British Relations With the United States

Posted by Patrick Hinton Mar 2, 2009

On Tuesday, 4 March 2009, Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister will begin a two day trip to the US to visit the new US President, Barack Obama.

Gordon Brown will be the first European leader to visit the newly inaugurated president. There has been a close realtionship between the two nations and a number of political commentators are signifying the meeting as the beginning of a new, special relationship between the US and the UK.

The previous leaders of each country, George W. Bush and Tony Blair became good friends and, even after they have both left office, still see each other.

Gordon Brown may be trying to increase his dwindling popularity in the polls simply through meeting with Mr. Obama.

President Obama is attracting higher approval rates in European countries than he does in the United States. It is thought by some that the huge popularity of the new US leader may "rub off" onto any European leaders who are, or at least seem to be in his favour.

There is also some speculation that Brown is eager to meet with Obama because of the similar way both leaders have tried to deal with the financial crisis. Both leaders announced hugely costly, and also controversial stimulus packages to try to reboot the economy after the financial collapse in which came to a head in September 2008.