When Gordon Met Barack: A Twofer Tory Mythtake

By Steve Hynd

Back online after moving house, and catching up with my reading, I see the British conservative press are still banging on about the meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Brown. They are making mountains out of molehills and it's easy to see why. It gives the likes of the Tory graph and Murdoch's Times an opportunity for a unique twofer - suggesting that Obama wouldn't hate Britain and insult their readers' nationalism so much if the PM had any personality (like say, that nice fellow David Cameron) while at the same time suggesting, for both domestic and US-internet readers, that Obama's a wannabe-Superstar and Grumpy Gordon doesn't just doesn't cut it in the photo-ops department.

But what's this? Something, suddenly, seems to have made the Obama White House perk up and start to take an interest in the Brits. The Queen has invited the President to tea when he's here for the G20 in April. And he's in through the front door of Buckingham Palace faster than a Harley Davidson roaring along Route 66.

Note how the coolness of Team Obama disappears when a bit of regal glamour is introduced into the equation. He might not like the Brits, but he can recognise a global superstar when he encounters one. He wants to be associated with her. He's shameless.

So shameless, indeed, that he didn't turn down an invite from the Head of State of one of America's most important allies! Can you imagine the gall of this guy?

The essential myth of this whole story is belied by the way that Brown and Obama seem to be on first name terms and on the same fiscal page. They smiled a lot, just as they did when the two met in the UK last year. 'Nuff said, as one immortal bard often wrote.

Only British conservatives are trying to drive this story forward. Their efforts have even been noticed on this side of the pond. I don't know Michael Scherer of Time's Swampland blog or his political leanings - but if he bothered to do a few minutes research on the political bias of the UK reports he linked, he will have worked out what's going on too.