Barack & Gordon Finally Set a Play Date...Great!

I would like to be happy for Gordon Brown for pulling off a meeting with the US president Barack Obama but I'm not and in fact fail to understand why I should be. The press is jumping up and down with glee because our PM will be the first European leader to see the new US prima donna and that somehow we've beaten the French (again), the Germans (again) and all the others (again or for the very first time).

The problem I have with this unnecessary clamour is that it should be our god given right to be the first to get access to the US head honcho after the amount of lying, killing, robbing, conniving and manipulating we have done together in the name of democracy and capitalism. To get any less preferential treatment would be an absolute insult but not I think unexpected because the UK unfortunately it seems is to the US, what Millhouse is to Bart Simpson. A sidekick at best but not part of the family and totally dispensable to the main plot. I think it's time we changed that relationship and started to say no a bit more like the French or the Germans. Then we might also regain a bit more confidence as a power to reckon with.

It would be nice to think that Blair was the last poodle of the US but Gordon unfortunately it seems in just as keen to bound across the Atlantic with his tongue out and his tail wagging because Obama has whistled for him and that makes me mad!