Britain's Gordon Brown: a change in tone for US
Britain focuses on how the heir apparent to Prime Minister Tony Blair may affect transatlantic ties.
from the March 5, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
What he might do, however, is accentuate the differences between London and Washington. Blair was always apt to minimize whatever disputes arose and stress the unity of the two allies, which often made him look obsequious and earned him the unflattering sobriquet "Bush's poodle."
But diplomats have criticized him for failing to extract enough influence for his unswerving support for Bush's wars. Brown may play a tougher game.
"In those areas where there is disagreement, as there has been on climate change [and] the International Criminal Court, Tony Blair has tended to underplay those, whereas Gordon Brown might be more overt," predicts Mr. Twigg. "He will quite deliberately give emphasis to areas where there are disagreements."
"He'll be much tougher on America than Blair was," predicts Ian Gibson, a Labour parliamentarian, who, like Brown, charted a course from provincial Scotland through Edinburgh University and on to national politics. "But he has a great interest in some of the good things in America," he adds, noting that Brown is more at ease among intellectuals than among defense and institutional types in Washington. "He's more pro-America than pro-Europe in fact."
Indeed, Europeans may be dreading the prospect of a Brown premiership. While Blair aimed to haul Britain into the heart of Europe, the chancellor has given few signs of being a Europhile over the past 10 years and, apart from brief appearances at meetings, rarely visits the continent.
On Iraq, few expect a sudden change. Blair has already started the countdown to exit with the announcement on Feb. 21 of a drawdown in troops. Brown will, experts say, want to draw a line in the sand. And he may change the tune about the war, because he was far less convinced than Blair about it.
"He doesn't suggest, like Blair does, that the war in Iraq was part of the fight against terrorism," says John Curtice, a politics professor at Strathclyde University in Scotland. "He has said as little as possible on Iraq, but has said enough to suggest that he won't give speeches implying that the war in Iraq contributed to reducing terrorism in the UK."
Mr. Curtice says Brown's main aim would be to get out of Iraq as quickly as possible. "The other question is will he be willing to say we made a mistake?" he adds.
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