With so much else going on during the fifth anniversary of 9/11, it was easy to overlook the speech given by David Cameron, the leader of the British Conservatives. But Cameron’s address was significant. It marked the death of British neoconservatism. Cameron carefully and deliberately distanced himself from both the Bush administration and from the neocons. Although the speech was full of careful statements of loyalty to the special relationship, and denunciations of anti-Americanism, its political purpose was entirely clear. It may indeed be politically astute for Cameron to stiff President Bush, given the latter’s deep unpopularity in Britain. But it was incredibly dumb to choose to do this on 9/11 of all days. American diplomats are spitting at what they regard as a “cynical” move - and that is one of the kinder words employed. Some of Cameron’s supporters, like Danny Finkelstein of The Times, have tried to claim that this is - in fact - a neocon speech. But nobody in America is inclined to buy that, as a report in Finkelstein’s own paper makes clear. A couple of days after Cameron spoke, I met up with a real live American neocon, who was both deeply irritated by the Cameron speech and wryly amused by the attempts of British neocons to explain it away. “Whatever happened to the Henry Jackson Society?”, he asked, referring to a recently founded group, with strong links to the American neocons, whose patrons include close political allies of Cameron like the MPs Michael Gove and Edward Vaizey. British conservative reaction, in fact, has been all over the place. Douglas Johnson of the Social Affairs Unit denounces the speech as a “disaster“. Finkelstein, as noted above, thinks it’s okay. Simon Jenkins, who since he now writes for The Guardian is clearly to be regarded as a lefty, thinks the speech is indeed a repudiation of the neocons, and hails it as such. But while the British conservatives are running away from President Bush, Nicolas Sarkozy, the standard bearer of the French right, is rushing to embrace the US administration. It seems like an odd move, given the state of French public opinion, but presumably Sarko knows what he’s doing. One thing that unites all neocons is the bile they reserve for Condi Rice - “over-promoted affirmative action baby” is one tasteful description I’ve heard. They are also fond of fruity speculation about her personal life. The New York Times adds grist to the mill with speculation that the secretary of state has a special place in her heart for her Canadian counterpart. Have your say: Comment on this blog I’m off to Istanbul tomorrow and will file something from there. Or maybe not.

September 14th, 2006 in Uncategorised | Permalink