IBS

AFP

Gordon Brown

TO ALL outward appearances Gordon Brown’s visit to meet George Bush looked much like those of his predecessor, Tony Blair. On Sunday July 29th Mr Brown arrived in America for the first time since becoming Britain’s prime minister. He met Mr Bush at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. The president took him for a ride on a golf cart and they dined together. They had another private meeting on Monday before Mr Brown left for New York. They reportedly talked about trade, the environment and Darfur, while tactfully avoiding much discussion of the catastrophe in Iraq.

The peaceful little visit has been the subject of heated discussion in Britain, as observers wondered whether Mr Brown would seek to put distance between himself and the president. The signals had been somewhat mixed. Before his visit, Mr Brown declared that Britain’s alliance with America is its “single most important bilateral relationship,” and suggested that he planned to work closely with Mr Bush. This was unwelcome news to Britons who think that Mr Blair was entirely too eager to ingratiate himself with the president. Some of them said so. Mark Malloch Brown, a junior minister in the Foreign Office, warned that Britain and America will no longer be “joined together at the hip”.

Speculation has been much less intense in America. In fact, given the popularity that Mr Blair enjoyed with both the public and the press in America, the reaction to Mr Brown’s visit been quite subdued. On the eve of his arrival newspapers were concerned with other important matters, such as what Hillary Clinton is wearing these days. Mr Bush had a routine colonoscopy last week, and even that received more attention than Mr Brown’s pending visit. After all, with the president sedated, Dick Cheney commanded the country for a few hours and that made everyone a bit nervous.

Still, one might have expected Mr Brown’s visit to win a bit more attention. But the “special relationship” between Britain and America is lopsided. The strength of the transatlantic alliance is a concern for Britons; Americans hardly ever think about it. Had Mr Brown obviously kept his distance from Mr Bush, that might have made a few more people take note.

Would that, in turn, have caused Americans to examine their relationship with Britain? It is hard to gauge how the average American feels about its best friend in Europe. Although Britons are frequently the subject of surveys on their attitudes towards America, the reverse almost never happens. Clearly some Americans are devoted Anglophiles. They drive Mini Coopers (never mind that the firm is owned by Germany’s BMW these days) and get their news from the BBC.

The data available suggest that most Americans think well of Britain and its leaders. Last year, for example, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that two-thirds of Americans said they felt confident that Mr Blair would “do the right thing regarding world affairs.” Only half said the same of Mr Bush. And presumably a handful of Americans actively dislike Britain, though the Europhobes save their strongest feelings of enmity for France.

Of course, Mr Brown is not nearly as well known as Mr Blair. And thinking warmly of Britain is not the same as wanting to hear more from the British. Before the 2004 presidential election, the Guardian newspaper encouraged its readers to send letters to swing voters in Ohio asking them to vote for John Kerry. The Ohioans were livid. Mr Kerry probably would have lost the state anyway. Americans resent outside interference in their affairs, no matter what the source.

In part the smooth operation of the “special relationship” as far as Americans are concerned may be explained because Britain, particularly under Mr Blair’s stewardship, has worked so hard at maintaining good ties. America, incurring no difficulty from Britain, has no reason to fret over this uniquely pleasant and rewarding relationship. So far Mr Brown seems not to wish to disturb the balance of power.