A Rapacious Appetite for Self-Aggrandisement

The United States administration has the measure of Brown's determination to be associated with power.  What began as a discreet refusal to meet insistent and repeated requests for  unnecessary public appearances with President Obama, has developed into the public refutation by the United States administration of claims by Downing Street to have supplied intelligence information or to have any special status in measures being adopted by the US  in the Middle East.

The noted jonah effect that hovers around Brown like a miasma is one thing - and can possibly be regarded as a misfortune that leads to his avoidance - but untruths and false claims to initiatives and successes to the detriment of allies is now so serious it has begun to merit public slap-downs.

The meeting called for by Mr Brown, at the end of January, on Afghanistan, is another display of the saviour and world leader complex.  Downing Street has announced importantly that the French President and the German Chancellor  are 'expected', (President Obama is not).  A normal person might think such a meeting should be held at NATO with Defence ministers, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs, and various military, present;  and that it be convened by the United States.

At least the United States is showing the way in increasingly firmly dissociating from brownian displays of near-delusional self-importance.