Anyone watching the domestic election scene will agree that politics makes for strange bedfellows. This is obviously a global phenomenon, not just a purely sub continental affliction. Consider the vehemence with which a British Labour Prime Minister spoke against Iraq and the way he made such an uncharacteristic display of admiration and support for a beleaguered President across the Atlantic. It came especially at a time when the White House inmate, lame duck and all, has been caught momentarily napping by his opponents. It was as if a Conservative, not pro-Europe Labour leader was speaking. A Tory leadership, sounding rhetorically more conservative than the Republican right, can, without inhibition amplify on the so called special relationship with Washington. It is part of acceptable political theatre for a Margaret Thatcher to feel a natural affinity for a matinee idol like Mr. Ronald Reagan, just honoured in his own country. Whether it was war mongering, Cold War intrigue or just plain socialism bashing, there was a matching contribution from the White House and Whitehall. One could come to terms with such conservative extremism in thought and action. But what to tell of like metaphor coming from a Labour Prime Minister, the first such species to occupy 10, Downing Street in a long time? Sending h is foreign minister to the Gulf ad sounding more hawkish than even the Republican Congressman, Mr. Tony Blair hitched himself unequivocally and unabashedly to Mr. Bill Clinton. He can say he is nothing more than a friend in need come to offer solace to a short-breathed American President Even in the cut throat world of diplomacy such niceties are needed, he could add. But with one foot in Europe and the other in the U.S., there is always the danger that Britain will find itself spreadeagled to embarrassment. Such British hype about a special relationship with Washington can be understandable if the fallout helps strengthen Mr. Blair’s position in Euorpe, apart of course from finding him safe passage through the Irish minefield. Three is never congenial company and in the context of increasing German-American warmth at the end of the Cold War, Britain had justifiably felt left out and must have eagerly seized the first opening. Mr. Helmut Kohl, the German heavy weight, had remained an American favourite for a long, long time-that is, the time he had been at the helm in Bonn, pushing and prodding reluctant European partners into union. But with the jobless youth threatening to force him into the unknown world of the unemployed, for the first time superstar Germany seemed vulnerable. Britain, out in the cold thanks to a German-French axis, simultaneously found itself electing a flamboyant Labour leader. Since his arrival with a thumping majority, Mr. Blair has been striving for a lead role in the Euorpean Union. In the eternal triangle of Europe, he has perforce to bide his time, waiting to see which of the other two, Germany or American