Some people may have been cheered this week to find that Cameron of the Conservatives is advocating Britain's foreign policy should focus on forging a special relationship with India.
While it is good to see any hint that a leading politician is thinking in terms of distancing our nation from the Burger - Chomping War Junkies of America regular readers of the Machiavelli blog may remember that Little Nicky was advocating just such a policy a couple of months ago when Blair was snuggling his nose in to the groove in George Bush's bottom ready to pump up the hysteria for an invasion of Iran. (That of course was before Hizbullah bloodied the nose of Israel in the warm up event thus demonstrating that the Iranians might have both the hardware and the mindset to put up a fight.)
The American economy is in ruins, all it needs is for China and India to call in the debts and the good life is over in the U.S. of A, the myth of American military might has been exploded in Iraq and Afghanistan and the religious right have so tarnished America's reputation in the world community all that's left for them is to become an isolationist, inward looking "sleeping giant," the role occupied by China for most of the last millennium.
It says a lot for the tolerance and generosity of spirit of the Indian people that the majority still respect Britain as a nation now that the true extent of our colonial atrocities has been revealed, but given that goodwill we can still lead Europe in forging closer ties with the east we can perhaps turn aside the rush to globalisation and build a world community that is not based on consumption and ever greater economic growth.
The America dream was never sustainable.