THERE were pros and cons to the Prime Minister's visit to America this week.
On the positive side, meeting Barack Obama will give Mr Cameron another multi-racial anecdote for his small, but clearly cherished, collection.
"I was in Washington the other day, and I met a black man ... " Also, on the plus side, Mr Cameron may have enjoyed one of those fascinating conversations about trans-Atlantic linguistic differences.
"So, in America, the word 'fag' is an offensive term for a homosexual? When we Brits say it, we mean the young boy who would toast our crumpets at school."
Best of all, American Presidents give the coolest gifts. George Bush Snr gave John Major a Louisville Slugger baseball cap, for example, while Gordon Brown received a leather bomber jacket and a collection of movies from Bush Jnr and Obama respectively.
wholesale sexy lingerie In this sense, visiting the White House sounds like going to see your recently divorced dad. But instead of buying your affection, he is buying your support for a morally questionable foreign policy.
Prada Shoes Speaking of which, we arrive at the less rosy aspect of Mr Cameron's visit: the release of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber.
The Americans are furious that al-Megrahi is not dead yet. Allegedly riddled with cancer, he was supposed to die within three months of his release on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government. That was nearly a year ago.
Senior American politicians have turned their fury on Mr Cameron, as they suspect the release was engineered by the British government in exchange for a lucrative oil deal between BP and Libya.
It was not Mr Cameron's government who made the alleged deal, of course, but that makes little difference to a nation with a woolly grasp of history.
They still hold us personally responsible for annexing Ireland in 1168, so August, 2009, is definitely on our watch.
To be fair, the evidence against BP and the Labour government is compelling, and the outrage is understandable - particularly among relatives of the 270 people who died at Lockerbie.
However, Libya was a pariah state and supporter of terrorism which has now come in from the cold. Its compliance has been bought by drawing a shameful veil over the murder of innocent people, but what is the alternative? Maintain pariah status, and wait for more terror attacks? Invade them, perhaps, like we did with Afghanistan? How's that been going recently? Releasing terrorists is repugnant but preferable to sending Fake A Lange & Sohne Watches more young men to die, or waiting to be blown up in trains and shopping centres.
So let the Americans give our PM a kicking, if it helps to assuage the anger and move on. If that happens, it will have been a worthwhile trip for Mr Cameron. Plus, he still gets the cool gifts.
Other articles:
http://www.cnshanzhai.com/Blog/View/?1664http://dns2.media5hosting.com/blog.php?user=watches2010&blogentry_id=372...
