Barack obama

When seeking election, both David Cameron and Barack Obama promised to seek a vote before going to war. Until an hour ago, it seemed that the Prime Minister was as good as his word but the president was not. His decision to follow Cameron's example and consult Congress has stunned Washington, not least because popular support for a missile strike is even lower in America than in Britain (about 20pc). So what helped shift opinion in Washington? Obama did not attempt to disguise it. Those asking him to recall Congress, he said, were... "undoubtedly... impacted by what we saw happen in the United Kingdom this week when the Parliament of our closest ally failed to pass a resolution with a similar goal, even as the Prime Minister supported taking action.

David Cameron and Barack Obama spoke this evening about their special relationship. Normally when people start talking a lot about their relationships in public, it's because something is wrong (or they've just started out and like to hold loud and impressive conversations about whether to cook the salmon or the homemade ravioli in front of as many people as possible). So the fact that the importance of the special relationship was not just raised in the call, but included in the Number 10 readout suggests the pair were calling in the marriage counsellors. A No 10 spokesperson said: 'The President stressed his appreciation of his strong friendship with the Prime Minister and of the strength, durability and depth of the special relationship between our two countries.

David Cameron and Barack Obama spoke last night again about the situation in Syria. Below is a readout of the call from Number 10: 'The PM spoke to President Obama last night to further discuss the serious response to last week's chemical weapons attack in Syria. 'Ahead of today's NSC, it was an opportunity for the PM to hear the latest US thinking on the issue and to set out the options being considered by the Government. 'Both leaders agreed that all the information available confirmed a chemical weapons attack had taken place, noting that even the Iranian President and Syrian regime had conceded this. And they both agreed they were in no doubt that the Assad regime was responsible.

It’s a good time to be a Tory in Westminster at present. Labour is under pressure. The backbench dissenters have been quietened. Aides, hacks and spinners exude an air of confidence when you meet them in SW1’s watering holes. Even Boris Johnson reckons that David Cameron could yet pull it off in 2015. Speaking of which, the party has captured the services of Jim Messina, a strategist who has worked with Barack Obama. He will whip CCHQ’s mercurial digital assets into shape and help to sell the government's economic record. Aside from enjoying the benefit of Messina’s gifts, this is a PR coup for the ‘nasty party’. Observe the reaction of certain Labour figures: Jim Messina either doesn't know or doesn't care what a malignant thing the Tory party is.

George Osborne's latest spending review has demonstrated how little progress he has made on pushing Britain towards fiscal sanity. On the latest View from 22 podcast, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman analyse Osborne's statement to the Commons yesterday, the political significance of his plans and how Labour managed to fluff their response. Colleen Graffy, a former US state department official under George W. Bush, also joins Fraser Nelson to discuss our cover on the return of America as a significant presence on the world stage. How has the superpower regained its economic clout and what role, if any, did Barack Obama play in this miraculous recovery? Plus, Martin Vander Weyer discusses Mervyn King's departure as Bank of England governor. How was his final Mansion House speech received?

David Cameron was pressed on Barack Obama's decision to give assistance to the Syrian rebels when he spoke to journalists in the Downing Street garden this afternoon. He gave a long answer, the transcript of which you can read at the bottom of this post, along with the audio. But here are the key points on the Prime Minister's current thinking on Syria. 1. He agrees with the American stance. He told the press conference: 'I think it is right that the Americans have said what they have said and I wanted to back that up with the information and the involvement that we've had in that assessment.' That included Britain seeing 'credible evidence of multiple attacks using chemical weapons in Syria'. But this is as much about America moving towards Britain's position on Syria.

Barack Obama just threw a protective arm around David Cameron at their joint press conference, stressing that ‘you have to see if you can fix what's broken in an important relationship before you break it off '. The instant retweeting of this line by the Tory leadership’s communications channels  shows just how grateful they are for Obama’s verbal support for Cameron’s EU strategy. It is also worth noting, as they have gleefully tweeted, that Obama’s words also appear to be an endorsement of renegotiation as an approach. But does this actually matter? I suspect not. On this issue, Tory MPs are more worried about what their associations are saying and the concerns of their former voters than those of the President of the United States.