The Labor Party

摘要

When opposition leaders visit the American president, folk back in Westminster pay close attention. Can he pull off "statesmanlike"? Does he look adequately prime ministerial? But even by the usual standards of such trips, Ed Mili-band's "brush-by" with Barack Obama on July 22nd-a crumpled House of Commons carrier bag containing dvds for the president in tow-had the Labour Party trembling with anticipation. This is curious. Pro-Americanism used to be the badge of the Labour right, and as leader Mr Miliband has moved his party to the left. He opposed the Iraq war and hopes to make the British economy less Anglo-Saxon and more Germanic. Yet Labour has never been so close to America, says Matt Browne of Global Progress, a think-tank in Washington, dc.