Mr Alexander, Overseas Development Secretary, was clearly authorised to speak in Washington about changes to the "special relationship" between the US and the UK. Whilst the language was suitably friendly towards his US hosts, the spin on the speech told us back home that foreign policy is changing post Blair.

The speech itself did not name and criticise the President, but domestic spin told us the??new UK government is critical of the President’s reliance of unilateralism and the use of force. The UK now prefers multilateralism, a wider range of alliances, and the use of diplomacy. The Prime Minister ??is positioning for a possible Democrat President in 2008, elected on an anti Iraq war ticket.

This is an interesting reinterpretation of the Blair/Brown years. I do not recall Mr Brown objecting to the use of force in Iraq or Afghanistan. I also recall Mr Blair spending huge energy on multilateral diplomacy, both trying to persuade the UN to concerted action, and to putting the coalition’s case to Arab states. I also recall France acting as a strong critic of US/UK action, rallying the UN against some of the coalition’s proposals.

I fear Mr Brown and Mr Alexander will disover the hard way that the EU partners so often have a different view of world problems from?? ours and will regularly be reluctant to see things the same way that we do. He should also remember that the EU was very keen on military intervention rather than diplomacy in the former Yugoslavia, but then needed US military assistance to complete what they had started.

??I am all for giving diplomacy every chance. It is better usually to jaw jaw rather than to war war. It also important to have a clear view of UK interests and the aims of all our allies. It would be wrong to be naive in thinking there is a ready identity of interest between French, German and UK foreign policy.

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