Fingers crossed after Gordon Brown’s ‘Sermon on the Hill’

Gordon Brown will fly back to Britain having consolidated his personal friendship with Barack Obama and strengthened the special relationship after his speech to the joint houses of Congress.

The partnership between the UK and the US was "unbreakable" and "no power on earth can ever draw us apart", Brown told Senators and Congressmen gathered on Capitol Hill.

One of the biggest cheers came when he offered European cooperation for a US-backed global economic stimulus package, which may raise a few eyebrows in Paris and Berlin. "You now have the most pro-American European leadership in living memory. It is leadership that wants to cooperate more closely. There is no old Europe, no new Europe, only your friend Europe," he declared.

Brown appeared to have learned his lines for the speech, doing away with prompt boards, and speaking entirely from notes for more than 35 minutes punctuated by nearly 20 standing ovations. You could be forgiven for thinking this was not the same Brown who said 'British jobs for British workers'.

Nor was it the Brown who has repeatedly blamed America for the economic disaster that has hit Britain and the world. The early draft of the agenda document for the G20 summit he will host in April in London currently says: "The global economy was growing strongly when the subprime crisis hit..." That may have to be redrafted given the new mood from his visit to Washington.

"No matter where it starts, the economic crisis does not stop at the water's edge," Brown told Congress. His strongest appeal, for America to resist its past instincts and turn its back on protectionism, may yet prove in vain. Members of his audience are inclined to protect their seats in Congress by protecting American jobs against the rest of the world. There was hardly a ripple of applause when he said: "We win our future not by retreating from the world."

At times Brown sounded like he was delivering the Sermon on the Mount - he referred twice to being the son of the Manse. His final message was: "We must build tomorrow by building today."

He is the fifth PM to be granted the honour of speaking to both Houses of Congress, and he thanked President Obama "for his leadership, friendship and giving the world renewed hope in itself". But on his flight back to Britain, he will be keeping his fingers crossed that Obama and the US economy can deliver Brown's hope of a "global new deal".

The Bank of England is expected to announce on Thursday that it is increasing the money supply - so-called "quantitative easing" - by pumping money into the economy to allow the banks to lend more.

Obama has endorsed Brown's plan for outlawing tax havens. That will be seen as a severe blow to places such as Jersey, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, which store an estimated $13 trillion of privately held, untaxed wealth.

THE MOLE: PM IN WASHINGTON

FIRST POSTED MARCH 4, 2009