic and psychological bedlam of the global downturn has emerged a particularly dangerous false dichotomy: namely, that there is somehow a choice for ministers over the next few years between economic reconstruction and the repair of Britain’s broken society, and that the government (whether Labour or Conservative) must prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

Diary

Anne Robinson

The daughter and I spent the last few days before the American election in Arizona.

Politics

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

‘A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous “helicopter drop” of money.’ So said Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Fed, in a speech about how to ward off the ‘extremely small’ chance of deflation, which he delivered in 2002.

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody

Tamzin Lightwater

Tamzin Lightwater's unique take on the week

The Republicans are where the Tories were in 1997

James Forsyth

This is bad news for the Conservatives, who have always feasted on US right-of-centre ideas, says James Forsyth. But the GOP can learn from the Cameroons

Want to cut taxes? First cut spending. Here’s how

Fraser Nelson

After a week of clamorous competition between the parties over tax cuts, Fraser Nelson offers a guide to paying for them: a programme of spending cuts that would preserve core services but shave off the fat of the Brown years. All that is needed is political will