British politicians are determined to follow the same failed policies as their American cronies. But, to paraphrase Bill Clinton, it all depends on the what the meaning of "failure" is.

Yes, we Yanks are weird. When he addressed Congress, our legislators cheered his admonitions to resist protectionsim, but but they did not remove the "Buy American" provisions from the $787 billion stimulus bill. And PM Brown definitely got the short end of the deal on his gift exchange with President Obama. Very good stuff, Phil.

I liked it. Politics from anywhere other than the USA are barely covered here, but still I'll show solidarity and shout with you..."*** Gordon Brown"

Thanks, guys :-) Where Gordon Brown really annoys me is the way he claims credit for a credit-fuelled "boom" decade, but tries to pass the buck for the (almost inevitable) crunch at payback time. I performed this one at a poetry evening on Sunday - it says something about GB's current popularity that it went down pretty well.

Patrick - maybe that should be the mission statement of Brown's government: "Redefining failure" :-)

JJ - Personally, I don't see "buy American" provisions in the stimulus bill as being protectionist: ISTM only sensible that if you're spending money to stimulate your economy (or try to, anyway), you pretty much *have* to spend it in your own economy. Ditto for anywhere else in the world. Protectionism comes when you try and prevent importers from being able to sell anything, or prevent freedom of trade generally. I don't see that as the same sort of thing at all.

Obama and his cronies are attempting to seize control of what's left of a free country. Economic collapse, which brings about demands for more government intervention is not a failure but a success. Check out Rahm Emanuel's statement that this crisis was too good an opportunity to waste. Or my parody of "One Day More".