Politics is such a game of subtlety and stealth

I was thinking yesterday, after listening to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's speech at the Guildhall, just what a subtle maze of coding politics really is. The Lord Mayor of London's banquet is traditionally the occasion on which the Prime Minister of the day sets out his vision of the world and indicates the priorities he sees as facing the British Government over the coming year.

Mr.Brown's priority, it was quite clear, was to restore Britain's relationship with the United States. Since he succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister 4 months ago, his every action on the foreign policy front has seemed determined to place as much distance as possible between Blair and himself, and in the process, ruffling the feathers of our closest ally.



Brown' s decisions to pull British troops out of Iraq, in addition to allowing his ministers apparent rein to criticise the Bush Administration and to indicate that, from now on, Britain would be nobody's lap dog, seem designed to appease those in the Labour Party and in the country who wanted a new independent assertiveness by Britain. It seems to have worked and Brown's standing in the polls benefited as a result.

But yesterday, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, Brown clearly and with very definite forethought, took a different tack. It was a bit like one half of an engaged couple telling the other, "I know I've been a bit cool with you recently because I don't want you to take me for granted...but I still love you really."

He clearly stated that he had 'no truck' with Anti-Americanism either here in the UK or among our European partners, clearly signifying to Washington that he was not becoming sympathetic to any Franco-German resistance to American influence.

He supported the case against Iran suggesting that Britain and America - and the rest of the EU - should act as one to resist Iran's nuclear ambitions.

But then, having suggested that the US and Britain should act together to limit Iran's nuclear expansion, he clearly set out what steps he believed should be taken by both countries to achieve that - and none of those options included the use of force.

The speech was quite a cleverly thought out one in that it said, quite warmly, 'America you are still our best pal' while clearly and politely indicating what steps Britain believed 'best pals' should take next with regard to troublesome foreign powers.

It is an interesting conjecture whether these 'best pals' would stand together should the US decide on military action against Iran. Somehow I doubt it, and the manner of Brown's speech seemed to imply 'and don't compromise our friendship by suggesting it'