The politeness of David Cameron

Posted By Blake Hounshell Monday, October 4, 2010 - 7:31 AM Share

In a wide-ranging and somewhat unusual interview with David Cameron in this weekend's Financial Times, Columbia University historian Simon Schama gets the British prime minister to open up a little bit about the American right:

Later, I would ask him what he thinks of American conservatism’s lurch to the libertarian extreme. “How shall I put this? We seem to have drifted apart … there is an element of American conservatism that is headed in a very culture war direction, which is just different. There are differences with the American right.”

Among other interesting tidbits, the PM's favorite painting is Guernica, he enjoys the BBC spy drama Spooks, and he uses an iPad.

EXPLORE:BRITAIN
 

SHACKELFORD

1:32 AM ET

October 5, 2010

Obviously not too familiar with America

His comment seems dramatically out of touch with modern American politics. The topic of the year is the Tea Party, which has very studiously avoided both "culture war" topics and foreign policy, while focusing entirely on the fiscal situation. Mr Cameron seriously needs some better advisors on the US.

 

EMBRA

6:16 AM ET

October 5, 2010

embra

He has lots of excellent advisors on the US. It's just that unlike his two predecessors he doesn't really give a toss about the ins and outs of American politics. It's one of his more endearing characteristics.

Oh, and from this side of the pond all we hear is Ground Zero Mosque and Barack Hussein Obama - sounds pretty culture warry from a distance.

 

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