One common explanation - favoured by the coalition - is that Labour took a much too rosy view of the underlying state of the public finances in the years leading up to the crunch.

BBC: Debt and the crisis: How did governments get it so wrong?

One by one, Representatives from all parts of the country and all points of view rose in common cause to honor Gabby and the other victims, and to reflect on our shared hopes for this country.

WHITEHOUSE: Weekly Address: ��Before We are Democrats or Republicans, We are Americans�� | The White House

We believe that in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people, that we share common hopes and a common creed, that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, that they all deserve the chance to be fulfilled.

CNN: Transcript: Obama's State of the Union speech

Indeed, one of the arguments for constructing a common foreign and security policy in the European Union is precisely that the European view of world affairs is likely, sometimes, to diverge from the American one.

ECONOMIST: How France could improve its foreign policy