'Snub' Exposes U.S.-U.K. Right Rift

The Daily Telegraph reports:

Sarah Palin is definitely not the new Margaret Thatcher, or at least not in the opinion of Maggie’s staff. When the Governor told reporters that she would like to meet the Prime Minister during her world tour next month, a Thatcher aide reportedly said, “Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.” American conservatives were outraged, European liberals were pleasantly surprised.

But why would the woman who forged perhaps the most important transatlantic political romance in modern history (when he died, Thatcher called Ronald Reagan “one of my closest political and dearest personal friends”) reject the advances of the most archetypal of contemporary American conservatives? We might presume that the aide was talking out of turn, that he had “gone rogue”. But the “nuts” jibe actually reflects a profound cultural difference between the British and American right. Beyond a dislike for taxes and deficits, the two have less and less in common as each year passes.

...So what divides the British and American right? According to David Cameron, it is the perception of cultural difference. “How shall I put this?” he wondered aloud in an interview. “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.” Cameron’s Tories redefined themselves as a caring, cosmopolitan party by embracing causes like gay rights or environmentalism. The current UK Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change left his wife for his male interior decorator. It’s hard to imagine a Republican administration showing that degree of tolerance.