Some initial impressions on David Cameron’s first visit to Washington as prime minister and his meetings with Barack Obama.
Cameron scored well in his White House press conference, and significantly outshone President Obama. His performance was confident and commanding, despite some difficult questions surrounding BP. He came across as likeable and charismatic, which will endear him to American audiences. Cameron is a skillful and natural public speaker, and certainly did not need a teleprompter. He did at times look in a different league from Barack Obama, who rarely inspires in these settings when facing the media.
Cameron’s reception from Obama was significantly warmer than the one received by his predecessor Gordon Brown in March last year, which was almost farcical, and will be largely remembered for the president’s thoughtless gift of 25 DVDs, which didn’t even play in the UK. President Obama also made a far greater effort this time around to talk about the importance of the Special Relationship, and to acknowledge the sacrifice of British troops in Afghanistan. He even brought up the issue of advancing the US-UK Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty, of considerable importance to the British defense industry as well as the British government.
The Prime Minister handled the difficult BP issue pretty well, highlighting the importance of the UK’s largest company to both the US and UK economies, while underscoring the need for BP to take full responsibility for the Gulf oil spill and cleanup. It was a delicate balancing act, which he pulled off with considerable tact. In response, President Obama avoided using any of the harsh rhetoric against BP which he has deployed in the last few weeks, and which has sparked a furious backlash in the British press.
Cameron’s Achilles’ heel however was the Lockerbie bomber issue, which hugely overshadowed this week’s US trip. He did well by categorically condemning the decision last year by Scottish authorities with the complicity of the Labour government to free mass murdering Libyan intelligence agent Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, and ordering the review of some key government documents. But he did not go far enough, and failed to support a full independent British inquiry. This was a mistake, and would have been a huge gesture of solidarity with the families of the 270 victims of the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing, including 189 Americans.
Overall, this was a strong start for Mr. Cameron, who is making his mark as a world leader. But both the BP and Lockerbie issues will continue to dog him. On Lockerbie it is important that the Prime Minister launches a major UK investigation into one of the most shameful episodes in recent British history, which threatens to significantly harm Anglo-American relations unless Cameron takes immediate action.
– Nile Gardiner is the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation.