Bill Clinton made an outstanding address to the Labour party conference today.The former US president praised Tony Blair as a true progressive who had delivered change to the UK while overseeing economic prosperity and increased employment.
He also singled out Gordon Brown for his work in Africa and said the Chancellor has a "stunning vision for Britain."
The conference were entranced by the 40-minute oration by Mr Clinton, which ranged across many of the problems facing the world today. He also spoke candidly about the state of America, warning delegates that their good work could be swept away if the electorate change "the faces in the driving seat."
He listed the achievements of the Labour goverment under Tony Blair, repeating the message that none of it came by accident.
"I think one of the biggest problems right now is that people take your achievements and your ideas for the future for granted.
"The reason is we have produced prosperity and social progress for so long it's easy for people to believe its just part of the landscape," he told delegates.
Mr Clinton also thanked, in the name of all Americans, the "nameless, faceless" members of the British security services who recently prevented a terrorist plot to blow up airplanes over the Atlantic.
In an emotional tribute to the Prime Minister, President Clinton thanked Tony Blair for his personal friendship through troubled times, and thanked Cherie and the Blair children for "their many kindnesses to Hilary and me, and Chelsea, throughout the years."
"I want to thank Tony Blair for his leadership, for his preservation of our old trans-Atlantic alliance through quite a lot of storm as well as occasional sunshine.
"I want to thank him for his personal friendship to me through storm and sunshine."
He had more praise for Cherie for putting up with the tribulations of being in public life, and told the audience with Hilary in the Senate, he now finds himself much more angry when the press say nasty things about her than he ever was when they attacked him.
Mr Clinton was upbeat about the future, saying that as a progressive party, Labour can always offer more to the voters than a status quo Conservative party.
"It's always time for change in a great and dynamic nation. Do not let anyone ever present to your citizens any future choice... as change versus more of the same.
"You are the change agents in this great nation. You have been and you will be."
On the subject of the state of the world, President Clinton made an impassioned case for a more intelligent approach.
"Since we can't kill, jail or occupy all of our enemies... we also have to spend some time and money making more and more partners and fewer enemies."
Mr Clinton said in retrospect he wished he had thought more about the root causes of terrorism while he was in office, when he gave hundreds of millions of dollars in defence aid to countries such as Pakistan without even considering whether cash to build schools or pay for teachers might have had more effect.
"It is so much cheaper to alleviate poverty, put kids in school, fight disease, build government capacity and economic capacity in a poor country than it is to fight a war."
Follow the link - I know it is 39 minutes long but really it is worth it. At times I thought I was watching a Jimmy Stewart film.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/email/news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_5380000/newsid_5385600/bb_wm_5385638.stm
