Carter Demands

American Democrats are keen on "transitional demands" - on the face of it nice-sounding policies that are undeliverable without a revolution and thus help turn people into revolutionaries.

Unfortunately, in amongst the apparently reasonable but "pushing at the boundaries stuff" such as urging Blair to continue his behind-the-scenes efforts to moderate the policies of President Bush, some plain loopy Spart-speak has slipped in.

For instance, they accuse Blair of being a "poodle" to Bush and slavishly following the Republican President's foreign policies. Someone who should know better is former US President Jimmy Carter, who according to Reuters accused Tony of simply copying US foreign policies. "I have been really disappointed in the apparent subservience of the British government's policies related to many of the serious mistakes that have been originated in Washington," Carter told the BBC's Newsnight programme.

Jimmy Carter, US President from 1977 to 1981, cited Britain's stance alongside Washington during the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and its participation in the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. He said there had been some reports Blair had tried behind the scenes to influence US President George W. Bush but, if true, it had been to no avail.

Carter, who now tours the world promoting peace through his foundation, said Britain had acted as a moderating influence in the past through the so-called special relationship between the two countries, but this was no longer the case. "This time no matter what kind of radical or ill-advised policy is proposed from the White House it seems to me that almost automatically the government of Great Britain would adopt the same policy," said Carter, adding "when the British have a public news media appearance there seems to be a total acquiescence to whatever America proposed at the beginning".

This extremist nonsense is just the kind of stuff that John McDonnell and his CPGB comrades are spouting as part of their revolutionary Spartacist campaign for the Labour leadership. Thank God for our sound and enduring special relationship with George Dubya, I say. It's pretty clear now that Labour's true political partner in the US is the Republican Party. The Democrats are clearly aligned to British Communists, Trotskyists and tree-huggers.