David Cameron 'angered US conservatives'

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David Cameron has failed to build alliances with the Republican Party and angered American conservatives with his "unprecedented" election-year embrace of Barack Obama, advisers to Mitt Romney have complained.

The Prime Minister, who hosts the Republican presidential challenger at Downing Street on Thursday morning, attracted sharp criticism after declining to meet any Republican leaders during his visit to Washington in March.

He instead joined the Democratic president on a visit to Ohio - a key swing state in November's election - before enjoying a lavish state dinner. “It was unprecedented,” said one member of Mr Romney’s foreign policy advisory team. “It wasn’t just one more visit with the same treatment. It was very different. So why now?”

Mr Cameron could be left scrambling to improve ties if Mr Romney defeats Mr Obama in November’s election. An NBC poll on Tuesday found that Mr Romney trails the president by eight percentage points in the 12 key battleground states, but he is raising money faster than Mr Obama and is expected steadily to raise the aggression of his campaign.

American conservatives expressed surprise that the Prime Minister had not made more effort to forge relationships with the party, which controls the House of Representatives and could yet win control of the Senate as well as the White House in November.

A second foreign policy adviser to Mr Romney said: “Cameron’s contacts with Republicans are really quite limited, and have been going back to when [George W.] Bush was president.” The adviser added: “In many respects Cameron is like Obama.”

The Republican Party’s shift to the Right, reflected by the rise of the Tea Party movement during the mid-term elections in 2010, has left it out of step with the Conservative Party on issues such as taxation, health care and rights for same-sex couples. Mr Cameron’s party is more in line with the Democrats in several areas.

Some British Tories continue to cultivate links. Greg Hands, the MP for Chelsea and Fulham, hosted Rick Scott, the Republican Governor of Florida, at the Houses of Parliament earlier this month. Mr Hands, who was born in New York, is himself a registered Republican in the US.

However, relations between transatlantic conservatives are a far cry from their 1980s heyday, when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher presented a united front - despite Mr Romney adapting Lady Thatcher’s famous “Labour isn’t working” election poster this year to claim: “Obama isn't working”.

Boris Johnson, the Conservative London mayor, has spoken of his admiration for Bill Clinton, the previous Democratic president, saying the “world was better run under him” and describing aspects of George W Bush’s leadership style as “terrible”.

Nile Gardiner, another foreign policy adviser to Mr Romney, previously described the Prime Minister’s behaviour in Washington as a “sad exercise in hero-worship before an extremely liberal White House”, which had shown itself willing to “knife London in the back” over the Falkland Islands.

“David Cameron’s wholehearted support for Barack Obama has significantly harmed the image of the British Conservative Party among US conservatives, who revere its greatest figures: Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill,” Mr Gardiner wrote after the visit.

None the less, spokesmen for Mr Romney have denied that there is disgruntlement in his camp regarding Mr Cameron's visit since this was first reported by The Guardian in May.

Under Mr Obama the US has remained neutral in the dispute between Britain and Argentina over the sovereignty of the Falklands, to the frustration of British diplomats. One member of Mr Romney's foreign policy advisory team said that it had been discussing the issue in some detail.

“There’s a great deal of sympathy and support for the British position,” said the adviser, who added: “Even though Argentina is more or less a friend, Britain is our oldest friend in the world.”

While the Republican candidate now emphasises his admiration of Britain, he has previously held it up as a post-imperial warning to those who would allow the US to decline. "England is just a small island," he wrote in his memoir 'No Apology'. "Its roads and houses are small. With few exceptions, it doesn't make things that people want to buy”.

The former Massachusetts governor will on Thursday also meet senior ministers Nick Clegg, George Osborne and William Hague, as well as Ed Miliband and Tony Blair. On Friday he will meet US athletes before attending the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Mr Romney was the chief executive of the 2002 Winter games in Utah.

His foreign policy advisers requested anonymity because they had been asked by Mr Romney's campaign not to criticise the President in foreign media.

A Downing Street spokesman stressed that Mr Cameron had met Mr Romney in London last year and maintained links with Republicans despite not having met any during March’s visit to Washington.

“It was a packed schedule, and was as close to a state visit as a head of government can do,” said the spokesman. “He wanted to focus on the relationship between the prime minister and the president.”

Oh dear, Cameron is like Obama and he doesn't know the difference between Britain and England.

