No need for a Plan B here either... No 10 rejoices as Mitt falls short

[dipsydoodle]

Although Downing Street kept out of the US election – in line with tradition – there was genuine relief at No 10 yesterday that David Cameron would not have to forge a relationship with Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate.

Cameron aides were privately scathing of Mr Romney when he visited Britain this summer and united the political class against him by suggesting London was not ready to host a successful Olympics. Relations would have been repaired if he had won, continuing the "special relationship" over which UK prime ministers obsess, much to the White House's bemusement. But Cameron aides were very happy that their US election Plan B remained in the bottom drawer.

Mr Romney has surrounded himself with neo-Conservative advisers from the George Bush era and had been expected to adopt a more aggressive foreign policy – including a tougher stance against Iran over its nuclear weapons programme.

The Iran issue has the potential to split the UK's Coalition Government, because the Conservatives would be likely to back US or Israeli air strikes and the Liberal Democrats likely to repeat their opposition to foreign intervention in Iraq.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/no-need-for-a-plan-b-here-either-no-10-rejoices-as-mitt-falls-short-8294913.html

[Jeneral2885]

1. If Romney had won

He would have criticised the UK abortion laws

[oldironside]

2. Mitt can feel good about himself.

He's made an awful lot of people very happy over the last couple of days.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Very true!

Got a text from a friend: 'Thank God! I had dreamt that Romney won, and woke up in a cold sweat.'

[oldironside]

5. I heard the crucial news...

... on the car radio on the way to work and had to rush in ask one of my colleagues whether "eingeräumt" was positive or negative since i had only ever heard it in the context of clearing a flat. "Er hat seine Niederlage eingeräumt?" "Oh, he's acknowledged his defeat."

Thank Christ for that. Smiles all round the staff room except for one American and a Canadian guy who used to live in California. He's the kind of guy who thinks that you win an argument by parrotting a talking point and then leaving the room before anyone can answer. Of course, if he hates working for the government that much he can always sod off back to the private sector. I'll even hold the door open for him.

[LeftishBrit]

3. I think Cameron, like most Tories in the past, is pro-American rather than just pro-Republican

He'd have worked with Romney, but probably prefers continuity.

On the other hand, some of the other Tories, e.g Iain Duncan-Smith and Liam Fox, not to mention the ineffable Keith Mitchell, recently-retired Oxfordshire County Council leader, were quite openly backing Romney, and Mad Mel Phillips published an article after the result was known, headed 'America goes into the darkness'.

I don't usually post articles from the Torygraph, but this is a somewhat interesting one, whether you agree with it or not:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9661499/US-election-2012-A-good-day-for-David-Cameron-but-a-rout-for-the-Tory-Rights-vision.html#

My own view is that Conservatives of the postwar-consensus era were much more like Democrats than Republicans, if one could compare the political systems at all; and this can still be seen in some Conservatives from Europaean countries; but that there has been increasing 'Republicanization' of the party, to some extent since Maggie 'n Ronnie, and even more since the Internet plus globalization in business facilitated collaboration between the British and American Right.