Tories in the USA! Frontbench stars shown tradesman's entrance

guardian: Washington can be a cruel town when you are out of government. Television cameramen sniff power in the air, and they can smell its absence more keenly.

There was no sign of them yesterday morning when the pride of the Tory front bench, William Hague, Liam Fox and George Osborne, emerged smiling from a meeting with the Republican powerbroker, Karl Rove, to announce they had healed their party's rift with the White House.

Party aides had wanted the moment recorded in front of the White House portico, but they were told that protocol did not bestow such privileges on foreign opposition parties and they had to leave the premises to have their picture taken. (Contacted later, a White House spokesman said he had no knowledge of such a rule.)

In the end the three Tories walked in and out of the White House complex through a grey edifice known as the Eisenhower executive office building - essentially the tradesman's entrance. Their moment of triumph was marked on the pavement outside where two British reporters and a photographer were waiting in the sunshine. Read more

db: Give them time, they will be permitted to lick Bush's boots - or some other Republican or Democrat - soon enough. But thursday's humiliation was pure pleasure to observe. Stupid Tories.