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| Britain | |
| "Bush's morality does not exist over here, thank goodness" | |
| 2004-11-06 | |
Downing Street recalibrates its dealings with Washington Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary and a strong supporter of Tony Blair, will come close to breaching the cabinet's neutrality on the US election this weekend by voicing Labour's "real disappointment" that John Kerry was defeated. In a sign of the cabinet's dismay at George Bush's success, Ms Jowell will tell GMTV tomorrow: "There's obviously great disappointment among Labour party members that John Kerry didn't make it, and I think there were great hopes at the end that the Republican president would be replaced by a Democratic president." Ms Jowell, who avoids offending the White House by saying she is voicing the views of Labour members, not that she endorses them, qualifies her remarks by saying that opponents of President Bush must accept he has won. "The American people have spoken, George Bush has been returned for a second term, and I think that what is important now is that the very strong alliance between the British prime minister, between Tony Blair and George Bush, is put to its best possible use in getting the Middle East peace process back on course." A cabinet minister would never have dared to raise doubts about Mr Bush in his first term, as the prime minister went out of his way not to offend the notoriously sensitive president. But Ms Jowell's remarks show how Downing Street is recalibrating the way it handles its relations with Washington after the election. Sensitive to the fact that Mr Bush is unpopular in Britain, the prime minister is hoping to reassure Labour members that he is merely dealing with the duly elected US president. Yup, Tony's calling elections in February. Plus he's paying his dues for sending the Black Watch up to Baghdad Mr Blair let it be known that he phoned Mr Kerry to congratulate him for fighting an outstanding campaign that had helped to make the election "a true celebration of American democracy". OTOH, given Cherie's snide comments at Harvard recently, maybe both of them are reverting to Labor form? The intervention by Ms Jowell came as Labour was being urged to adopt the voter mobilisation technology deployed by both parties to secure the largest turnout in the US since the 1968 presidential elections. they may be Yankee bastards, but they're effective Yankee bastards, damn them On Thursday, at a cabinet discussion about the political lessons of the election, it was agreed that Labour had to campaign in the immediate term on its own security issues, including identity cards, crime, litter and job security. wow - litter! didn't know they had it so bad ... In a private note to Mr Blair, Peter Hain, the leader of the Commons and a visitor to the Kerry campaign in the summer, urged Labour to examine direct dialling, more sophisticated ways of capturing voter data and using professionals for door-to-door canvassing. Sure - you know how effective the Kerry campaign was after all Other parties are also taking stock. Lord Rennard, the Liberal Democrat campaign chief who will attempt to make the war one of the main issues of the election, said he was not put off by Mr Kerry's failure. "In America, if voters said Iraq was the most important issue, they voted four-to-one Democrat, but if they responded terrorism was the biggest issue they voted overwhelmingly for Bush," he said. "People in Britain will simply not accept, as many did in the US, that their country has been made a safer place due to the invasion of Iraq." The Tory party will adopt only some of Mr Bush's techniques. One aide to Michael Howard, the Tory leader, said the social conservatism of the Republicans "is not for us". well below our class dignity, donchaknow One shadow cabinet member said: "I do not think there is a read across on Iraq or on Bush's moral conservatism. Middle America believes that the war in Iraq is about the "war on terror". Nobody really believes that here. George Bush's morality and neo-conservatism also does not exist over here, thank goodness." But the Tories believe there is one big lesson from President Bush's victory. A senior strategist said: "Bush spoke in very clear, simple language and was very effective in identifying a negative message - that the US would not be safe with Kerry - and a positive message - what he would do in the future. He then stuck with that, delivering the same speech again and again." Yup, that'll do it. Doesn't matter what the speech is or whether you deliver on promises. Just keep up the message -- so long as it doesn't have any of that tacky morality in it. | |
| Posted by:rkb |