Independence Brown

Gordon Brown, we are told, went on the BBC television device yesterday – not that one watches these things.

We are also told he "signalled" that, in the event of his assuming the office of prime minister, he would forge (good word under the circumstances) a foreign policy independent of the US and initiate "frank" relations with President George Bush.

In so doing, we understand that the chancellor uttered in the direction of the camera words to the effect that he would be "very frank", then saying in a robust prime ministerial style, "The British national interest is what I and my colleagues are about."

He promised: "a new kind of politics in this country... a new style of government in the future". This would be a "Government of all the talents", one which would listen more to the views of Labour MPs.

Bush, meanwhile, could care less. Poised to put in an additional 20,000 troops into Iraq, three times the total number the British have in place, he is ready for a make-and-break "surge" that he hopes will bring peace to Iraq.

When not even his own Congress can stop him, what a virtually unknown British politician says is of remarkably little importance – as, no doubt, Gordo will soon be finding.

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