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Why Barack Obama is turning his back on Britain - by our former ambassador to the U.S.
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| Contributor | kal |
| Last Edited | kal Sep 28, 2009 04:26pm |
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| Category | Minority Perspective |
| Media | Newspaper - Daily Mail |
| News Date | Monday, September 28, 2009 10:25:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Can it really be true that President Barack Obama denied Gordon Brown's plea for a one-on-one meeting this week five times, before eventually relenting? If it is, this would be a spectacular humiliation for Britain's Prime Minister.
It follows hard on the heels of Obama's public rebuke to Britain over the return to Libya by the Scottish authorities of the terrorist Megrahi, convicted for the destruction in 1988 of Pan Am flight 103. You have to go back to 1994, when Bill Clinton gave Gerry Adams a visa against our urgent lobbying, to find a comparable level of public discord between the two transatlantic allies.
To be denied five times would be bad enough. But to go on begging after, say, the first two rebuffs would be far worse. It would show desperation and a lack of dignity in equal measure. The Foreign Office gets a kicking from time to time for appeasing foreigners. But I simply cannot believe that our ambassadors, either in Washington or at the UN in New York, would have encouraged Downing Street down this undignified path.
Still, no smoke without fire. (Incidentally, I wasn't at all surprised that Obama finally showed mercy to Brown and granted a photo-op together, allowing the No 10 spokesman to announce that Prime Minister and President have had a 'full and friendly' exchange of views, lasting, oh, at least half an hour.) I doubt this episode has anything to do with a calculated snub. But it tells us a lot about Brown's insecurities and Obama's current priorities.
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