All of Britain was aghast when Barack Obama gave British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as his official gift a bunch of “classic” DVDs that you can buy at your nearest Walmart. If that wasn’t bad enough, Brown can’t even watch them:
The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words “wrong region” came up on his screen. Although he mournfully had to put the popcorn away, he is unlikely to jeopardise the special relationship — or “special partnership”, as we are now supposed to call it — by registering a complaint.
This is what happens when you take all the grownups out of the White House and the State Department. Brown and his staff performed much better:
Brown, on the other hand, presented a rather more thoughtful gift to the American President in the form of a penholder carved from the timbers of an anti-slavery ship. The sister ship, in fact, of the one that was broken up and turned into the desk in the Oval Office.
