Some interesting contrasts between the American and British blogospheres have emerged over the course of the last week. In particular on the issue of the disputed Iranian elections. With the fall out from the expenses scandal and the developing argument over public expenditure dominating the conversation on this side of the Atlantic, developments in Iran have generated almost no comment. The American blogosphere, by way of contrast, has seized upon the issue and taken up the cause of the protesters with some relish. Andrew Sullivan has excelled yet again, standing head and shoulders above any other blog or mainstream news source, his grasp of the complexities and ambiguities around the issue a constant source of fresh insight and inspiration. But alongside him, the other big American blogs – Instapundit, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Kos - have all weighed in, contributing to a spirited dialogue.
In contrast, the issue just has not seized the imagination of the British blogosphere in the same way. The big political blogs in Britain have had almost nothing to say on the issue. The always insightful Heresiarch has chipped in here, but he remains something of a lone voice. And so what struck me is just how insular and self-absorbed the British blogosphere has become when compared with the American. Of course, the two countries are at very different points in the electoral cycle: the American response shaped by a newly confident, outward-looking administration, keen to make its mark – ours by a beleaguered, bewildered government, looking for all the world a demoralised and discredited rabble.
But the different reaction also reflects the widely different interests of the two countries. Iran is very much a live foreign policy issue in America and one of the most intractable foreign policy problems for American planners, whereas the Foreign Office is much diminished these days. Though still counted among the three great offices of state, the truth, of course, is that Britain no longer has a foreign policy worthy of the name. There is very little room for manoeuvre or creative thinking in the sphere of foreign policy. Despite our pretensions, the days when Britain conducted a global policy are long gone - the last great gasp of foreign policy activism in Iraq having dampened any residual desire on the part of Britain’s elites to put ourselves at the centre of the world's trouble spots. And so the different reactions to this story in America and Britain are something of an indicator both of how deeply engaged the Americans remain globally and how, at the same time, our interests - and perhaps our horizons - have narrowed; the different treatment of this issue by the respective blogospheres playing very much to the Americans’ credit and our shame, leaving the Americans looking every inch the worldly sophisticates and Britain the insular, parochial cousin.