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Oh dear, Cameron is like Obama and he doesn't know the difference between Britain and England.

Is this an accurate way to say it?

Asked whether he felt “partly English” as a result, a chuckling Mr Romney replied: “Well, I’m married to a girl from Wales, and I’m a guy from Great Britain. So I feel like this is home too, I guess.”

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Is this an accurate way to say it?

Asked whether he felt “partly English” as a result, a chuckling Mr Romney replied: “Well, I’m married to a girl from Wales, and I’m a guy from Great Britain. So I feel like this is home too, I guess.”

I just read about this gaffe. Now he's from Great Britain? Pretty sure his dad was born in Mexico and he was born in America? Pretty sure his wife was born in America too? If his wife is "from Wales" then Romney is "Mexican".

Plus, associating Wales with England would be as insulting as calling a Canadian an American. Something he would know if he knew anything about Britain.

As well as the media, David Cameron and Boris Johnson, Carl Lewis, the winner of nine Olympic gold medals, hit out at Mr Romney saying "seriously, some Americans just shouldn't leave the country".

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I just read about this gaffe. Now he's from Great Britain? Pretty sure his dad was born in Mexico and he was born in America? Pretty sure his wife was born in America too? If his wife is "from Wales" then Romney is "Mexican".

Well, I am sure you know in America it's normal (even if outsiders don't understand it) to say you're italian or greek or irish if that's the element of your ethnicity (however distant) you choose to embrace.

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I just read about this gaffe. Now he's from Great Britain? 1/Pretty sure his dad was born in Mexico and he was born in America? Pretty sure his wife was born in America too? If his wife is "from Wales" then Romney is "Mexican".

Plus, associating Wales with England would be as insulting as calling a Canadian an American. 2/Something he would know if he knew anything about Britain.

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1/Oh brother... The birther cult will be all over him.....

2/I think by now most Americans know he knows virtually nothing about how the UK is set up politically... Mind you, he compared London to Salt Lake... Duh!!

Edited July 27, 2012 by Gegel

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Well, I am sure you know in America it's normal (even if outsiders don't understand it) to say you're italian or greek or irish if that's the element of your ethnicity (however distant) you choose to embrace.

Yes I understand, I think it is stupid that people do that. If we go by these rules then Romney is Mexican.

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1/Oh brother... The birther cult will be all over him.....

2/I think by now most Americans know he knows virtually nothing about how the UK is set up politically...

If only the birthers were onto this one.

Romney has officially destroyed any possible relationship he could have had with the UK.

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Mind you, he compared London to Salt Lake... Duh!!

only big city people get big cities.

Romney has officially destroyed any possible relationship he could have had with the UK.

if he's elected, romney and cameron will be perfectly cordial with each other. you know that.

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Yes I understand, I think it is stupid that people do that. If we go by these rules then Romney is Mexican.

The only reason Romney's family moved to Mexico was to avoid US enforcement of anti-polygamy laws. Mexico was never home.

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Mind you, he compared London to Salt Lake... Duh!!

Not only that but he compared the WINTER Olympics to the Olympics. Two totally different things.

London

Population (United Kingdom Census 2011 estimates)

• London 8,174,100

• Density 5,206/km2 (13,466/sq mi)

• Urban 8,278,251

• Metro 13,709,000

Salt Lake City

Population (2011)

• State Capital 189,899

• Density 1,666/sq mi (643.3/km2)

• Urban 2,328,299

• Metro 1,145,905

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The only reason Romney's family moved to Mexico was to avoid US enforcement of anti-polygamy laws. Mexico was never home.

That's where he was born though, just going by his rules.

Claiming citizenship through a distant relative is clutching at straws. I was born in England, I'm English. I have heritage from many different countries but that doesn't change the fact that I'm English. He was born in America, he's American.

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Claiming citizenship through a distant relative is clutching at straws. I was born in England, I'm English. I have heritage from many different countries but that doesn't change the fact that I'm English. He was born in America, he's American.

Why is it a problem how people choose to self-identify?

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Romney has officially destroyed any possible relationship he could have had with the UK.

damn pfft

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Why is it a problem how people choose to self-identify?

Because it is false. As a real Brit I find it insulting that some American thinks he is also a Brit. He doesn't know anything about Britain, which has been made very clear from his series of gaffes. Can I randomly claim to be from whatever country I want? People who are actually from these countries can't take these people seriously.