What Kati did Next; Barack was really born in Barnsley...

I don’t wish to get all political on you, it’s too early in the week for a start, but I have to say, isn’t it great that we have a new president.

Yes, I know he’s not our president — he’s far too charismatic (has anyone else noticed he looks like a Calvin Klein model?) — but sometimes it feels like he’s ours, doesn’t it?

What with all the press coverage, you’d think he’d been born in Barnsley.

However, now we’re proper friends with the good ‘ole US of A, not like in the olden days, when we merely pretended to be Bush buddies to get certain results. It feels good, doesn’t it?

One of the first decisions Obama is to make is the dismantling of Guantanamo Bay.

Well Praise Be, it’s about time. If there was a bigger recruitment drive for regimes such as the Taliban, I cannot think of one.

Treating human beings, who have yet to be charged with anything at all, with less respect than we do abused animals is not only immoral, its abominable. So good on you Barack, a great first move. What a time to join the ranks though, almost as bad as our Gordon had it when he first stepped up.

He got a terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport, then some floods down south and now the “global financial downturn”, as he so eloquently puts it.

Mr O too has a “global financial downturn” to contend with, although with all 50 states and the one federal district suffering the credit crunch, rather him than me.

Each day banks have more problems, no-one lending, no-one borrowing.

Each day house prices fall, no-one buying, no-one selling.

Each day there are more and more unemployed. It all sounds horribly like the 1980s, doesn’t it?

What we need now are genuine leaders who care about the people they represent.

We need people not afraid to get the hands dirty and maybe upset a few on the way.

So if Obama can continue making monumental decisions such as Cuba and Gordon can keep looking to the future and keep out of the backstabbing and finger-pointing the Tories have adopted recently, well then maybe we and our ally over the pond can make a difference in this difficult time.

Oops, there I go getting all political on you.