I have to admit: kind words about the US from foreign press come along so irregularly that I really soak them in when I manage to find them. Hence my pleasure at this little piece in the Guardian about how British party politics could use an injection of American-style enthusiasm.

We like to mock the Americans for their whooping enthusiasm for their political leaders, but goodness how the Tories could do with a bit of this vim in Blackpool this week, and how Labour would have benefited in Brighton last week.

There is a relish and exuberance about American party politics that is entirely lacking in Blackpool or Brighton. In place of the flags and balloons that are standard at American conventions, the only thing I have brought with me from the Tory conference hall is a pamphlet from an industry body that wants to resist smoking bans in licensed premises. No wonder that, at our party conferences, the platform area gets bigger every year to disguise the fact that the number of delegates gets ever smaller, even as security becomes ever more pointlessly rigorous.

Small pleasures.

Actually, this bit is most worth reading because it grants that outsiders view of part of our political process (a part that I’ve mocked, myself).

Read the story.