Britain-US Special: Two Years into Obama's Era, The Right Takes Over The "Special Relationship" (Winter)
Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 6:35 | Scott Lucas in EA Global, EA USA, UK and Ireland, US Foreign Policy, US Politics 
Relations between Britain and America have improved as the oil has dissipated in the Gulf, but what we see is not a progressive, liberal trend from either Obama or from the Liberal Democrats in the British coalition. Instead, what is emerging is an American-style big-society, small-state conservative and neo-liberal reshaping on British welfare, heath care, and education. The American charter school system is entering Britain through new "academies"; in October 2010, Geoffrey Canada, the founder and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, travelled to Britain to meet with Minister of Education Michael Gove to discuss charter schools and education reform and the alleged threat of unions to such reform, as well as to address the Tory Party conference.
As Britain awaits the next round of Tory-Lib Dem cuts to balance the budget, rein in the deficit, and punish the poor in 2011, those meetings and our looks across the Atlantic are likely to continue. President Obama may be entering his third year, but it is "what they are doing on the Right" that may be more important.