Irwin Stelzer

Irwin Stelzer argues that in trade and finance, Anglo–US relations are surprisingly well balanced Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with America is not confined to foreign policy. In more ways than one, our economies are interconnected in special ways, with neither being the other’s ‘poodle’. Start with finance, where Britain seems set to be the dominant partner, constraining American legislators who like to regulate by adopting rules, while their British counterparts prefer to lay out broad principles. Britain is forcing America to change. No other country has that power. Capital is mobile, and the City provides a deep, transparent and less expensive capital market, free of excessive regulation.

Leaders of failed coups either have to get out of town or abase themselves before their still-reigning targets. Gordon Brown, who feels his future career opportunities are greater in Britain than anywhere else, chose the latter course, trundling from television studio to television studio to profess his admiration for his long-time friend, Tony Blair. Blair’s profession of surprise at the coup is just about as genuine as Brown’s professions of loyalty. He did, after all, play the matador, waving a red cape in front of the Brown bull by refusing, in his interview with the Times, to give a date for his retirement from the ring. Predictably, the impatient bull, already pricked by outriding picadors, charged — on to the waiting blade of the matador.

Whether Tony Blair decides to step down at the next party conference, or hang in there until 2007, doesn’t much matter when it comes to appraising the much-mocked Blair–Bush relationship. Washington Whether Tony Blair decides to oblige the braying Brownites and step down at the next party conference, or hang in there until the 2007 Labour party gathering, doesn’t much matter when it comes to appraising the much-mocked Blair–Bush relationship. In relatively short order, both men will have reached the end of their careers in electoral politics, bringing to a close an amazing relationship between your Prime Minister and my President. And one that is badly misunderstood. Not by chance.

Politics is about choices. It is not about wishes, for wishing won’t make it so. The Blairites might wish that a formidable challenger to Gordon Brown would emerge in the next year, but none will. The Brownites might wish that they could pass their man off as the very model of a modern Englishman, his income redistribution programme complete, but they can’t. The Tories might wish their man harboured purely Thatcherite instincts, but he doesn’t. And the Lib Dems might wish ... well, for something. Neither Brown nor Cameron offers the clear alternative to the status quo that Margaret Thatcher and, later, Tony Blair offered.

Irwin Stelzer says that Condoleezza Rice’s trip to Britain reflects Tony Blair’s high standing in America and Bush’s need to keep him on side Potholes. America’s ambassador to Britain, Robert Tuttle, was sure that one of the shocks for his boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during her visit to Blackburn, would be potholes. Or the talk of potholes. Which will be one of the many differences between America and Britain that her keen eyes and ears will have picked up when this trip is over. Start with potholes.