http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7526544.stm

_Obama Calls For Strong UK Links

White House hopeful Barack Obama has said a strong transatlantic relationship is needed to deal with a wide range of world issues.
Mr Obama said co-operation with the UK was crucial over climate change, terrorism and the economy, after talks with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
He said his conversation with Mr Brown in Downing Street had been "terrific".
The Democratic presidential candidate later met Conservative leader David Cameron at the Houses of Parliament.
Mr Obama and Mr Brown talked for two hours and then took a stroll in the sunshine around Horse Guards Parade before the Illinois senator spoke to reporters.

_Heavy price

Speaking outside Downing Street, Mr Obama, who is on the final part of the European leg of his tour, also thanked the British people for their support in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I know that the troops here in Great Britain have borne a heavy price for wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan and I think the American people are grateful for all the help that has been provided," he said.
"The prime minister's emphasis - like mine - is on how we can strengthen the trans-Atlantic relationship to solve problems that can't be solved by any single country individually," he added.
Mr Obama spoke of a "deep and abiding affection for the British people in America and a fascination with all things British".
He also referred to a shared history and the role of the "English tradition" in shaping the US constitution.
"We've been through two world wars together," he said.
"We speak a common language. We share a belief in rule of law and due process."

_Photo opportunity

Earlier, Mr Obama had a breakfast meeting in London with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is now the international Middle East envoy.
Mr Obama and Mr Cameron spent almost an hour talking in the Tory leader's Commons office. Shadow foreign secretary William Hague and shadow chancellor George Osborne also attended part of the meeting.
The Tory leader highlighted some of Parliament's features as they posed outside for photographs before the talks.
A Conservative party spokeswoman said their conversation had focused on Afghanistan - including a comparison of their recent personal visits to the country - Iraq, Iran and the economy.
Mr Obama has already visited Germany, where he gave a keynote foreign policy speech in Berlin, and France where he met President Nicolas Sarkozy.
After flying into London on Friday, Mr Obama was greeted by the American ambassador and his wife, Robert and Maria Tuttle, before being taken to a city centre hotel.
In contrast to the public reception he received in Berlin and Paris, Mr Obama's London visit was kept deliberately low key.

_Opinion polls

In Paris, Mr Obama said Iran should not wait for the next US president to be elected before resolving its dispute with the West.
He said Tehran should promptly accept an international call to freeze its "illicit nuclear programme".
Iran insists its nuclear campaign is peaceful.
Mr Obama's tour has also taken in the Middle East where he visited Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The senator left London in the afternoon on a chartered plane to fly back to the US where he faces Republican rival John McCain in November's presidential election.
The latest opinion polls in the US show Mr Obama leads Mr McCain by between one and six percentage points with some polls showing the race tightening in key states.
Mr Obama said he was unsure what political impact his overseas trip would have among US voters concerned about fuel prices and their mortgages.
He told reporters in London: "I wouldn't even be surprised that in some polls you saw a little bit of a dip as a consequence. We've been out of the country for a week."
He added: "The reason that I thought this trip was important is that I am convinced that many issues that we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad."
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So Obama wants a stronger relationship between the UK and the USA. It is almost like he is pretending we are still an important country; how nice of him to pander to our delicate British egoes, but it does not distract from what in my opinion is a very important question: Why?

Let us say, for the sake of the argument, that the UK and the USA do get close enough to cuddle by the fire. Then what? Will this have an impact on the rest of the world, will this achieve or help to achieve anything actually important other thank making the UK an even bigger terrorist target than it already is?
Did you know that since our boys got sent to fight a war that Bush and his penthouse pet Blair started all of the bins in all of the major UK cities have had to have been replaced with bomb proof chunks of metal? We didn't even have to do that for Sinn Feinn, and we deserved their wrath!

But who cares if we the people (These words ring a bell?) got dragged into a war that we the people did not want, who cares if all we have gotten out of our relationship for the last decade is a legacy of terrorism that makes Sinn Feinn look like a retarded child playing with sparklers, just so long as we can pretend that these are still the good old days of Reagan and Thatcher!

Remember those days boys? Remember when Reagan shook our hand while behind the scenes your fellow countrymen funded Sinn Feinn terrorists? Yes, terrorists. Does that tasty bite of hypocrisy stick in yout throat? It should.

And then you somehow convinced that clinical psychopath Blair to jump into an illegal war his own people did not want (good god did we not want this war), and for what? Did you not have the tools and manpower for the job? Of course you did, you have the biggest military force on the bloody planet. No, we were pulled in to legitimise the damn thing.

And why? Because you kept waving those damn IOUs from WW2 over our heads... well the debt has been paid. Now this is not to say I am not greatfull for what your grandfathers did, my grandfather has regailed me many times with stories about his Yank an Canuck mates, their bravery, courage, and cheap chocolate, but I have to wonder what they would think if they knew America was using that as leverage to shove us around, some good old fasioned emotional blackmail. Well, what would they think?

Yeah what a great relationship! I cannot wait for it to go from strength to strength!

But that is not to say I think the link between us should be broken, because I don't. Hell even if I did think that it could not be done! We speak the same language, watch the same films, read that same books, we even share the same history, and that kind of tie can never be broken, but what has this relationship been like for US over the last few decades? Has it been beneficial or costly?
And what of the future? Do you see benefit or cost for the UK?

So, one more time: Obama wants a stronger relationship between the UK and the USA. Why?

[edit = spelling]