A US challenge for Mr Brown

First, the new president is less obviously Anglophile than Bill Clinton and arguably less so too than George Bush senior, who had extensive international experience prior to taking office. Mr Obama does not: brought up in Hawaii and having lived most of his adult life in the Midwest, he has no emotional connection with Britain or Europe.

The "special relationship" is largely a British conceit - the term is virtually unknown in the US - but it works to an extent at the level of UN diplomacy. British diplomats will need to work hard to build contacts with the new administration and with a swathe of fresh political appointees in the State Department. Meanwhile, trade remains a likely flashpoint with the EU: as a US senator, Mr Obama took a more protectionist stance than Mr Bush.

More positively, Mr Obama has committed the US to withdrawal from Iraq within 16 months. His nominee for Attorney-General, Eric Holder, last week condemned "waterboarding" as torture, while Mr Obama has promised to close the Guantanamo camp. But more likely to create friction is Afghanistan. Mr Obama has said he will pour in an additional 10,000 troops and he has requested 2,000 more from Britain. Last month Mr Brown made clear that he was not ready to send them: not only is the British military badly stretched but public opinion might chafe at a larger commitment. Meanwhile, there are reports of the US military's low opinion of British performance in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Brown will doubtless welcome the arrival of a more intellectual and liberal US president. But America's perception of its interests abroad is unlikely to change much: the special relationship will face as many challenges as it did under Mr Obama's more bellicose predecessor.

Saving the banks

THE SHEER scale of the Government's new bail-out package for the banks is such that, mercifully, it will probably be beyond the imagination of most of the taxpayers who will be underwriting it. The estimated cost is vastly in excess of the £37 billion with which the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, bailed out the banks last October. Now, the Government will be insuring them against risky loans. It will also be taking a greater stake in direct ownership of the banks: exchanging its preference shares in RBS and Lloyds for ordinary shares. Meanwhile, Northern Rock will be obliged to renew mortgages for existing customers.

There is a consensus that although the banks got themselves into this mess, the Government must do what it takes to give them confidence to lend more freely. Establishing a "bad bank" into which they could offload their bad debts might have been a clearer way of going about it, although Mr Darling said today that he didn't "want to be in the business of owning banks".

But if the state has a significant stake in banks' ordinary shares, that brings voting rights and influence which it should use. The Government cannot micromanage banks, but it can give them a clear direction of travel. And the priority must be giving credit to businesses rather than stimulating the housing market: it is responsible firms providing employment that need help most.

And celebrating...

LONDON CHEFS. There has been a rumpus about the early leaking of the Michelin awards for London restaurants. But however the announcement is made, the number of stars for the capital's chefs is a wonderful testimony to the sheer diversity and vitality of our restaurant scene - even in recession.