Will Britain ever have its own Obama?

These figures all rose unassisted by affirmative action and without playing the race card. The continuing excitement around Obama is just a continuation of post-war America's progressive momentum.

America's open, forward-looking culture puts ours to shame. The British Cabinet is entirely white, as is the Tory front bench, and none of America's seven million Muslims has yet blown themselves up on the subway citing Iraq as a justification. While America's potential next leader is mixed-race, raised in Asia, Britain's equivalent is an Old Etonian aristocrat. Both are champions for "change" but while Obama physically embodies it, David Cameron only personifies the past.

Some dismiss Obama's blackness as being merely symbolic. But symbolism is often more powerful than policy. Mrs Thatcher was no exponent of feminism but successful women everywhere owe something to the way she proved herself stronger than her male contemporaries. If America makes a symbolic gesture and elects a black president, that would also reverberate around the globe.

America's national character has always been about self-renewal, while ours has become a fixation with the old. A black presidency wouldn't be a radical shift in America's identity but its truest manifestation: as Obama said, his story is possible "only in America". Sadly, David Cameron would be equally right if he said that "only in Britain" could a man like him emerge from nowhere to become prime minister.

We should ask ourselves why our major politicians all look the same and what this says about us. The presence of minorities in high office isn't just a feelgood nod to multiculturalism; it shows how open a nation is to fresh perspectives. It is, as Obama says, a statement of hope.

A nation hungry for change produces leaders of every sort. Looking at the Tory and Labour front benches makes you wonder how hopeful Britain actually is and how much change it really wants.