Cameron twists the knife as ‘special relationship’ comes under pressure

Gordon Brown and David Cameron get back to work proper today and with, nine months to go before the next general election, back to point-scoring at every opportunity.

Brown used his Financial Times interview this morning to try to persuade us that his focus remains the economy, that he and his Chancellor have got us through the worst of it, and that he is "cautiously optimistic" about the future.

The fact is, of course, that the Lockerbie debacle has thrown everything into the shadows.

Today's publication of the correspondence between Westminster and Holyrood will, Brown hopes, take the heat off and prove once and for all that there was no commercial deal behind the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi and that the Scottish government made an independent decision to release the convicted bomber on compassionate grounds.

But Cameron, who has been sticking the knife in at every opportunity, is not going to let this go easily. "Outrage at this has crossed continents and damaged our relationship with our closest ally, America," says the Tory leader. "It has been a fiasco."

That Cameron should capitalise on Brown's now increasingly awkward relationship with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - both of whom have publicly condemned Megrahi's release - will be galling to Brown.

Everyone knows what Obama thinks of the Tory leader - "all sizzle and no substance" - while Brown appeared to be getting on reasonably well with the American president until this episode. And Brown's friendship with Edward Kennedy - he spent several summers holidaying on Cape Cod and talking politics with the senator - might have been expected to provide a special bond at this time.

Instead, the relationship is looking like a friendship turned sour. Rachel Sylvester, writing in the Times today, says the special relationship is dead, with Lockerbie the final straw.

Yet, whatever the precise facts of Megrahi's release, there is no doubt about the long-term importance of bringing Libya back into the international fold.

Britain will need to be able to buy oil and gas from the Libyans in the future, and only improving relations will allow that to happen. If Cameron was running the country now, he and his ministers would have to pursue Gaddafi too.

But until he takes over, he will continue to exploit any weakness to embarrass the PM. It's going to be a long cold winter and Brown had better get used to it. ·