A studied differentiation in style and substance compared to his predecessor Tony Blair has been the main feature of British prime minister Gordon Brown's first month in power. Political change has been his mantra, but within a basic continuity of government policy. The formula was in full media and public view this week during his visit to President Bush in Washington.
Mr Brown skilfully pulled off a repositioning of the Blair-Bush link by putting policy matters ahead of personal relations in a more formal and autonomous style. He managed this not by seeking to reproduce the personal bond Mr Blair established with Mr Bush, but by putting their political relationship in a wider setting. Mr Bush and Mr Brown both said the US-UK relationship is their country's most important bilateral one, based on a long-standing community of values and interests.
Mr Brown is keen to establish good links with Congress and thereby with Mr Bush's potential successor in 18 months' time. He expressed the right to pull troops out of Iraq according to a British military and political timetable, not one harnessed to US needs. There were several other hints of changing policy emphasis - on terrorism, Afghanistan and the Middle East - and an effort to refocus on the issues of world trade and Darfur, in discussions he described as "full and frank". His stress yesterday on the need for multilateral diplomacy in a speech at the United Nations reinforced the point.
Mr Bush was conspicuously more personal at their joint press conference, praising Mr Brown's commitment to finding solutions and his worthy political leadership. He seemed to be thinking aloud about his guest, and concluding they can do sympathetic business together. It remains to be seen how that conclusion stands up to forthcoming pressure on Iraq and Iran over the coming year.
Mr Brown knows very well that a British military withdrawal from Iraq this autumn will boost his electoral position and put distance between him and Mr Blair's most unpopular legacy. This will be just when Mr Bush will be under similar domestic pressure but quite unwilling to do the same because, as he has said, it would be a disaster for both countries if they failed to win the battle in Iraq.
Tension will also mount over Iran. Mr Brown has refused to rule out using force to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons but believes this should be within a framework of UN sanctions and continued diplomacy led by the EU troika of Britain, France and Germany. Should the Bush administration choose to attack Iran unilaterally Mr Brown would face as fateful a decision on whether to support him as Mr Blair did on Iraq.