You can’t have Palin in Washington – she’s a rube who has hardly ever been outside her state Americans were told…….whereas Obama is a sophistictated Ivy League guy who has been all around the world so he will be at ease with all those foreign leaders. Not only that but he also has surrounded himself with the best brains to plan his first 100 days……….he’ll hit the ground running.

Well, Sir Gus O’Donnell is a very sophisticated chap – he’s the UKs top Civil Servant and normally he is the very epitomy of discretion – but not today. Today he is very angry because he has come up against a wall of incompetence – not from Paraguay, not from Upper Niger but from The Obama White House. Sir Gus is trying to sort out a few things for next month’s crucial summit when the G20 meets in London to try to work out a co-ordinated world strategy for dealing with the global recession…………..and nobody in the White House is answering the phone!

“He has a reputation for being the archetypal senior civil servant professional, unflappable, and, above all, discreet.But Sir Gus O’Donnell risked sparking a transatlantic tiff today with an imprudent remark about Downing Street’s relations with the White House.

The head of the civil service, Sir Gus said the handover to President Barack Obama’s administration was severely hindering preparations for next month’s G20 summit.
In an extraordinary blunder, the usually-guarded Sir Gus said no-one in the U.S. Treasury department was answering telephone calls.

He said it meant the Government was finding it ‘unbelievably difficult’ to hold discussions ahead of the meeting of world leaders in London. Even though the world was in the grip of the worst economic crisis in decades – top of the G20 agenda – Number 10 was having trouble getting in touch with key personnel, said the Cabinet Secretary.

‘There is nobody there,’ he told a civil service conference in Gateshead.’You cannot believe how difficult it is.’ “

Sir Gus, welcome to America’s new Global Strategy – Cook County style……………..