Mr President

Last week I attended President Obama's address to Parliament. His words echoed about a Westminster Hall which had once rung with the atavistic defiance of Charles I (tried there for treason) and the sombre shuffle of those paying their last respects to Churchill.

The State Trumpeters blasted and there he was — the most powerful man in the world — standing about where Charles I had stood four centuries earlier to face his accusers.

This though was a more nuanced occasion. The President reaffirmed the importance of the 'Special Relationship' — he spoke of common ancestry, culture and language but what he had really come to urge upon us was his answer to a big question.

In a world in which many see the East as the rising power, what is the West's role to be? Specifically can we still provide global leadership and if so what form should that take — upon what foundation will it rest?

The foundation Mr Obama argued is our values; freedom, democracy and the economic liberalism upon which our nations have secured themselves.

Straightforward enough I guess — but the form of that leadership is a trickier cousin. To what degree do we intervene in supporting movements for democratic change — the recent Arab uprisings for example? How do we maintain the ability to project the 'Soft Power' — aid, trade, education, support for civil society — that will help avoid the dangers of military adventure? Key, President Obama said, will be our ability to ramp up our investment in education and technology.

But surely this in turn will need something more than bringing our respective economies back from the abyss? It will require their transformation into the higher productivity and flexible powerhouses of our Eastern neighbours. And how will we do that? Well now — there's a question.