Sizing up Gordon Brown’s take on America

The week's news at a glance.

Britain

What does Gordon Brown really think of the U.S.? asked the London Independent in an editorial. The new British prime minister has long been described as pro-American. He vacations in the States and counts Americans among his closest friends. Yet in his first few weeks in office, his ministers have been spouting nothing but criticism of American policy. Lord Malloch-Brown, Brown’s choice for a Foreign Office post, told an interviewer that it was “very unlikely” that Brown would be as friendly as Blair was toward President Bush. Another Brown aide, Douglas Alexander, said that Britain must “form new alliances”—a shocking slap to its primary ally. Evidently the White House was perturbed enough to demand an explanation, and the prime minister was forced to move up his planned trip to the U.S. to this week, to reassure the Americans in person.

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