British Perspective: Prime Minister's Visit To U.S.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in Washington, D.C., visiting with the newly elected President and addressing Congress. This is a coup for the prime minister because he is the first European head of state to be allowed to visit President Obama at the White House. Most people here seem to think that Brown's visit is just a publicity stunt to distract from his declining popularity as the recession deepens. They quickly point out that just last week he played the politics of distraction by inviting the pope to visit Britain. Anyway, whatever they think of Brown's motiviation, people here are even less thrilled with Washington's reception of Brown. All the newspapers, respectable and otherwise, are outraged that Brown got only a 30 minute interview with the President. Their upset comes not from the short amount of time allocated but from the fact that the President's explanation was that he had an important meeting with the Boy Scouts that couldn't be postponed. Bumping the P.M. of a major ally to hang with boys in shorts and caps doesn't sit well with a country that thinks of itself as the center of the universe. Meanwhile, all of this is taking place against a backdrop of a funeral capturing national attention--that of the 4-year-old son of opposition leader David Cameron, who stands to become the next PM if Brown is ousted in upcoming election. The contrast between the fumbling prime minister trying in vain to catch a ray or two of reflected glory from the new President,and the young, grieving father attending to family responsibilities could harldy be more stark. [Answers to the Cultural Relativism post above: tap, pram, bog, chip]