- John Kerry supporters in America have been told by Peter
Hain that Downing Street is hoping the Democratic candidate wins the US
presidential election in November.
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- Mr Hain, who sits in the cabinet as Leader of the Commons,
has been in the US on a near-private visit. He met Labour supporters in
New York, as well as members of the Kerry team. He has declined to discuss
the visit, and his public remarks at a party thrown by the former Sunday
Times editor Harold Evans were largely bland. But in private discussions
with guests, his tone was markedly different.
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- Those who met him had the strong impression that he was
acting with No 10's support, and that a Democratic victory was clearly
sought. Such a supposition ought to be natural, but historic ties have
been jolted by the strategic and sometimes personal alliance between George
Bush and Tony Blair over Iraq. Mr Hain's visit may be seen by some as diplomatic
ground-covering in the event of a Kerry victory.
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- In public the government will remain studiously neutral.
And some Blairites doubt that Mr Kerry has the campaign drive to defeat
the incumbent.
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- But in a sign of frustration inside the Labour party
over the government's neutrality, the Blairite group Progress is to issue
a scathing attack on Mr Bush's record, although the group is sympathetic
to the action in Iraq; Alan Milburn, the former cabinet minister, is its
honorary president.
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- In an editorial in its journal of the same name next
week, Progress says: "By his manner, his rhetoric and sometimes his
actions George Bush has presented to the world an image of America that
its friends know is not its true face. That is why those who recognise
that American leadership is vital and a force for good in an uncertain
world will wish John Kerry well."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1294572,00.html
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