Showing respect

The reality could not be farther from the truth. The two nations face immense challenges on their budget deficits, their security and even the nature of their own relationship. It is up to both leaders to show that after the ructions that dogged Gordon Brown’s years in office, the relationship is at the very least cordial, if not special.

Mr Cameron and President Obama have to re-form their nations’ enduring friendship based on fiscal responsibility, a greater sharing of intelligence and an American appreciation of the sacrifices made by British men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Commander-in-Chief has many virtues but in humiliating Gordon Brown at the UN in 2009, when he refused requests for official talks in favour of a snatched conversation in a kitchen, he insulted those Britons who have laid down their lives alongside his forces.

The President should accept that a series of British leaders have provided unstinting support for his country. This week he needs to outline, publicly or privately, how to break the uneasy impasse in Libya; he should describe his vision of the endgame in Afghanistan, where his wish for the Taliban to renounce violence in favour of negotiation will be ignored; and he should provide answers on Guantanamo Bay, where one former British resident remains four years after he was “cleared” for release.

The chumminess that characterised the years of Blair, Clinton and Bush has long gone but that will be a relief to many people in this country. What Britain now needs from President Obama, more than bromides about how “charming” he finds the Queen, is some decisive action.